Smoke hollow smoke tronix users

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

FORDTECH

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 20, 2017
14
0
Hello everyone this is my first time posting here I just wanted to find somewhere to talk about my Smoke Hollow electric smoker with others who have used it. I've had many problems with the smoker from day one I'm trying my hardest to still like it convincing myself almost. Although this is my first smoker i have nothing to compair to besides my friends who have other smokers that they say work great I just thought it would work better than it actually does.I guess I could say I expected more. I will say the packaging and assembly and finished product is great very sturdy units and sharp looking. Was my first thoughts. I then plug it in to find the LCD display not working properly it was missing parts of the display I still wanted to season it though so I turned it on knowing I would call the company in the morning. 275° for three hours or whatever I noticed the meat probe and temp probe we're 25° difference in Temp also I then used my Weber I grill to double check the temperature i used 4 probes all in different spots of the cook box all of these temps were 25° different than the Smoke Hollow temp sensor. I called Smoke Hollow in the morning they were very nice had no problems at all sending me out a new temp sensor and a whole new display which was also part of the controller assembly I received it in three days and took 45 minutes to install. As soon as I plugged the unit in the display was fixed so that's no problem but I still have a 25° temperature difference compared to my Weber temperature sensor probe's. So I decided to make a pork shoulder about 10 pounds set the cook box for 225° and put the meat probe in the meat and let it run waiting for the meat Prob to reach 185° it took almost 19 hours I knew something was wrong. Next day I made a 7 pound brisket same thing 225° it took 21 hours obviously something was wrong. So the next weekend I decided to try a pork shoulder again this time using my weber probes as ambient probes right next to the meet ended up having to put the smoke hollow at 255° before my weber probes read 225° and it took a normal 13 hours to reach a desired 185° now that was the proper time. Now every time I use this unit I have four extra temp probe's just to measure at four different spots so I can average them out just to set the Smoke Hollow gauge to the proper temperature. Otherwise everything cooks 30° cooler so 225 being 195. Also The water dish is directly over the heating element causing it to boil out very fast I have to add about 60 ounces of water every couple hours or it goes dry so now I started using a tinfoil pan with a 4 inch lip that fits in the factory pan and that will last the cook time. I fill the smoke box with 2 to 3 handfuls and press the hot smoke button smoke is great after 15 minutes but only last for an hour and a half , three handfuls of wood chips should last longer so I find myself dumping out the wood chips after an hour because they're black but not smoking anymore and adding new ones every hour I think I will start to add just a half to a full handful every 30 to 45 instead. My latest issue is now it's dripping black water out the back corners on to my wood deck so when I figured that out I wiped it up and I have placed 2 paper plates under both wheels to collect the black water that could stain something good thing my deck is old but not the point. This is only the beginning there's much more but I've rambled on long enough hopefully somebody reads this and can chime and also thanks for listening and reading
 

Attachments

  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    146 KB · Views: 204
  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    147.7 KB · Views: 216
Last edited:
Hmmm still not 1 person out there using this smoker with any info on smoke hollow smoke tronix. I almost feel this electric smoker forum should just be called MES smoker forum due to the fact that's all anyone ever talks about
 
Sorry nobody is chiming in. I personally have never used or heard of your smoker. The forum does seem to favor the MES. Give it a couple days. I sure someone will speak up. Have you tried the search function?

Chris
 
Hmmm still not 1 person out there using this smoker with any info on smoke hollow smoke tronix. I almost feel this electric smoker forum should just be called MES smoker forum due to the fact that's all anyone ever talks about
I don't have the Tronix digital smoker so I'm not wise to that one. When it comes to digital smokers I don't know the history on when they came out mfr. to mfr. but I'm sure it impacts how many are out there. If Tronix is new then it'll take time to build a following. It's a numbers game. Law of probability. I don't know about Smokin it, Cookshack and Smokim Tex or whatever those names are. It seems you get what you pay for as they get more expensive. Sorry I'm no help.
-Kurt
 
Yes I have only like 2-3 posts come up. It's a shame I wish more on here had one to talk about it with me. I e also done just searchs on Internet and still only 2-3 things ever come up. That's why I decided to post here and see if anyone else has one. I did my research before buying this one I looked into the master built but after finding so many horrible reviews and problems I decided to get the Smoke Hollow because there was if one or 2% of the bad stuff written on the Internet about it not my issue is no one's ever heard of it just like you and I'm sure some kind of modifications to it would make the unit better I'm just not sure where to start hoped someone else was having same issues as me
 
FORDTECH - I would try smoking without the waterpan. If the smoker is tight and as you say the water boils, it is going to condense inside the smoker and run out somewhere, generally following gravity. As for long cook times, I don't see yours being out of line with what I experience with my Smokin-it or with the Cookshack I used in the past. As the moisture condenses from vapor to water droplets, there is going to be a cooling effect. Regarding your temp probes, it may be that all that moisture from your water pan affected the accuracy of the probes both meat and chamber. It has been known to happen. In fact, most instructions say to not get them wet; that would also apply to steam. Your Weber probes may not have been exposed to the moisture your Smoke Hollow produced. Also, if you have not done so, check your probes in boiling water (tip only) and ice water. You should get a proper reading of boiling and freezing temp. Do this for the SmokeTronix meat probe as well as your Weber.

