ROOKIE SMOKER...NEED SOME HELP

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partypaul

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2013
2
10
Greetings

I decided to join the fraternity of smokers.  It's the best way to cook and most importantly the best way to eat.

I'm an old city boy now in the midwest looking for some help.  I decided to purchase a vertical gas BBQ PRO that I saw at Sears today on sale.  It appeared to be a good "rookie" smoker.  Anyways, I burned it for a couple hours to get the factory smell out of it.  I got an awesome chicken recipe and I'm ready to role.  Except I can't get the thing to get over 150 degrees.  I need to be at 250 degrees.  It's 50 degrees and windy outside.  I didn't use much water and I used 2 handfuls of chips (I'll get chunks tomorrow) and I keep dumping chips in and I can't get it the temp up.  Help a brother out!!  

Thanks
 
 Are you going by the factory thermo? Check it with boiling water to see how accurate it is. They are notoriously way off.

   Mike
 
I was and unfortunately even after using my own thermostat, it read the same as the factory one
 
If that unit heated up fine during the burn in, now won't get hot...You may have set off the Safety in the valve/tank. I don't remember the exact procedure, Help somebody, but I think it was, Turn everything off, disconnect the line, reconnect, open tank valve Slowly, open Smoker valve/Control Knob and fire up the Smoker...JJ
 
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Very odd. From what I've read, most gassers have a hard time keeping the temperature down, not up. I will echo vmastros above and say that you should try wrapping the smoker. Wind has a huge affect on temps too, so maybe try to re-evaluate the location. SO MS Smoker brings up another good point: there are tons of terrible, factory thermometers shipping with these things.

For what its worth, I have a MB gasser that gets to 150F in about 7 minutes and simply climbs from there, rapidly. I usually have to adjust vents to keep it down at 225-250F that I am looking for.
 
Yes. Try using a wire wheel on a 4.5 inch angle grinder. They all seem to be different. You can get a reasonable quality grinder and wire brush cup at Harbor Frieght.

Other wise just build it get the holes in the sides near the bottom and fill it with wood and burn it clean.

Try the search function along the top of the page. There have been volumes posted on this topic and we have all answered this particular question several times each.

Good Luck with your build. Relax it is not rocket science.
 
Your situation had me curious so I was looking around on the internet and found this. I don't know if it would help you but It's worth a try if nothing else works.

Low flame, low temperature, yellow flame: This has become the biggest problem with many grills recently and is almost always because of the regulator (the funny UFO shaped thing on the gas hose). Regulators seem to be stickier these days and when they stick you won't get enough gas to generate a good grilling temperature. To reverse this, you need to release the pressure on the regulator. Follow these steps exactly:
  1. Turn off the gas at the propane tank
  2. Disconnect the gas line from the tank
  3. Open the grill lid
  4. Turn all control valves to high
  5. Wait for about a minute
  6. Turn all control valves to off
  7. Reconnect the gas line to the tank
  8. SLOWLY turn on the gas at the tank
  9. Light the grill normally
  10. Your grill should now heat normally
To keep the regulator from sticking again, make sure to turn off the control valves first, then turn off the tank valve. Always open the tank valve slowly.

If this doesn't work give it a second try. If you still have low flame, then you probably have a faulty regulator that will need to be replaced.
 
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This has happened to my gasser as well. As stated turn everything off, disconnect gas hose and reconnect. Relight and everything should be good to go. If you still can't get it to hold temp, might have some pretty good leaks that will need to be fixed with stove gasket.
 
Residential gas grill type propane tanks are equipped with valves that sense back pressure through a fast, free-flow release of gas (at least in the states, not sure how this works in other parts of the world).  There was a time when propane tanks would freely discharge through a breached or loose gas line.  This is incredibly dangerous with any gas, but even more so with propane.  This is because propane is heavier than air and it will pool and remain in low spots without dissipating, so the threat of explosion is very high.

If you open the gas valve on your propane tank and the gas can freely flow quickly from the tank, with no back pressure (say, for example if you've accidentally left the burner valve open) it will go into a kind of fail-safe mode, and release gas very slowly.  To correct this you need to close the valve on the tank, make sure everything in the system it closed and sealed tight, then slowly reopen the valve on the tank.  It should sense that there is back pressure in the line and work correctly.  You may have to do this a couple of times for it to reset.

I hope that helps.
 
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