Sausage Maker Country style smoker issues

[rtpassini]

Not sure if I should post here or the sausage section.

I just got this about a month ago strictly for sausage. Im not very happy at all with it for the amount of money it costs.

Lots of issues (with no response from customer service)

but the biggest problem and the whole reason I bought a new smoker was temp control and hot spots.
This weekend I did sticks and the front corners and back right were 15-20 degrees different internal temp. That makes it very difficult to make good sausage. Half of it was WAY over done.
I have no idea how to rectify this or what can possible cause it. I had REALLY bad hotspots on the whole front so I added more shielding that went up to the door. (which just made sense. not sure why they didnt, but then again there are a lot of miss steps in my opinion)

Any ideas? help?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Not sure if I should post here or the sausage section.

I just got this about a month ago strictly for sausage. Im not very happy at all with it for the amount of money it costs.

Lots of issues (with no response from customer service)

but the biggest problem and the whole reason I bought a new smoker was temp control and hot spots.
This weekend I did sticks and the front corners and back right were 15-20 degrees different internal temp. That makes it very difficult to make good sausage. Half of it was WAY over done.
I have no idea how to rectify this or what can possible cause it. I had REALLY bad hotspots on the whole front so I added more shielding that went up to the door. (which just made sense. not sure why they didnt, but then again there are a lot of miss steps in my opinion)

Any ideas? help?

Another purchaser of a “set it and forget it” computer controlled cooker. Heck, your wife’s oven isn’t any more consistent.

This is where you learn your pit. Become a Pit Master of your pit. Learn it, it’s a machine with hot and cool spots on the grate. This is the nature of the beast.
Rotate your meat. Manage your pit. If you want a perfect cooker buy a Sous Vide immersion circular. Set it and forget it. However if cooking wood fired, manage that pit.

 

[rtpassini]

Well. Considering this is just 1 of my 5 others smokers/grills (which include wood) yeah. I like being able to set it. However there is zero forgetting considering I tend to it hourly and manage the Temps. I've found when dealing with -30 temperature and wind chills I don't want to deal with wood or charcoal. Wasn't fun.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I've found when dealing with -30 temperature and wind chills I don't want to deal with wood or charcoal. Wasn't fun.

Don’t you think at those temps, you should build a smoke shack that’s maybe insulated to place the cooker in? This would allow the cooker to do its job without fighting those elements. I’m in the mountains of western Colorado and use different mitigation efforts to combat the cold, and smoke 12 months of the year.

 

[rtpassini]

Don’t you think at those temps, you should build a smoke shack that’s maybe insulated to place the cooker in? This would allow the cooker to do its job without fighting those elements. I’m in the mountains of western Colorado and use different mitigation efforts to combat the cold, and smoke 12 months of the year.

Yup. And I do on my other cooking items. Which, again. As stated one of the reasons I bought this due to insulated double wall stainless cabinet. So I shouldn't have to rig stuff up

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yup. And I do on my other cooking items. Which, again. As stated one of the reasons I bought this due to insulated double wall stainless cabinet. So I shouldn't have to rig stuff up

Got it.

 

[indaswamp]

Maybe BGKYSmoker will see this, he has the same smokehouse and may be able to help you.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I have this smoker. First off when o got it they just had a regu;ar temp controller. It did have hot spots as with many smoker. I ended up wiring the coil to a cord and using a regular PID. I still get some hot spots, just the way it is........No smoker is set it and forget it.

Mine is just for sausage also.

 

[rtpassini]

I have this smoker. First off when o got it they just had a regu;ar temp controller. It did have hot spots as with many smoker. I ended up wiring the coil to a cord and using a regular PID. I still get some hot spots, just the way it is........No smoker is set it and forget it.

Mine is just for sausage also.

Do you rotate 3 or 4 times during the session? How do you manage the probe wiring when rotating without make new holes?

 

[chopsaw]

Lots of issues (with no response from customer service)

Last I heard they were just a small work force in house .

I get it . You pay that money you expect more . Hot spots are one thing you can't avoid . Large temp swings I can't deal with for sausage . I looked at them a couple years ago , but decided to add a PID to my MES first . The MES works so good with the controller I never went back for the Sausage maker smoker .
You can get an Auber controller for around $150.00 .

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Do you rotate 3 or 4 times during the session? How do you manage the probe wiring when rotating without make new holes?

I only rotate the stick 1 time front to back. I dont probe as fat can cavitate on the end of probe and give false readings.

 

[tallbm]

Not sure if I should post here or the sausage section.

I just got this about a month ago strictly for sausage. Im not very happy at all with it for the amount of money it costs.

Lots of issues (with no response from customer service)

but the biggest problem and the whole reason I bought a new smoker was temp control and hot spots.
This weekend I did sticks and the front corners and back right were 15-20 degrees different internal temp. That makes it very difficult to make good sausage. Half of it was WAY over done.
I have no idea how to rectify this or what can possible cause it. I had REALLY bad hotspots on the whole front so I added more shielding that went up to the door. (which just made sense. not sure why they didnt, but then again there are a lot of miss steps in my opinion)

Any ideas? help?

Hi there and welcome!

Yeah hot and cold spots probably can't be solved. The key is that they are consistently hot and cold so you know what to expect and then figure out how to manage them if possible.

Like said, temp swings... now that is something that is the enemy of sausage making.
I too run a PID controller that holds dead on to my set temp with no swings.
HOWEVER, the left back of my smoker is hotter than the front right but it is consistent.

I do temp probe my sausage BUT I use 3 probes. One for left back, center, and front left sausages.

I rarely rotate my sausage. Since my smoker holds temp so tight, I just let my sausage go until the the lowest one hits my minimum temp. I've done wild pork sausage up to an internal temp of 165F and they come out well, again my smoker holds tight.

If lowest hits 152F and highest (in hot spot) is at 159F I'm good to go.
I hang my sausages on dowels so if I wanted to fool with it I would just pull the whole dowel out and rotate so sausage on the right are now on the left, simple.

If you don't mind laying your sausage on the rack you can lay on to the silicon grill mats (ones with grid holes) and then just rotate the silicon sheet so sausage on the left is now sitting on the right and so on.

The ONLY thing I really rotate is jerky. I do ground meat jerky and I roll it into sheets. I fill each rack of the smoker and once they all get dry enough to cut in half I cut in half and then rotate lowest rack (most dried) with highest rack and rotate left to right.
Then I pull sheets as they are done and cut into strips with meat scissors.
So jerky is my 1 exception but it's easy to deal with :)

I hope this info helps :)

 

[rtpassini]

I only rotate the stick 1 time front to back. I dont probe as fat can cavitate on the end of probe and give false readings.

how do you know when the sausage hits that magic number? especially with hot spots?

 

[poacherjoe]

If you want to get technical you can place several probes into the sausage from a remote but I don't think that you will get that much difference. When one of the chubs gets to your IT the others should be close or maybe a tad higher. As long as they are the same size! I have the SmokinTex 1460 and I didn't like the temperature swings so I purchased an Auber PID and now I have precise temps so I set it and forget it. Also Y

 

[BGKYSmoker]

how do you know when the sausage hits that magic number? especially with hot spots?

Lots of sausage experience, instant read pen and my squeeze test.Use the instant read tem check from the top down.

 

[rtpassini]

Lots of sausage experience, instant read pen and my squeeze test.Use the instant read tem check from the top down.

Got it. I use my instant read pen to verify at the end as well.