Fan on a rainy night.

[robby6pack]

Okay, here goes. I am smoking a brisket for the groomsmen of my nephews wedding. I use a MES 40 with mailbox. It is supposed to be rainy the night of the smoke. I occasionally have issues with the AMNPS only burning 1/2 way through the tray. Just on dead calm days. This only happens when I have the mailbox setting on the ground. No air gets in from the few holes on the bottom of the box, only the ones in the door. Since it is going to be really moist this coming Friday, I was going to set a cheap really small fan from walmart facing the front door of the mailbox. Does this sound logical, or is there any other advise? With constant air blowing, how much faster will the pellets burn? I have had anywhere from 7-11 hours when it burns the entire tray. Thanks for the help.

 

[BigW.]

Here is a long thread about mailbox mods and all the different ways folks did theirs to get more air flow. An electric fan on a rainy day may not work the best.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/mes-mailbox-mod-for-use-with-amnps.127770/

 

[robby6pack]

I think I figured it out. I think it was the pellets. I have, in the past, mixed apple wood and hickory pellets. Recently I have been using just apple wood. I don't believe they burn as good as the hickory. I put a apple pellets in the AMZN and it only burned about one row and went out. I put just Hickory and it burned the whole tray. Back to a mixture of the 2.

 

[Bearcarver]

I think I figured it out. I think it was the pellets. I have, in the past, mixed apple wood and hickory pellets. Recently I have been using just apple wood. I don't believe they burn as good as the hickory. I put a apple pellets in the AMZN and it only burned about one row and went out. I put just Hickory and it burned the whole tray. Back to a mixture of the 2.

Yup---Good chance you're right!
Cherry is the worst. I use about 95% Hickory, and even I can't burn Cherry Pellets on their own.
If I want Cherry Smoke, I'll use Cherry Dust instead of pellets. You might want to try that if you want Apple smoke.

Bear

 

[zwiller]

Glad you got it figured out but oak is a must on beef (and pretty much everything) here as well as Cen Tex.