Temps running all over the place this morning,on the Austin XL

[delaware smoker]

I put on a butt this morning about 4am.Got the Austin warmed up,and put the meat on.I set the temp for 250,and it's going up and down.The temp goes to 270,starts coming down to 200 and climbs again,than comes back down.The air temp is about 35 degrees.This is my third smoke and had trouble with the temps.,both times.Also their isn't any room under the grates to put a drip pan,so all the fat just drips on the cover of the fire box.Not sure if I like this pellet smoker,or do i just need to get use to cooking on it?Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks.

 

[tom987]

What is your p number set at? I had this trouble till I set my mine to around 1. It was around 5

 

[delaware smoker]

What is your p number set at? I had this trouble till I set my mine to around 1. It was around 5

Tom.I don't have it on smoke,I turned the dial on 250

 

[Rmartinez2]

Are you seeing this on your display on the grill or do you have some meat thermometers in the chamber??

I have essentially the same grill and have found a few things, this may be long winded but hopefully some of it helps.

First, expect temp swings as the grill ads pellets it'll start to climb and on the off cycle it will start to drop.
At 250 a high of 270 is actually awesome and I would even expect that but the low should probably be around 220 at most. This again is on the digital display.
Here's the more pertinent thing, what's the actual temps? I recently used some thermometers and found that the far left side of the chamber seems to be much more accurate and close to what the display on the grill reads. This isn't as surprising as this is where the temp gauge for the grill is. Ive found the center and right run almost 70 degrees hotter than what the display says even though on the grill itself it looks to be stable.

Now if none of that matters and you just want the display to show more stable temps...

Start the grill on smoke with lid open as I'm sure you know. After the fire is going shut the lid and set it to 350. Let it get to 350 and once it does, let it sit at 350 for at least 20 mins. At this point turn it down (or up) to the actual temp you'll be using. This is going to be time consuming but I've found that doing this preheating process keeps my displayed temp very stable. At 250 I'll see a Max high of 275 and a Max low of 225 with the majority of the time sitting at 250. Again, this is time consuming and will use pellets but if you read the owners manual's it talks about the preheat.

On my last cook I tried something a bit different to try and combat the results I discovered with the meat thermometers. I'll share this as it may suit you more but I will say I've only done it once so idk how accurate my observations are.

I think part of the preheat process at a high temp is about cooking off any excess crap from ur previous cook and cleaning the grill. However when I'm done with my cooks I always turn it up to 350-400 and after some time there clean the grates and everything really well. I then go thru the shutdown.

Since I do that, on ysterdays cook I decided that instead of preheating at 350 I was going to start it as usual, but once started I closed the lid and went directly to my desired temp of 225. I got into prepping my ribs so I want to say it was at 225 "preheating" for damn near 40 mins. My observations were that the display on the grill still remained stable with a Max high of 240 and a Max low of 215. On my thermometer the center would read about 35 degrees above the grill display which is far better than the 70 I was seeing.

All of the above is with p4. Hopefully some of this will help. Feel free to pm me if needed or just ask more questions and we'll try and figure it out man. I think it's just a matter of figuring out your grills personality lol. Which to some is not fun but I don't mind it too much.

 

[mike243]

Depending on the pellets temps and humidity its normal and nothing to worry about food will turn out great,

 

[mike243]

I use a moving blanket on my cook chamber and just tuck it under and it helps alot to keep temps steady and drops fuel usage

 

[mike243]

$10-15 for a moving blanket and I dont use it if I am going to run temps over 300 to sear or quick cook something. When warm temps come back temps will stay a lot closer

 

[smokinq13]

I got a austin xl for Christmas and the couple smokes I've done on it, i got a welders blanket and small magnets to hold it on the smoking chamber... now i do have to ask if you do know that not having it on the smoke setting, you will not get any smoke flavor? That was my first mistake for the first smoke i did on it... ribs were good but no smoke flavor cuase i had it on 250 and not smoke

When it comes to cold temperatures and smoking, i would set it to P3 or P2... p
P4 would drop very very low which i didnt like, like 145... P2 or P3 kept it stable near 200 which i would keep it on that for a couple hours and then turn it to 250 to finish off. Now that was when it was very cold out, like 14 degrees with some wind, ( which i probably shouldn't have been smoking)

What i did was get a thermpro thermometer to watch both grill and meat temperature at the same time

 

[Rmartinez2]

I got a austin xl for Christmas and the couple smokes I've done on it, i got a welders blanket and small magnets to hold it on the smoking chamber... now i do have to ask if you do know that not having it on the smoke setting, you will not get any smoke flavor? That was my first mistake for the first smoke i did on it... ribs were good but no smoke flavor cuase i had it on 250 and not smoke

When it comes to cold temperatures and smoking, i would set it to P3 or P2... p
P4 would drop very very low which i didnt like, like 145... P2 or P3 kept it stable near 200 which i would keep it on that for a couple hours and then turn it to 250 to finish off. Now that was when it was very cold out, like 14 degrees with some wind, ( which i probably shouldn't have been smoking)

What i did was get a thermpro thermometer to watch both grill and meat temperature at the same time

Is this accurate? I'm convinced you definitely get smoke in all temps just the higher the temp the quicker it cooks so the less time it has to smoke. I've done ribs, turkey, steaks, burgers at 225 to 250 and all had smoke flavor. I did a turkey recently and it got smoked and not on smoke setting. I did some ribs yesterday at 225 and great smoke flavor.

