Trece, welcome to SMF and congratulations on the MES
You should go to the roll call thread and introduce yourself soon...just tell everyone about yourself and why you like to smoke meats etc. There are many folks here to give you a helping friendly hand.
OK on the "POOF"...It is strange that it has never been mentioned here but it does occur...I have the older model MES which was not vented or door latched when new...since then it has been vented and latched and works the same as the new models
The older model does not come, pre-recall, with the 2nd ash catcher under the element or the roof over the wood tray...and will not "POOF"....then when you add the two pieces just mentioned, which was a recall fix, you also get the poof you speak of....It seems to me that volatiles in the wood collect under the top roof and at times ignite causeing the seemingly harmless poof...this only occurs for me after the addition of new wood pieces
It seems to be a simply harmless phenomenon, and sure indication that you have placed too much new wood pieces at one time in the smoker....which brings us to your second question
How much wood to put in is very simply this...Never more than what it takes to have a trace of blue smoke coming out the top vent...Never more than 3-4 chips at a time....add new chips about every 30-40 minutes until your piece of meat in the smoker reaches 140-150* internal temp indicated by the thermometer you have placed in the meat and run the cable out the door to the remote indicator
Then you can stop adding wood and continue to cook LOW n SLOW
some woods are more susceptible to the "POOF" than others but of no concern just an indication that your MES is not getting proper care and feeding
This is how I see it
Good luck Welcome to the SMF
BTW putting alcoholic beverages in the H2O pan can cause a MAJOR POOF as has been reported by one of our members
