Newbe question

[Apexeater]

Greetings,

I have a new Traeger lil texas smoker and I have been very happy with it so far. I have run across a problem that I am not sure is significant or not. I have the digital temp control and had it set to 450 to do some direct heat cooking and while it was at temp (or very close) I was getting a significant amount of smoke coming out of the pellet box. Everything else seemed to be working but I am concerned about the smoke. I did check it to make sure there wasn't a fire in the box or the system was backed up.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Scallywag]

Is your firepot clean? I used to get that from time to time as well.. a good clean fixed it.

 

[CMack1]

The same thing happened to me once with my one star. The firepot was full of ash. Now I dump it before each long cook. Been fine since.

 

[Apexeater]

Thanks for the replies. The smoker is new enough I didn't think i would need to clean it yet but I will check to see if that is the issue.

 

[contracted cooker]

if its new and you had not cooked at high temps may be burning off some of the new

 

[Scallywag]

You should clean the firepot after every 2 cooks or so.. just a good habit to get into.

 

[Kite]

I clean mine after every cook... I really don't miss 2 minutes out of my day and I never have a problem.

 

[Apexeater]

Ok that is good to know. I have had several longer cooking sessions and not cleaned it out yet. I will make sure to clean it before my next time.

Next question, will the degree of smoke change depending on the temp you cook at? When I first started cooking it gave great smoke flavor and I had a nice smoke ring with obvious smoke from the grill but lately there has been less smoke from the grill and less flavor. Does this still have to do with my inadequate cleaning?

 

[CMack1]

Cooking temp has everything to do with smoke output. Lower temps = more smoke. 300 and above you will likely have little noticeable smoke.