AMNPS, Cold Smoking, White Smoke, Mailbox Mod

[SonnyE]

Has anyone attempted to do tests, using some sort of vent control like you have in a traditional Weber charcoal grill, to try to determine the optimal total area for the air intake holes on a mailbox mod? I guess I should just finally mod my own mod and add some sort of adjustable damper, and find out for myself, but I'm feeling lazy, so I thought I'd just ask.

Actually, this thread may prove what I always suspected, namely there may be no single, correct size, and that when cold smoking, you may need more holes, or bigger holes, because of the lack of vigorous air draw (due to lack of heat), whereas when cranking 'er all the way up to 275 (my MES top temp), a smaller hole size might be better because that heat will cause the air to be vigorously sucked out of the mod and through the smoker.

I have four holes in the bottom of my mod, and I know that their total area is a LOT larger than the holes in the original MES chip loader. However, the goal here is to get a complete burn in the AMNPS, and perhaps that requires a lot more air than what Masterbuilt thought was needed when they designed the chip loader holes.

What's more, a lot of those science articles linked to in a recent thread suggest that without sufficient oxygen, the smoke taste won't be too good, regardless of what color comes out the exhaust. It is interesting to read the posts above which suggest that "creating charcoal" with the chips in the AMNPS may be a sign that you are not getting very good smoke.

I believe you may find there are too many variables between everybodies everywheres.
But I do think a 'tunable' air inlet would be best. I'm gun shy about too much air and a flame up, (In the 'mailbox').
But as yet, that fear has been unfounded.

Has anyone ever found a reason to use (close down) the top damper where the smoke exits?
With a wood stove, yeah, but this isn't a wood stove.
Or do you occasionally damper the MES to get a temperature rise?

 

[SonnyE]

In my attempt to make my form of the Mailbox Mod, and to try and get a cleaner burn, I decided to relocate the MES 30 exit damper plate, to the front of my burn box.
If I get white smoke, I can open it up. Hopefully, I will be able to get a good TBS out the stack. :rolleyes:
Here's the result:

 

[johnmeyer]

When I first got my MES, I closed the vent during preheat, thinking it would come up to temp faster. I don't think it made much difference. Now that I've read dozens of posts about how one of the biggest problems of the "dorm refrigerator smoker" style, which includes the MES, is that it doesn't let much air through and this negatively affects the smoke quality, I see no reason, under any circumstance to ever close the vent.

I guess you could close it for storage if you have mice problems.