Hi there and welcome!
I'm in agreement about this being an airflow issue and that draft helps suck air through your AMNPS and the smoker.
If you are noticing things working better with a charcoal briquette burning then you are creating draft thereby causing more air flow.
Another thing to keep in mind when cold smoking is that without good airflow the smoke will linker and become stale. Stale smoke gives a strong not so pleasant flavor. I am convinced that this lack of flow leading to stale smoke is the reason so many talk about having to rest cheese and other cold smoked items for a while to let the smoke flavor "mellow" out.
I ran into the stale smoke thing and solved it by creating a little contraption that forces a draft while cold smoking. It fixed my lack of good AMNPS pellet burn AND solved the strong stale smoke on food issue.
My little contraption is basically a cardboard tube with a 12v computer blower fan rigged to the side blowing UP the tube. When I put the contraption over my vent the upward draft pulls air up and through the smoker circulating the smoke around in the smoker and sucking it out so it never gets stale. Lack of air flow to AMNPS and stale smoke flavor issues solved! I hope this info helps :)
I'm in agreement about this being an airflow issue and that draft helps suck air through your AMNPS and the smoker.
If you are noticing things working better with a charcoal briquette burning then you are creating draft thereby causing more air flow.
Another thing to keep in mind when cold smoking is that without good airflow the smoke will linker and become stale. Stale smoke gives a strong not so pleasant flavor. I am convinced that this lack of flow leading to stale smoke is the reason so many talk about having to rest cheese and other cold smoked items for a while to let the smoke flavor "mellow" out.
I ran into the stale smoke thing and solved it by creating a little contraption that forces a draft while cold smoking. It fixed my lack of good AMNPS pellet burn AND solved the strong stale smoke on food issue.
My little contraption is basically a cardboard tube with a 12v computer blower fan rigged to the side blowing UP the tube. When I put the contraption over my vent the upward draft pulls air up and through the smoker circulating the smoke around in the smoker and sucking it out so it never gets stale. Lack of air flow to AMNPS and stale smoke flavor issues solved! I hope this info helps :)
