Cooking in “Smoke” setting?

[BigO58]

I have a PB Pro 820 and so far it works great. But, on 2 separate cooks the following happened: I was smoking a pork butt or brisket and started out using the smoke setting. I don’t have Bluetooth to monitor temps, and I checked the progress after an hour or so and the temp was showing under 180 or so and no smoke. I took meat off grates, took out grates, etc. and found that the fire had gone out and burn pot was overflowing with pellets. Apparently there’s no auto shut off if temp gets too low. I was able to get the fire burning again and finished the cooks but kept the thermostat at 225 and above for the rest of the time. So - is the smoke setting only meant to be used briefly at the start of a cook, or do I need to adjust the “p” setting when using the smoke setting? Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[MikeInFla]

Mine does that from time to time (an older PB340 model). P setting best left on 4. Any higher and it will flame out. If I set mine on smoke I have to babysit it. Inconvenient I know but I mainly use that one as a grill. My other PB I can put on Smoke and it never flames out. Could be humidity and other factors but it's a royal pain when it flames out and you have an overflowing firebox. Maybe give Pit Boss customer service a call.

 

[Dan-H]

I had that happen once.

P setting on an 820 is time based.

What p setting?

 

[BigO58]

I had that happen once.

P setting on an 820 is time based.

What p setting?

I had that happen once.

P setting on an 820 is time based.

What p setting?

I have the “p” set on 4. I had played around with the setting and settled on that since that kept my temps most consistent with the dial setting. Thanks!

 

[BigO58]

Mine does that from time to time (an older PB340 model). P setting best left on 4. Any higher and it will flame out. If I set mine on smoke I have to babysit it. Inconvenient I know but I mainly use that one as a grill. My other PB I can put on Smoke and it never flames out. Could be humidity and other factors but it's a royal pain when it flames out and you have an overflowing firebox. Maybe give Pit Boss customer service a call.

Thanks for the reply. I have mine set on 4 as well.

 

[Flyguy767]

I have a PB Pro 820 and so far it works great. But, on 2 separate cooks the following happened: I was smoking a pork butt or brisket and started out using the smoke setting. I don’t have Bluetooth to monitor temps, and I checked the progress after an hour or so and the temp was showing under 180 or so and no smoke. I took meat off grates, took out grates, etc. and found that the fire had gone out and burn pot was overflowing with pellets. Apparently there’s no auto shut off if temp gets too low. I was able to get the fire burning again and finished the cooks but kept the thermostat at 225 and above for the rest of the time. So - is the smoke setting only meant to be used briefly at the start of a cook, or do I need to adjust the “p” setting when using the smoke setting? Thoughts or suggestions?

I discovered it starts up quick on “smoke” if you take a small hand full of pellets and put them in the fire pot manually. It will start quick. Also if you turn to the “smoke” setting and the auger is empty and takes to long to reach the firepot it will shut the igniter off.