Electric smoking seems to take way to long.

[derrin410]

Been using this smoker for almost 2 years now and seems like the time it takes to reach target temp on my meat is way to long. Not sure if the cook time between charcoal, gas and electric are different. From what I have read should be about 1.5-2 hours per pound on a pork butt. It usually takes far longer for me to achieve my 200 degree target temp. For instance right now I have a butt on, started at 4 pm yesterday and it is now 8 am. So I am 16 hours in and at 185 degrees. I don't go by the smokers temp gauge, I used a separate digital to monitor temps (verified it's accurate). It's not uncommon for a 6-8 lbs butt to take 20 hours plus. I know they can stall and make sure I don't get stuck in a stall. I now have the smoker cranked up to 250 to get it done in time. Is this common on an electric or am I missing something?

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• derrin410
• May 29, 2017

 

[noboundaries]

Looks pretty normal to me.  The first time I did a pork but low n slow, about an 8 lb'er I believe, unwrapped, it took almost 18 hours.  I almost always exceed the 2 hr / lb time to reach my target temp.  Nowadays I do low n slow for 12 hours, then crank the temp up to 275F or higher to finish.  I still exceed 2 hrs/lb. 

 

[SmokinAl]

As Ray said it sounds about normal.

I have gone to the hot & fast method.

Smoker running around 270-280, takes a little over an hour per pound, with little to no stall!

Al

 

[derrin410]

That's good to hear. I thought I was doing something wrong. This time actually went better than usual, I pulled it at 9:30(17.5 hours). Could hardly pick it up without falling in half. Ran it about 235 for the first 12 then ramped it up to 255. Usually I get a BAD stall for 4+ hours if I try to run it at 225. Luckily no stall this time and finished in time to get a couple resting hours. I'll start running higher temps and see how that does. Thanks for the help.

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• derrin410
• May 29, 2017