So, I recently acquired a Char-Broil Electric Smoker for free. Not knowing anything about them, I brought it home, thinking I made off like a bandit. Little did I know what a hot mess these things are. This may be a long post, so bear with me.
The original owner told me what he didn't like about it - the door wouldn't stay closed and it never kept consistent smoke using the standard chip tray that it came with. I thought no-problem - a couple over-center snaps and one of those sweet pellet smokers I saw on the internet would fix that for sure. So, last weekend, I gave it a test burn. Thank god I was smart enough to do a dry run without food in it. I ended up with a smoker full of eye-watering, acrid white smoke. I'm kinda stubborn, so I came here and did a lot of reading and ended up putting the Mailbox Mod on the darn thing, along with a 1.5" black steel pipe for exhaust. I couldn't come up with anything better on short notice, so I put a tractor exhaust cap on it for a make-shift damper.
Fast forward to this weekend - last night I did a second test-burn and the smoke, while better, was still a bit on the heavy side. This morning, I tried baking the pellets in the oven at 250 for an hour to drive out any excess moisture. Again, a little better, but not by a lot. For round 3, I went ahead and drilled 5 1/2" holes in the bottom of the mailbox door (in addition to the 8 or so 3/8" holes that were pre-drilled in the bottom for mounting), to see if that helped it get a little more air. Again, a little better, but still on the heavy side.
For reference, this has all been done with an AMNTS, Hickory Pellets, and the heat turned off. I have the heat on now, and it seems to have cleaned up the smoke a little bit - so maybe the heat is helping the pellet tube get a better draft, but its hard to tell - there's some leftover crud in there that's burning off the element. I'll be able to get a better assessment of smoke quality as soon as that's gone.
If anyone has any input for me that might help me get a little better smoke quality out of my setup, I'd be much obliged. The summer holidays are coming up, and I hope to be able to produce some top quality smoked meats for the family to enjoy. I will attach some photos of my setup for reference below:
While smoking, I set the mailbox on the ground - its 2' below the deck level, so the pipe is at a roughly 45 degree angle. Thanks again for reading and thanks in advance for any advice you might have for me!
The original owner told me what he didn't like about it - the door wouldn't stay closed and it never kept consistent smoke using the standard chip tray that it came with. I thought no-problem - a couple over-center snaps and one of those sweet pellet smokers I saw on the internet would fix that for sure. So, last weekend, I gave it a test burn. Thank god I was smart enough to do a dry run without food in it. I ended up with a smoker full of eye-watering, acrid white smoke. I'm kinda stubborn, so I came here and did a lot of reading and ended up putting the Mailbox Mod on the darn thing, along with a 1.5" black steel pipe for exhaust. I couldn't come up with anything better on short notice, so I put a tractor exhaust cap on it for a make-shift damper.
Fast forward to this weekend - last night I did a second test-burn and the smoke, while better, was still a bit on the heavy side. This morning, I tried baking the pellets in the oven at 250 for an hour to drive out any excess moisture. Again, a little better, but not by a lot. For round 3, I went ahead and drilled 5 1/2" holes in the bottom of the mailbox door (in addition to the 8 or so 3/8" holes that were pre-drilled in the bottom for mounting), to see if that helped it get a little more air. Again, a little better, but still on the heavy side.
For reference, this has all been done with an AMNTS, Hickory Pellets, and the heat turned off. I have the heat on now, and it seems to have cleaned up the smoke a little bit - so maybe the heat is helping the pellet tube get a better draft, but its hard to tell - there's some leftover crud in there that's burning off the element. I'll be able to get a better assessment of smoke quality as soon as that's gone.
If anyone has any input for me that might help me get a little better smoke quality out of my setup, I'd be much obliged. The summer holidays are coming up, and I hope to be able to produce some top quality smoked meats for the family to enjoy. I will attach some photos of my setup for reference below:
While smoking, I set the mailbox on the ground - its 2' below the deck level, so the pipe is at a roughly 45 degree angle. Thanks again for reading and thanks in advance for any advice you might have for me!