 

[smokinq13]

What was the outside temp and type of pellets you're using? I believe the reason higher temperatures don't get the smoke flavor is because it's burning hotter which means cleaner... you think about it a pellet stove has little to no smoke while running.

I know for me and i saw other people have the same experience that you don't get as much or s smoke flavor without the smoke setting but it might be different for each other

 

[retfr8flyr]

What pellets are you using? Believe it or not the brand will make a big difference in the temp swings.

 

[delaware smoker]

Hey thanks guys for the replies.I called Pit Boss and the guy told me to set the P on 3.I tried it and it worked somewhat better.I'm using Pit Boss Comp.Pellets.After nine hrs of the butt cooking,I had to give it to the dogs.I tried Pit Boss Mango Rub,and it made the meat taste really bad.I tasted the meat and it made me gag.I'll stick to making my own rubs.
Thanks again,Bill

 

[tom987]

I’m not going to say I told you so but...

Try P1 and I think you’ll see your issue resolved

 

[delaware smoker]

I’m not going to say I told you so but...

Try P1 and I think you’ll see your issue resolved

Thanks Tom,I'll try 1 next time.

 

[smokinq13]

Hey thanks guys for the replies.I called Pit Boss and the guy told me to set the P on 3.I tried it and it worked somewhat better.I'm using Pit Boss Comp.Pellets.After nine hrs of the butt cooking,I had to give it to the dogs.I tried Pit Boss Mango Rub,and it made the meat taste really bad.I tasted the meat and it made me gag.I'll stick to making my own rubs.
Thanks again,Bill

The whole thing about smoking meat is you learn as you go! Don't get discouraged as without failure, there is no getting better.
To help with the temp swings.. go get yourself a welder's blanket and magnets to hold it onto the cook chamber

here's the one I use: https://www.harborfreight.com/6-ft-x-8-ft-fiberglass-welding-blanket-95015.html

magnets: https://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-craft-magnet-blocks-98406.html

the Austin has a 3ft cook chamber so this blanket can be folded over to add more layers... the magnets I have 3 sets and they hold the blanket even folded over some much easily. I got 4 magnets on the lid and two on the back of the chamber and even a windy day won't move it physically. I've even used this on very very cold days like 14 15 degrees and p2 p1 with the blanket its been steady

right now I got a brisket on and with the P-setting of 4 and blanket its hanging steadily from 175 to 200 which I'm fine with as I'm only using it for smoke flavor for a couple hours then turning it up.. I could have gone with P3 and it would go up to 185-190ish to 230 but some swing is fine


I've done some things with rubs that made me palm -> forehead afterwards for using it... Mango Rub sounds like it should be on fish or fish to me... and don't underestimate using simple rubs like SP, SPG or SPGO... meat should have good natural flavors

** if you want me to post a picture of how my blanket in on my smoker for reference let me know

 

[delaware smoker]

The whole thing about smoking meat is you learn as you go! Don't get discouraged as without failure, there is no getting better.
To help with the temp swings.. go get yourself a welder's blanket and magnets to hold it onto the cook chamber

here's the one I use: https://www.harborfreight.com/6-ft-x-8-ft-fiberglass-welding-blanket-95015.html

magnets: https://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-craft-magnet-blocks-98406.html

the Austin has a 3ft cook chamber so this blanket can be folded over to add more layers... the magnets I have 3 sets and they hold the blanket even folded over some much easily. I got 4 magnets on the lid and two on the back of the chamber and even a windy day won't move it physically. I've even used this on very very cold days like 14 15 degrees and p2 p1 with the blanket its been steady

right now I got a brisket on and with the P-setting of 4 and blanket its hanging steadily from 175 to 200 which I'm fine with as I'm only using it for smoke flavor for a couple hours then turning it up.. I could have gone with P3 and it would go up to 185-190ish to 230 but some swing is fine


I've done some things with rubs that made me palm -> forehead afterwards for using it... Mango Rub sounds like it should be on fish or fish to me... and don't underestimate using simple rubs like SP, SPG or SPGO... meat should have good natural flavors

** if you want me to post a picture of how my blanket in on my smoker for reference let me know

 

[delaware smoker]

Thanks for the info.Yeah please post a pic.
Bill

 

[smokinq13]

It's not the "prettiest" method but bbq isn't about pretty its about tasty!
I've seen people cut to fit over the stack and handle etc but i didn't for two reasons... 1. Less chance of fiberglass particles and fibers making its way into the chamber and food = very bad day ... 2. Less work, why work harder when its not needed?

 

[delaware smoker]

View attachment 390078

View attachment 390079
It's not the "prettiest" method but bbq isn't about pretty its about tasty!
I've seen people cut to fit over the stack and handle etc but i didn't for two reasons... 1. Less chance of fiberglass particles and fibers making its way into the chamber and food = very bad day ... 2. Less work, why work harder when its not needed?

Thanks for posting the pics.I was wondering about cutting holes,so the smoke can escape.But I see your point,and like you said.''Why work harder'' Lol.