Okay okay. All this advice to try an AMNS!
Today was my virgin run with my Smoke Daddy Big Kahuna. I was so pleased with my installation, I truly believed I had the perfect set up.
Okay, I'm registered with this site, people got me enthused, so I figured I'd smoke some cheese. Simple enough. Got a slow smoke going, burn rates good...time to relax with a beer.
Fast forward 3 hours.
Talk about CREOSOTE!
Discharge pipe has this glob of creosote almost 3/4's blocking the pipe. Hotter than tar, stickier than anything known to man. Ughhh. Easy to clean out with a twig, but I'm sure when it cools down it will be hard.
Bear, AlaskanBear, Scarbelly, meaneater....you folks are right. I'm buying an AMNS tonight. I can't stand going this far and not getting it right.
Couple of questions about the AMNS:
does it add much heat to the smoke chamber since the burning occurs right in the same box?
how do you control the amount of smoke, or do you just let it rip and open up vents?
do you think the Smoke Daddy folks will give me my money back? It's only 3 days old!! haha
That's funny---Not funny that you had problems with your Big Kahuna!!!!----Funny that you had the exact same results I had with mine nearly 2 years ago, and again last year, after converting it to the new backdraft design. I didn't want to say anything before you tried it, because I don't like to pick on it, but it puts out more creosote than my Lopi Woodstove! However my stove is easier to clean. You might want to check with them, before you go drilling holes in it to make it work better. I believe they claim they'll give your money back.
As for the AMNS &
AMNPS, Todd can tell you better about a slight heat rise when cold smoking, but the only time I have to add a jug of ice is when cold smoking cheese, and that is mainly because my MES 40 is so well insulated, it holds heat so well. The
AMNPS gives off more heat than the AMNS, but like I said, a little ice in with your cheese, and your good to go.
You don't really control the amount of smoke, except by how you light it:
A perfect amount of medium smoke in my MES 40 or MES 30, is lighting either one of them on one end. If I want twice as much smoke, I light both ends. If you wanted twice as much again, you could light the middle too, which would give you 4 burning starts, but then you would be getting back to "too much smoke".
The great thing is, when I light one end, which to me is perfect, you get 9 to 12 hours of smoke, without going near it, unless you physically separate the burning dust or pellets from the unburned ones.
Hope this helps,
Bear
