White Smoke - How to Minimize

[kc5tpy]

Hello Ribwizzard.  Glad you joined in.  We gotta help get this new member get where he wants to be.  He says he has been fighting this white smoke problem for years.  I accidently stumbled across the fact he built his fire on the floor.  I spent a while thinking over his problem and then I noticed the black soot around the fire box door so got me thinking.  Everything else he is doing sounds right on and that brick smoker looked pretty good so I was ABSOLUTELY stumped as to why he didn't get more efficiency from that brick and why so much white smoke?

Hello PianoV.  I am even more convinced now that Ribwizzard added his advice.  Seal around that fire box door and raise that fire 3" maybe 4" above the floor and you will be amazed the difference you will see.  You could build a grate from 1/2" rebar.  Cheap enough.  Just my opinion.  Hope it helps.  Let us know how things turn out. Keep Smokin!

Danny

 

[pianov]

I just got finished sealing all (?) my firebox leaks - lots of sealing around the door. The black brick above the firebox door is because I need to leave the door open the first half hour or so to get the fire going - lots of smoke comes out at the start. Most of the black is from doing that.

I bought a grate that fits in there real nice. I also built a 2" diameter steel tube that goes in through the firebox vent opening, down to the bottom of the firebox and then ends under the middle of the grate. That should direct incoming air directly under the fire. I also cut a long slit - well, really half the pipe for about the last six inches so that the air from the vent should be directed all around under the fire. I just lit the fire about 20 minutes ago. Seem to be acting a bit different - but I guess it should! I still need to leave the door open to get the fire going.

Going to run out to the store and buy a nice big fat boston butt. I'll put in on late tonight and then see what I have tomorrow!

 

[pianov]

Pics of mods & video of smoking:   http://s275.photobucket.com/upload?location=Ham Turkey

Several pictures of my new grate and air vent pipe for my firebox. I can see right off that I need to refine both these a bit.

The grate needs more steel pieces across it to hold the hot coals better - the openings are huge and anthing less than 4" x 4" or so falls through - I think the fire would burn better if the hot coals stayed up there better.

The air vent pipe was a good first try, but I put the darn thing all the way down on the floor of the firebox - as soon as hot coals and ash fall through the grate to the floor, it just blocks the air flow. I'm going to make another pipe but this time it will be thicker steel and it will hug the bottom of the grate. The grate elevates the fire four inches - so I can move the intake vent pipe up two inches off the floor - that will keep the air flow clear from the firebox vent.

As it is now, I think you can see that I'm still producing a good fair bit of smoke and the fire is smoldering and not burning. When other smokers are all closed down to maintain a 220 smoking chamber, is your fire actually burning with some small flames?

Thanks again for all the help a bunch of people have given me with this tune-up on my smoker!

 

[pianov]

Oops - bad link. Here is good one:  http://s275.photobucket.com/user/PianoV/library/Ham Turkey?sort=6&page=1

First seven items are new - three videos and four pictures.

 

[pianov]

Well, my pork shoulder was fabulous. Really, really good. I'm not sure that any of the mods I did to my smoker yesterday were are the reason though. The fire still smoldered and there was quite a bit of smoke. However, I also cooked it a bit differently. Previously I would always pull a butt off the smoker when it hit 170 degrees and eat it. It was commonly quite good, but was never falling apart. This time I followed the Basic Pulled Pork Smoke posted by Meowey which suggests wrapping the butt in foil when it gets to 165 and then upping the smoke chamber temp to 250 and bringing the meat up to 200 and then keeping it warm in a cooler for an hour after removing it from the smoker. I did that and the entire butt just fell apart. And I think the foil helps sooth the otherwise tough overly-smokey bark on the butt.

I think that when I put some more steel into my grate so that the big coals don't fall though and I raise my intake vent pipe to the firebox off the firebox floor so that it doesn't plug up with ash, I will be able to burn a smaller but hotter fire and smoke with less smoke when I want to. That combined with my new and improved recipe (thanks Meowey), I will be producing really fabulous butts and all sorts of other great smoked treats!

Thanks to all that have shared their experience and offered their suggestions.

Terry Farrell

Tampa Bay, Florida