Pit boss door leak

[Smkryng]

I’ve got an Austin XL and I get a lot of smoke around the door. Is this normal for a pellet grill? I’m not as concerned about smoke loss as I am heat. Last weekend I started the grill, adjusted the p setting and put some chicken on with the smoke setting. Had some 25 mph gusts that day and every time the wind cranked up the pit temp would drop to around 150. I installed a gasket this week and adjusted the door a little and it didn’t seem to make much difference.

 

[SmokyMose]

I know the wind will suck the heat right off a smoker, especially if it's cold out. I have an offset stick burner and know nothing at all about pellet cookers, though. I have no seal around the pit door but sometimes if a stick doesn't want to burn I'll see some of that heavy smoke coming around the door for a few minutes. I'm guessing you may have more of a combustion issue than a seal issue.
Hopefully someone familiar with pellet cookers will chime in.

 

[mike243]

I dont loose any with mine and dont think a little is going to matter in the long run. Stable temps will help keeping on a time schedule, sounds like you tried to seal it is there a place that needs something else done to it like a door ?

 

[Smkryng]

I dont loose any with mine and dont think a little is going to matter in the long run. Stable temps will help keeping on a time schedule, sounds like you tried to seal it is there a place that needs something else done to it like a door ?

Well I used 1/8x1/2 smoker gasket all around the lid and threw a smoke tube in and it doesn’t leak with the pit off. But when the fan runs it blows smoke around the door in a lot of spots.

 

[eddiememphis]

I bought a high temp gasket for the door in my Green Mountain. It works great, doesn't leak at all. I used to avoid the deck when it was on because a lot of smoke escaped. Now it all goes up the chimney.

 

[Smkryng]

I bought a high temp gasket for the door in my Green Mountain. It works great, doesn't leak at all. I used to avoid the deck when it was on because a lot of smoke escaped. Now it all goes up the chimney.

My high temp gasket didn’t seem to make much difference. I may just go with a simple fix, like throwing a welding blanket over it on the windy days.

 

[mike243]

I use a moving blanket, cheaper and works well, the fan pushes a lot of air. is that picture when it is up to operating temp? you are leaving the door open until a fire is established and the big gust of smoke stops?

 

[eddiememphis]

It was cold and windy today in Denver. I helped the GMG get up to temp quicker with an Army surplus wool blanket on the smoker.

Here you can see the gasket. Look in the corners. It fits tight to the contours of the grill.

 

[Winterrider]

Yep, wind is poison to a smoker. Worse than cold temps IMO.

 

[Smkryng]

I use a moving blanket, cheaper and works well, the fan pushes a lot of air. is that picture when it is up to operating temp? you are leaving the door open until a fire is established and the big gust of smoke stops?

Yeah that’s with it running for 30 minutes to settle in and with my pellet tube lit

 

[bill1]

You didn't say for how long the temp stayed at 150, but I'm going to hazard a guess that the wind rushed through a gap, splashed on the temp probe and that gave the low reading. Given the ~10cfm flow rate of these pellet grill combustion fans and the size of the cook volume, I suspect the cool inside breeze was flushed out the exhaust within 5-10 seconds and the temperature returned to normal. Am I close?

If you had only a few of these excursions during a mult-hour cook, it would truly be a negligible effect. Note the heat capacity of meat is far greater than that of air so even if the air dropped 50 degrees for a few seconds, I'm sure the surface temperature of the meat (to say nothing of the bulk) didn't change by more than a degree due to that. And if you pull your meat based on meat temperature (suggested) instead of time-in-smoker, this is more a nuisance than a true problem.

But heck, I don't like nuisances...

Rotating the unit by 90 degrees may help, or hanging a damp tee-shirt over the offending gap should do the trick. (A full blanket would deflect the wind too, but that's kind of overkill for just a wind problem.) Leaning a half sheet of plywood up against the unit would give you a shield effect too. (You do need to determine the wind direction so your plywood is perpendicular to it and upstream from the smoker. But like Bob Dylan says, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.)

Hanging a 20# weight on the door handle can help close up gaps too. If that's too Mickey Mouse for you, a lot of people put toggle clamps to help push the door shut in a the gap-piest areas. Of course that's 2 added latch actions to do each time you open the door...it'd drive me crazy.