Smokin hot in AZ

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dry heat

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2017
1
10
Greetings from the sunny southwest USA.  I live on the west coast of Arizona.  I deal with hot summer temps and mild winters.  300+ days of sunshine every year makes it easy to cook outside most of the year.

After years of grilling, I have started some smoking on a 5 burner gas grill using a smoker box and indirect heat.  Some attempts have been excellent and other have just been OK.  Because of the inconsistent results trying options on the grill, I tried a borrowed offset smoker.  Not sure I am sold on that route.  I am looking into an upright box smoker. This maybe something like a Masterbuilt

One of the problems I have had so far is inconsistent temperature in the smoker requiring constant tending.  What I see is how much the weather can change the smoking temps.  In the morning while it is cooler, I can set a good temp and all is well.  In the afternoon, the wind can pick up and play games with the temps.  With the summer heat coming, I am almost thinking putting meat in a black box in the sun will overcook the meat.  I am concerned about overheating in the summer heat.  I am not sure how common a problem this is.  Will I need an insulated box to keep temps where they belong?

So far I have tried things like pork and beef ribs, brisket, tri-tip, and some variety of veggies.  Looking forward to trying other options.
 
Welcome to the forum!  Lots of different smokers and lots of different methods to smoke.  Electrics are set it and forget it, pellet smokers are pretty stable too.  Offsets need attention, but that can be fun too.  Lots of info and friendly folks available her.  Glad you joined us.

Mike
 
Welcome! I have a masterbuilt myself and certainly love the set it and forget it nature...I don't deal with the AZ heat up here in Buffalo but I would imagine if the heat down there held the box at let's say 150 then you'd be ok on the temp because the controller will still turn off the heating element when it reached your set temp of say 225.  Hopefully others can chime in with thoughts and ideas!
 
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