Try a smoke without the water pan filled with water/leave it out if the instructions say it is ok to do so. Also, you could try a PM to one of the others that have a SmokeTronix and see how they are fairing. The search function will get a couple of postings on the SmokeTronix. But as you said, this forum is heavy on the Masterbuilt. So I can understand your frustration.

http://smokingmeatforums.com/index.php?search/174377/&q=smoke+tronix&o=relevance
 
Last edited:
I am patiently waiting for my new Smoke Tronix. It was suppose to be here yesterday, but apparently UPS is swamped. I will be sure to give some input after it is up and running.
 
Babcockwi yes please post back here when you have some experiance with the smoker or if you have any questions. Ive used it 8x now so maybe have some info for you aswell if you need it.
 
The Smoke Tronix finally arrived today. The smoker came pretty well packaged and in one piece. I spent about a half hour or so assembling the unit. My first impression is very positive, the unit seems very well built. I fired it up and started the seasoning process about an hour ago. So far so good, no problems! I installed my Thermoworks Smoke and so far it's actually pretty close to the smoke tronix internal thermometer, within 5-10 degrees or so. It seems to be holding pretty close to the set temp of 275, drops to 270 and the heat kicks on and heats it back to 276 and kicks off. The Bluetooth doesn't seem to work the greatest as many of the reviews have said. I am only about 30' away inside my house and the connection goes in and out. The app seems pretty handy if it stays connected. Im going dig something out of the freezer and give her a go on Sunday. I will be sure to report back.
20171208_201136.jpg
20171208_201207.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rings Я Us
The Tronix sure looks nice! Hell, you can read the display from 30 ft away.
-Kurt
 
Alright so today is the maiden voyage with my new Smoke Tronix. I'm going to smoke a 4lb brisket I had in the freezer. Fired the smoker up while laying in bed this morning, the app is pretty handy when it stays connected. It took about 30 minutes to get up to 225 and it is holding the temp pretty good. Today the smoker therm and the Thermoworks where only about 3 degrees different. I am going to be using Kingsford hickory chips, and try both soaked and dry.
20171210_072946.jpg
20171210_071742.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rings Я Us
Loaded up the chip tray with some soaked hickory chips. Pushed the hot smoke button and within 5 minutes I had some nice smoke going. I have noticed that the meat therm on the smoker is reading about 20 degrees higher than my Thermoworks therm and I have them very close together.
Screenshot_20171210-080847.png
 
Ok so I'm just about 3 hours in. The meat probe is starting to get closer to my Thermoworks probe, only off by 6 degrees now. The smoker temp is starting to be quite a bit different, it is reading 260 and the Thermoworks is about 220. I do have the probe directly in the center just above the meat and the smoker probe is in the top back left corner. First tray of chips is still going. Pretty nice to get 2+ hours out of a single fill.
 
I would not worry too much about the difference between probes. If you throw a 3rd, and a 4th probe into the mix you might get additional differences, maybe major, maybe minor. I use an instant read when my smoker tells me that the internal temp has been reached. I probe in two or three different locations and the readings are a few degrees off from each other. I just assume it is muscle and fat variances causing the differences.

Monitoring the smoker temp? Try to place your remote as close to the built in probe as you can. Enjoy!
 
Ok so now you are experiencing the problems I had and heading for disaster. Can I ask what the smoke tronix temp is set at for you to have 260 degrees?id assume 260? And if your other temp probe reading only 220 that's an issue. So if you had no aftermarket probe and you set smoker for 225 or so then your aftermarket probe would say 189-190 and that's way to low. If you had proved at top middle and bottom you would see huge differences in them even compaired to the smoke tronix probe. The top of smoker is at 260 the middle of smoker is at 220. This would make it hard to cook on more then 1 rack as temps are not even close from rack to rack. Also if like to add you first state meat probe is 20 degrees off from tronix but now after 3 hours it's closer. The difference of 5-10 degrees in your finished meat is the difference on how it will turn out 10 degrees over what your target temp is will be way over cooked 10 less will not be done. So which probe do you go off of ? Your guess is as good as mine
 
My point is the cook box is no were near even temp inside from top to bottom. I'm starting to think its the placement of the smoke tronix temp probe being that it is in the upper left corner almost at top of box. If you notice most other smokers have probe in center back of box. Like the MES does . After you and few more chime in I may try to modify mine by moving probe to center of box from top corner
 
Another thing that bother me about this smoker is if you put meat probe next to temp probe and heat up smoker there is 10-20 degrees difference in them alone. Don't you think smoke box temp and meat probe in no meat in the same location should read the same ? Hmmmm another thought could the meat probe be reading 20 degrees more then your thermo works because it's mounted in he back of box and touches the metal back of inside box which is just above heater element that is mounted to same metal panel and the heat is transferring up the metal panel itself causing temp probe to read heat off the back panel. Just a thought
 
Notice in your graph in last pic you sent the probes are not same meat probe stays below temp probe. Then meat probe goes way down I assume that's when you placed it into your meat.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky