Smoked Turkey failure to launch!

[jsotelo]

So I'm pretty upset and need to vent.

I wanted to smoke my first turkey so we invited the entire family over for dinner tonight. I picked a free range turkey, brined it, got everything I needed to use the GOSM, new tank of propane, turkey beer can stand, wood.. everything. The house is clean, we borrowed a giant table, got our niece to come over to help up with our 3 year old son and his 7 month old sister. As you can imagine the logistics of what I described with a 3 year old and a 7 month complicates things. needless to say it's been days of late nights preparing.

So this morning I'm up at 6, it's all ready to go, I pull my 1 1/2 year old GOSM out of the storage shed and it won't light. The propane isn't making it to the burner. So I mess around with it and get it to light but it's a tiny flame and it won't go past 150 degrees after 30 minutes on high. I take the smoker apart and try to clear out any possible blockages, put it back together and now there's NO propane making it to the burner. I've tried 2 different tanks.. nothing. it's not an hour and a half past when I planned on having the turkey in the smoker. Crap.. 

My wife had some foresight and when she saw I was having problems with the smoker she preheated the oven so in the oven it goes.. oh wait did I mention I didn't have a roasting pan.. so to the store I go and then back home and now in the oven it goes.

I've only had this smoker for a year and a half.. I've only used it maybe 10 times. I keep it in the shed when it's raining.. I've babied this this. I'm pretty upset...

Okay rant off.

 

[boykjo]

Sorry to hear about your malfunction. I would look for a dirt dobber nest in your smoker burmer somewhere or a faulty regulator...
 

 

[hambone1950]

That sucks , man. I know my son has a problems with spiders getting into the gas Venturi tubes in his grill. But it could also be the regulator on the supply hose. That happened to me once with my gas grill.
Sorry for your trouble , brother. Hope your dinner goes ok otherwise. At least you got the fam around you. Merry Christmas .Thumbs Up

 

[jsotelo]

Thanks guys I'm glad we'll be spending time with the family, only now I wish it was just at someone else's house! 

 

[old bones]

Remove the line from the smoker and see if the LP comes out the thank.   Sometimes you can blow the dirt out of the regulator by cracking the valve open and closed a few times.      Guess we all should be thankful that we have the food and a roof over our heads.   Could be worse...  Sorry that things turned out that way.

 

[capntrip]

Bummer!!! Glad I bought an electric!

 

[jsotelo]

So the turkey turned out great even if it wasn't smoked and my Mother in law said I'm in charge of the turkey from now on because it's the best she's ever had so that was pretty awesome.

Here's the kicker.

My brother in laws asked what was wrong with the smoker and we started talking about different things it might be. So around 4 we go out there, and the SOB fires right up.

I don't know WTF was going on this morning but it's fine now...

 

[pellet]

I feel your pain, had that happen to me last winter. Ended up taking the regulator off and into the house. Thawed it out and hooked it back up and I was in buisness. However,looking at your location, it couldnt be that the regulator was froze up with frost! It does sound like a regulator problem though. 

 

[woodcutter]

The latest propane tank valves have protection on them so they can not free flow blast propane out of them. When you hook up the tank you need to slowly open the valve on the tank. I have this problem with my gas grill and it will lock up if I run out of propane while cooking and change the tank with out shutting off the burners first. Sometimes it will lock up while refilling the lines if I open the valve too fast  with the burners off.

 

[frosty]

Glad to hear that it worked out for you.  I had a similar situation several years ago, and now I tend to keep a spare regulator close at hand.

Funny how after the cussing stopped the thing worked fine.  Must have gotten it's feelings hurt.