chips- chuncks/ wet or dry?

[chrome smoker]

Just started smoking, My wife bought me a 34" Smoke hollow Propane smoker for Thanksgiving and have been smoking every weekend since. Ok, Question #1 because I'm sure there will be many to come. What advantage is there to soaking chips in water before smoking? Some people tell me that they just have to dry out before they create smoke so why are you soaking them

 

[mballi3011]

Well if you think about it wet wood doesn't burn now does it. I have stopped soaking the chips/ chunks a longtime ago. To me you get smoke faster when you don't soak them.

 

[rbranstner]

Ahh the age old question "To soak or not to soak?" I personally don't soak my chips because as you said they don't burn when they are wet so you have to dry them out in order for them to produce smoke. I have never understood why people soak them. I guess I could see it if you put a handful of dry and a handful of soaked on at the same time then the dry ones would produce smoke first and the soaked ones would last longer because they would have to dry first then start smoking. But other than at I don't know. I personally use some chips and some chunks in my propane smokers. The chips start smoking faster then the chunks are there to take over once the chips are all burned up.

 

[chrome smoker]

I have chunks of hickory and cherry that I will try next time. I seem to get about 11/2 to 2 hours of good smoke before I have to change out the pan. then it takes awhile to start smoking again. Creates a problem for me when I like to smoke my rib racks about three hours and then wrap them in foil for a couple. Seems to be a waste to change out the pan. Figured I might try chunks or make a bigger chip pan......  Suggestions?    

 

[scarbelly]

I think the bigger pan sounds like it may be your answer