Greenhorn Smoker - Temp concerns

[RatherBeTroutFishin]

Hey All - New to the forums (admittedly been lurking for several weeks), and brand spankin' new to the game. I have a lot of questions but i'll try to make it short.

So to start...I have an electric analog vertical Masterbuilt SE

that I acquired from my in-law. Not sure on the size, but it only has 2 racks, so not that big.
I'm not sure i'm setting up my smoker right. I don't think i'm getting enough smoke. I understand the whole light blue smoke concept. Just not confident that i'm there.

My main concern i'm having right now is I don't feel like i'm getting enough heat. With an empty box I have no problem getting to 225 and up, but moment I put food in I can't seem to get past 200. I don't trust the external thermometer, so I have an oven thermometer inside the box.

here is my set up. I don't have the water pan that came with the smoker, so I use the aluminum pan instead. It just sits on top of the rack vs seating inside of it like the factory one would. So my working theory is the element is going bad. I replaced it and it seems like it's much redder now, shown here

. I'm hopeful for better performance now. Is there anything else I should do? I also put the element resting on top (it was under during my first smoke) of that bottom wire and now the chip box has direct contact with the element and appears to be smoking better. I do have it plugged into your common orange outdoor extension cord.

I want to do another pork butt this weekend. The first time I did one I placed it on the top rack with an empty pan on the bottom rack for drippings. This time I was thinking about putting the butt on the bottom rack because I feel like the drippings pan underneath was blocking heat and smoke from getting to the butt. How do I catch the drippings then? Is it okay to let them fall all over the element and chip box (cleanup nightmare?), and I could theoretically use the drippings I get from when I wrap the butt? When you add chips do you discard the old or just throw new ones on top?

I experimented with some tilapia filets

yesterday and I think they turned out okay. Probably could have taken them off a little sooner. Thanks in advance for the tips and I can't wait to get to smoking properly. Hopefully my pictures linked okay. New to this so I can post direct links if necessary. Apologies for the novel!

Edit - looks like my images didn't load. So here they are in no particular order





Matt

 

[6GRILLZNTN]

Hey Matt. Welcome to the forum. I don't have your type of smoker, but if I put a cold piece of meat on my WSM, it takes it a while to come back up to temp. I've read that a lot of people with that type of smoker use A-MAZ-N tubes or trays for their smoke production. You might want to research that. I'm sure people with your smoker will chime in soon. And yes, I would also rather be trout trout fishing!

 

[kruizer]

Welcome to SMF from Minnesota.

 

[gnarlykaw]

I second the A-MAZ-N tray. I use that in my upright gas cabinet... experiment with different pellet compositions for your smoke, hicory/apple, ect. Anytime you put a cold piece of meat in the box, it brings down the temp. especially if you are putting it in straight from the fridge! I always put the meat to be cooked on the counter for about an hour. and if ya can, put some sort of a water pan below the meat. the water vapor rises to keep it moist. it will also help keep you temp a bit more steady.
Hope this helps a bit!