Making charcoal in MES 40...what's causing it?

[corndog]

Hi,

During my last smoke, the pellets in the AMNPS turned to charcoal rather than burn up to white ashes. They burned very quickly. I have never had this happen during prior smokes. I was hoping y'all could help me understand why this happened.

This is my normal process: I load the AMZNPS with whatever pellets I'm using for the smoke, and place it unlit in the smoker as it preheats, to dry the pellets. Once the smoker is at temp, I light the AMZNPS, and once burning well, I blow out the flame and return it to the smoker. I pull the chip loader out a couple of inches.

The only thing I did differently, during this smoke, was to set up the smoker just inside the door of my greenhouse, because rain was in the forecast. I also setup a fan in the greenhouse to blow the smoke out of the greenhouse. I have an elbow on the top vent of the smoker, and I turned it so the opening of the elbow was facing the door and in the direction of the airstream, so no air was being blown back into the vent.

Would the addition of the fan have caused the pellets not to burn up completely?

Thanks,

Corndog

 

[daveomak]

Sounds like not enough oxygen....   Was the exhaust vent open and smoke coming out of it....   That's a tough one to figure out....   

One more thing, could have been moisture, high humidity, was there a water pan in the smoker making moisture also along with the rain....

Dave

 

[corndog]

Yes, the exhaust was fully open. Yes, I did have a water pan with water in it. I have used a water pan in the past, but not often. Now that you mention it, I did notice more condensation in the smoker than previous smokes, even when using a water pan, plus it was very humid that day, with rain in the forecast, so maybe you nailed it, Dave.