a couple of problems..

[ron]

Hi all!

GREAT success w/the three chickens that i've smoked so far.. YEE HAA!

anyway last weekend i was smokin' two birds up and now i've got a
problem w/the regulator (i think) on my GOSM 34". when i was smoking
on saturday, the flame in the smoker was small and going out! so i'm
looking at everything and low and behold the regulator is completely
caked in frost.. hummm, so i get the hose and just start a very low
stream of water on the reguator and after two to three minutes..
WHOOSH... out comes a bunch of gas and then the flame seems to be
ok.. ) but i did keep the water over the regulator until the chicken was
done.

has anyone else experienced this? and if so, is the regulator
malfunctioning or maybe the propane bottle was filled too much. i had it filled just before smoking?

(i cross posted this from the 'new smoker' thread. the reason is that i'm
going to smoke my first turkey on Tday and wanted to know if there was anything i could do to fix the situtation.)

also, the 'gosm 34' has a thermometer. should i go ahead and buy another, drill a hole in the front door, and mount it in... where just off to the side of the current thermometer, or higher or lower? i can go to bbq galore if need be, or i could buy a couple of oven therms. at the store and mount them in the smoker itself? (sigh.. confusing 'eh?) the only problem w/mounting the thermometers inside the smoker is you cannnot see what the temp. is w/out opening the door. (how dumb is that!)

oh ya, what should the temp of the smoker be when cooking a whole turkey, i've see from 220 to 250? i'm going to get a bird that weighs between 10 and 11 lbs. and figure that i'll be smoking about 7 to 7 1/4 hours.


happy smokin'!

and thanks in advance,

ron-

 

[larry maddock]

YO, Ron dude,
i use charbroil electric h2o smoker.
so i can only steer you to the place where you can discuss g.o.s.m.s.
and their peculiararities [spelling]

this Group is for users of the "Great Outdoors Smoky Mountain Smoker" line of gas and charcoal smokers.... For the money this is easily the best smoker on the market today. Recipes, modifications, tips, tricks, anything (clean) goes

in case link doesnt work go to yahoo--then groups--then find GOSMS

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smokeymountain/

im glad to meet you.
there are many helpful folks around these parts.
i luv this place!!

 

[bwsmith_2000]

Hi Ron,
One thing I would start out with is to always err on the side of safety .... especially when sitting beside a bomb (bottle of propane). My youngest son has a rig exactly like the one you have. I cooked with him this past week and found that the regulator works fine but it definitely does get cool or even cold but it was nowhere near cold enough to frost. This chilling is normal and can be expected when you have a gas going through the expansion process (air conditioners and refrig work on the same principle) but I'd say that in your case the icing up is abnormal. I'm not an expert but I'd say change out the regulator. Life is too short for those kinds of risks. Also, I'd like to add that in regards to the use of propane, I found something of interest when working with his GOSM last week.... I've used propane in gas grills etc. for a long time and other than once having a regulator that didn't work, I've never had a problem. However, while using his smoker, we ran out of gas. This was not unexpected and we had a spare ready to go. I don't know where you get your propane but here, we have an exchange type arrangement. You take your empty and exchange it for a full one. Anyway, when we put the fresh tank on, the flame would not come up to full. The highest we could get it was about 160*. I knew that the only thing that had changed was the tank. So I removed it and took it back for another tank. The merchant had no problem and gladly gave me a new one. I took it back to the house and it worked perfectly. That's the first time I have ever had a tank (I assume valve) problem.

I don't mean to be so wordy but I guess to sum up my thoughts, if the regulator is not working normally, change it out pronto. Also, be aware that once in a blue moon, we might run across a bad tank ... change it out pronto. This stuff is just too dangerous to screw with it. Good luck!


Fl Bill

 

[Dutch]

Welcome Ron,

I also have a 34 in GOSM that I've bought used and I haven't had any frost buildup on the regulator. As for the thermometer issue- I use a Maverick ET 73 Smoker thermometer. This unit monitors the internal temp of the food that is being smoked as well as monitoring the actual temp of the smoker. This unit constists of a base unit that stays with the smoker and the remote unit that can receive the signal from the base unit up to a 100 feet away. I run the wire for the probes up through the top vent hole to the base unit.

Before I got my Mavrick ET 73, I've thought about adding an additonal thermometer to the GOSM. If you decide to add a thermometer get one that can be calibrated. I've found that my thermomoerter on the GOSM is off by as much as 15 degrees.

 

[ron]

Earl,

thanks for the input on the thermometer, i've seen it advertised. currently, i'm using a 'polder' digital thermometer to evaluate the temp in the my gosm. i just stick the probe down into (through the top vent) the gosm and hang just at meat level. i've found that during the day, the smoker and thermometer are almost the same temp., but when it starts getting cold the temp on the gosm thermometer and the digital thermometer are (yes me too) different by ~15 degrees. (the gosm thermometer is higher) that said, i really like the smoker, abet i wish i would have gotten the shorter, but stocker one)

i'll be getting a new regulator. i'm gonna call gosm and tell 'em about the problem.

just curious, do you use a turkey stand in your gosm, or just lay it breast up?

ron-

 

[Dutch]

I just lay the bird out on the rack. I brine my bird before smoking it, some like to inject. Others like to start their bird breast down for the first hour and then turn it over onto the back for the remainder of the smoke. I also give the bird a good massage with some poultry seasoning and olive oil. The oil will help keep the bird from sticking to the rack and it will also help to crisp up the skin.

 

[ron]

well i called GOSM on tuesday about the problem w/the regulator. the response i got from the tech was:

only open the valve on the propane bottle "one" turn only. the problem that i experienced does happen when filling the propane bottle and then opening the valve all the way.

the way he explained it was: that opening the valve one turn limits the amount of pressure into the regulator.

that said, i'm going to fill the bottle up today and smoke tomorrow. i'll follow the tech's directions and post the results on saturday evening or sunday morning.

happy smokin',

ron-

 

[Dutch]

Ron, that makes a lot of since. I SCUBA dive and I was taught to NEVER open the valve all the way and I never open the valve all the way on my propane tanks. (maybe that's why I've never had a problem with the regulator freezing up on me.)

Thanks for posting the Tech. tip. You may want to post this tip down on the Propane forum.