AMNPS problem

[Fgignac]

Hi folks

Lately I've been having trouble with my AMNPS. On short smokes all is well, but when I try to go longer than about 3 hours, the whole tray starts smoking at once. I get the feeling that after a while, the pellets just reach their smoking point and that's that. I end up with billowing white smoke for 1/2hour and then an empty tray.

It's raining cats and dogs right now so I can't really take pictures outside. But here how I am set up

Vertical Propane smoker
Directly over the burner, I have a tray filled with sand.
Over the sand tray I have a water tray
On the bottom grate I put my AMNPS with a foil tent over it to protect it from drippings
On the other grates I put delicious meat treats

I generally cook in the 200* to 250* range.

If anyone has some insight into this it would be great. I bought the tray (over the tube) for the convenience of doing longer smokes. But if I can't load up more than 1 row without the whole thing going up it kind of defeats the purpose

 

[danbury]

See my post in this link. See if it's related to your issue. Mine was the sawdust was just burning way too fast. I ended up making a mailbox mod which I didn't want to do, but did and now all is good.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/amnps-seems-to-be-burning-way-too-fast.286016/

 

[chef jimmyj]

Been there, Did that!...The Tent is too close. As time and temp builds, it gets hot enough under the tent to accelerate the pellet burn further until the whole maze lights off...JJ

 

[Preacher Man]

Been there, Did that!...The Tent is too close. As time and temp builds, it gets hot enough under the tent to accelerate the pellet burn further until the whole maze lights off...JJ

I'll second this. I've made the same mistake.

 

[Fgignac]

Been there, Did that!...The Tent is too close. As time and temp builds, it gets hot enough under the tent to accelerate the pellet burn further until the whole maze lights off...JJ

I'll second this. I've made the same mistake.

Makes sense. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try and find some way to make a bigger tent. Or maybe I could hang some kind of deflector from the grate above...