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the propane tanks have a safety feature on them.. If you turn the valve on to fast the safety valve kicks in and restricts the gas... turn the valve on the tank off and open the controller on the burner to let out any pressure on the hose... Turn the controller back off after a couple of minutes... Now open the valve on the tank REAL SLOW .... Now light your burner and see if you don't have a bigger flame ... Let us know if that helped... If not then will think of something else....
The door on the SH44 leaks somewhat, but not enough to lose a serious amount of heat. JCkDanls has you on the right track. The low pressure safety valve is the first thing to check. I do it just a bit differently. Shut everything down completely and unscrew the collar on the propane tank. Then, slowly seat the connection and twist the collar back on tightly. Slowly open the valve on the propane tank then turn one of the burners onto HIGH and press the igniter button. Once the first burner is lit, repeat process for the second burner.
BTW, not meaning to imply that JCkDanls method is wrong, just telling you what works for me.
Yeah the door isn't gonna be killing you. My vertical has smoker leaks like a sieve around the door. I can get up to 500+ even when it's 20 outside. The guys have you covered on the tank. I used to only get up to 375 then I installed a needle valve for better control and temps. Another thing to consider is if you are only relying on the therm that came with the smoker it may be off. Stock therms are notorious for not being accurate.