First BBQ on New Smoker Gone Bad

[theearl]

First of all hello. I am new here and I guess I should give a little background. I just got a new smoker, and looks good but what problems I had with the first cook. I read once that the temperature on the gauges will be a little higher then on the actually cooking surface. For example the the gauge showed 275 but the cooking surface is 225. Also as I get farther from the cooking chamber my temperature drops drastically. From the firebox it is about 300 on the surface first gauge is 275 then 200 at the far side of the pit. The pit is five feet long. So I've got uneven temp and I am unable to maintain my fire properly. This is my first big smoker and it is getting the best of me please help.

 

[driedstick]

To SMF you will need to do some smokes just to get use to your smoker, each smoker is different and you will need just learn how yours work. Mine for example is colder in the back right corner... so you will  just have to learn how and where to put your product. A good thermometer like the maverick will be a great improvement to you arsenal.. I just bought the ET-732 but they have new ET733 you may want to look at also for a few bucks more

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Good Luck