Excessive Smoke/Moisture

[Javaaman]

Tuesday late afternoon I decided to throw a couple of burgers on the smoker. I cranked it up to 400* and then got myself a beer. Came back out and the patio was covered in smoke. I have seen this before at higher temps but this really was bad.
I keep the smoker covered at all times and my patio is covered. That said, we have had excessive rain over the past few days and I noticed on Tuesday morning/afternoon that the cover was wet. Moved the smoker to a dry area and then removed the cover to check for water. No water on or in the smoker.
My question is this. Could the "smoke" have been partially caused by all the humidity in the air? We are just going into the "rainy season" in South Florida and I hope the rain/humidity is not going to be an ongoing issue.

 

[BKING!]

Sometimes when grease hits a hot deflector plate you can get grease smoke. This is especially true at high temps and when cooking meat with a lot of fat. Either that or the plate or smoker was dirty.

If you have cooked burgers at that temp before and didn’t get that much smoke then idk what it would be if the smoker was dry.

 

[bregent]

What was the last thing you previously cooked on it? If you did a low and slow with a pork shoulder, brisket or similar and did not thoroughly clean out the grill, there could have been a lot of grease accumulated, and when you crank it up to 400F, you'll get a lot of smoke.

 

[Javaaman]

Thanks guys - the last thing I did was ribs (thoroughly cleaned before, but not after). I do remember seeing "fire" when I looked down at the two plates ("opened" as GMG suggests when grilling over 325*) over the heat shield. Makes sense now regarding "grease". I will clean the plates before this weekend's brisket (another story - stay tuned - LOL!). While I'm not anal about keeping my grill clean, I have always taken pride in it's overall cleanliness.
Thought built up "smoke" and "grease" was a good thing with respect to a smoker. Seems it is not!
Man, this is a great forum and I continue to learn!