Chips turning to charcoal

[Daebado]

Hi,
I have a new Smoke Hollow 38202G propane smoker which has only been fired up twice so far; once to season it and again last week to smoke my first turkey.

I sealed the doors and replaced the door temp gauge with one that could be calibrated (don't remember the brand) and the smoker kept temp wonderfully! Barely had to touch it throughout the smoke (had to turn it down a notch twice as the turkey came up to temp).

My question is this: both times I've used it, although I had good smoke (and for the turkey, nice TBS for about an hour and a half), when I was done, the wood chips hadn't turned to ash. Instead, they turned into charcoal! Basically, they just looked like black wood chips. Is this a problem? Am I doing something wrong? How do I correct it?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Winterrider]

What temps were obtained? Sounds like maybe not hot enough to burn. Is the chip pan cast iron?
If not maybe replace that, they burn chips much better. I could soak mine down completely and they would dry and burn nicely @ 180F in my King Kooker

 

[Mattyt7]

I’m not familiar with the unit, but if you put your chips in a box and it has a lid with only a few slots/holes then what you are doing is creating a low oxygen environment for the chips to burn in. This is the process used for making charcoal. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but if you want to try it without the lid on the chip box, it should turn to ash eventually.

 

[Daebado]

Good info, guys. To answer Winterrider's question, I had my smoker at 325F. Since this is hotter than I will be using for most meats, I was naturally concerned with what will happen at normal "low and slow" temps.

Mattyt7: Yes, I was using the chip box that came with the unit and it does have a lid with slots in it, although they seem fairly large. I will try the lid off next time and see what happens.

Thanks!

 

[chef jimmyj]

That is the best result you could ask for. All the flavor is burned off leaving the carbon. Don't change a thing...JJ