One end should be fine. When I use a tube it’s too much smoke for me. People like different levels of smoke. You seem to like a heavy smoke flavor. Pellet smokers can’t really do that. 100% hickory at 180 to 250 with a tube is about as heavy as it gets with a pellet smoker.
With a bolt-on canister smoke generator and a downdraft hood on a Traeger 34” you can produce too much smoke! Way too much in fact. I had to modify the downdraft hood to roll the smoke over quicker. Discovered this problem more specifically when I ran a cold smoke.
And we like a strong smoke flavor in our family. So, saying too much smoke is actually saying something.
MJB05615,
you are turning down the smoke. P1 is the the high setting,"more smoke" and P7 is the low setting"least smoke"
Ya beat me to it.
I always ran my P-setting controllers at P-2 maybe P-3 on occasion for desired results in North Texas. I have a brand new in the box Elite GenI and a fairly well used Pro GenI on a shelf (P-setting controllers). I put the AGL GenII Pro on my daughter’s E75 22” (non P-setting controller). My Pro 34” has a Smoke Daddy PID controller. I have mixed feelings about PID’s but that’s for another thread.
*TO THE OP:
My personal experiences with adding smoke and direct sear using my latest Traeger iteration! This is the 3rd unit I have owned and always watching Craigslist for more.
*SMOKE FLAVOR:
I have 3 different supplemental smoke generators. I have
a-maze-n’s 12-18” oval tube and their 5X8 maze. I also have Smoke Daddy Inc’s Big Kahuna cold smoke generator with the variable speed pump (this requires drilling trough the body of the unit). I have had to always smoke my briskets and whatnot on the ‘smoke setting’ for extended periods of very low temp to gain the amount of smoke flavor my family prefers. But my technique as a whole is lower and slower than most. Since adding all the supplemental smoke sources I can cook at whatever temp I wish year round with very little swing having the PID controller. With the supplemental smoke sources I achieve all the smoke and bark I desire. Too much in fact, resulting in a required tweak to the downdraft hood.
This is a picture of the smoke canister and the smoke tube running at the same time.
I snapped this picture when I was reloaded the chips in the canister.
This is the very first brisket with the current Traeger setup. Smoked a few weeks ago. In the first pic you’re also able to see the downdraft hood I have installed. I have tweaked the downdraft hood to turn the smoke over a little faster. It was a required tweak to do any cold smoking. A 1.125” hole drilled center on to the chimney.
*SEARING:
For searing and reverse sear steaks I have a drop-in sear station. This is Smoke Daddy Inc’s ‘universal direct sear station’ drop in. You remove all the internals and drop the station in positioned directly over the fire box. It is a universal setup that works on most center firepot designed pellet smoker.
When doing steaks for a reverse sear I slide my GrillGates off to the side and fire up the smoke tube. I have the controller on low smoke which does produce some heat. When the steaks hit 120 IT I remove them and max the temp on the grill for about 10–15 minutes and finish with a genuine true over a wood fire sear using the
GrillGrates.
I hope this helps.
Pat
