Cold smoking tool, adapted to the hot smoking environment. The first time you want to smoke cheese, you'll see why we sing the praises of the AMNS and the
AMNPS.
A word about pellets. Not all pellets are created equal. During the prototype tests (mine started last winter) we discovered that most pellets are blended with either alder or oak. Note, I say most, there are exceptions. Unfortunately for me, most of mine that I had in stock were alder blended with whatever. Alder blend does not fair well in the
AMNPS. Oak is just fine. It gets tricky. I'd suggest not running out and buying a 20# bag of something until you know exactly what's the blend. Traeger doesn't say on the bags, at least in my neck of the woods. Bear Mountain is mostly alder blended with whatever. For some reason, Apple pellets are fickle too. Drove me crazy (not a long trip) until Todd shipped me some good Apple. Then the game was on. I know that Todd is stockpiling some GOOD pellets for us. While expensive, I've found BBQdelight to be good to go.
A trick I used with getting the pellets started. Same routine as Bear's except, since I've got a aquarium air pump laying around from a previous smoke generator atttempt, I use that to blow on the coals. I've got an inline valve to control the air flow and that really works great.
As you noticed, Bear's was with an MES. My tests were with a GOSM. I'm sure Todd shipped prototypes out to members with different types of smokers, just to get a good data base and information.
The
AMNPS is like any other tool: Once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you managed to get along without it.
~Dave