Help with non burnt Chips

[Bud J]

Hi all, just purchased a new Charbroil Electric Smoker and am having a common problem(s) that would like to get verified.
The first and most important problem is my wood chips and smoke. At 266* the chips were not ash but solid charcoal. I did two loads and got the same results. After researching I am assuming it is a three-fold problem?
One - (see photos) -not enough air flow. The tray is located DIRECTLY below a solid metal drip tray. I believe this is too close and too tight of a fit which doesn't allow enough air to get through. The air holes in the side wall are located directly to the right of the tray. There are two vents up top that are just open vents. They cannot be dampered.
Second - Their are only about 5 very small holes on the right side of the tray; that's it.
Third - I think the tray is close enough to the element. It is just about touching.
I can probably do an AIR test by leaving door open a bit and see if chips burn to ash. But not sure what I can do about chip tray being SO close to that metal drip tray? Maybe try and move drip pan up somehow?

As a side note - I will probably get the A_Maze_N pellet tray in the future but for now would just like to get this setup working.

Another problem. - Temperature readings.
First smoke was less than stellar as temp and smoke problems occurred. I had three temperature gauges. One was the Charbroil door gauge which is located directly at the top grate; 2nd was a regular oven thermometer and 3rd was a NEXTAMZ digital dual probe unit. Both the oven and digital were on the same top grate. I realize the door gauges are not reliable hence this test.
In a nutshell - The wireless unit said 266.......the oven therm said 250.......and door temp said 280. This morning I performed boiling water test. The wireless said 213...an instant read therm said 212 and the charbroil door unit said 235.
I wanted to perform more tests today in the actual smoker but it

is raining (naturally)
Obviously the digital unit is the way to go.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[mike243]

If you have too many holes in it they will flame instead of smoulder temps are probably not that bad just set by your electronic therm, there will be up and downs with it, did you not get any smoke on your food? Normally have to chnge chips out every 45-60 minutes For 2-4 or more hours

 

[Bud J]

If you have too many holes in it they will flame instead of smoulder temps are probably not that bad just set by your electronic therm, there will be up and downs with it, did you not get any smoke on your food? Normally have to chnge chips out every 45-60 minutes For 2-4 or more hours

Mike, I did get some smoke on food but BB ribs were over cooked doing 2-2-1.
Doing smoke/temp test now. My biggest concern is chips not really smoking since they turn to charcoal.

 

[thirdeye]

There are a couple of different sizes of 'chips', are your's the fine ones or more coarse? You are not soaking them are you? Some electric smokers can burn pellets in the chip pan too. Or a mix of chips and pellets. So this is something to explore too.

Manufacturers love to make smoking easy, you know.... the old 'set it and forget it' line. But that is not always the best route. For example, if you are filling the tray with chips, try 1/2 that amount and see how that performs. Also, don't empty the ashes each time you add chips and see what happens there.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Being left with Charcoal Chips can be a good thing. If the chips are Smoldering and releasing a Thin Blue or Gray Smoke, their Flavorsome Components are being generated and you are Golden. If your smoke is Dense and White, then yes you have an issue...JJ

 

[Bud J]

There are a couple of different sizes of 'chips', are your's the fine ones or more coarse? You are not soaking them are you? Some electric smokers can burn pellets in the chip pan too. Or a mix of chips and pellets. So this is something to explore too.

Manufacturers love to make smoking easy, you know.... the old 'set it and forget it' line. But that is not always the best route. For example, if you are filling the tray with chips, try 1/2 that amount and see how that performs. Also, don't empty the ashes each time you add chips and see what happens there.

I have been trying many different options today with no food. Only been using half handful of chips with all experiments today.
At 300*, chips burn very well. These are the Weber Pecan chips so not really a “fine” chip. But every time temp goes to 225-250, no smoke. Chips stay as charcoal. Tried opening door a little, no difference. Chips are not soaked.
Then tried removing drip pan and setting tray right on element. Same thing...burns fresh chips fine but stops at charcoal state. Right now temp at 277 and chips smoldering a little. Dropping temp down to 225-250 but believe same results will happen.
Final results were chips were smoldering and finally turning to an ash but with very little smoke.

 

[Jave36]

I have been trying many different options today with no food. Only been using half handful of chips with all experiments today.
At 300*, chips burn very well. These are the Weber Pecan chips so not really a “fine” chip. But every time temp goes to 225-250, no smoke. Chips stay as charcoal. Tried opening door a little, no difference. Chips are not soaked.
Then tried removing drip pan and setting tray right on element. Same thing...burns fresh chips fine but stops at charcoal state. Right now temp at 277 and chips smoldering a little. Dropping temp down to 225-250 but believe same results will happen.
Final results were chips were smoldering and finally turning to an ash but with very little smoke.

I had a similar problem. The heating element wasn't coming on enough to provide the necessary heat to smoke the chips when I had it set below 250. I thought it was air because when I opened the door, the smoke would start coming shortly after. But it was because the heating element was coming on.

One way I've addressed it is putting some charcoal in the tray while the smoker is heating up. Those embers provide enough heat to smoke the chips when the element doesn't come on often enough. Seems to help but have to add chips more often.

Not sure if your problem is the same, but that's been my work around for no smoke.

 

[chef jimmyj]

You say there is little to no Smoke. But, does the Exhaust have a Sweet Smokey Aroma? You don't need visible Smoke to get Smoke flavor...Just a Smokey Flavor coming out of the Chips...JJ

 

[bill1]

Your goal shouldn't be to extract every last watt-second of energy out of your wood. (Unless you're dying of exposure in the wilderness.) That's what getting a bunch of ash is about. That's burning. You want smoke, not fire. If you're ending up with black charred wood, you are near perfect when it comes to smoking.

If you want to know a bit more about the science of all this, google up some articles by Greg Blonder.