This weekend I smoked two 20-pound briskets for my daughter's graduation party and the smoker, new in April, had some odd behaviors.
I started the smoker around 11:30 am and put the briskets on around noon at 200. Water in the pan plus two additional foil pans under the brisket with water and to catch grease. Around five in the afternoon the power flickered for a few seconds and the smoker seemed fine. About 30 minutes later I noticed the temp fluctuating way down and the fan went silent. Next thing I noticed was fairly heavy smoke coming from the hopper. Wanting to avoid ahopper fire I fed pellets with the auger until it went out. Then I vacuumed out all the ash and pellets from the burn pot and restarted everything. It ran fine and I let it run at 200 overnight. Bumped it to 225 in the morning, wrapped mid morning and bumped to 300. A few hours in it errored three or four times, fan came on and off in a 30 minutes period, then again the pellet hopper started smoking. I put it out again and gave up and finished the briskets in the oven. What is happening?
ALSO, a couple weeks ago I added gasket tape to the door because of the lack of seal, could that be causing oxygen starvation and these issues?
I started the smoker around 11:30 am and put the briskets on around noon at 200. Water in the pan plus two additional foil pans under the brisket with water and to catch grease. Around five in the afternoon the power flickered for a few seconds and the smoker seemed fine. About 30 minutes later I noticed the temp fluctuating way down and the fan went silent. Next thing I noticed was fairly heavy smoke coming from the hopper. Wanting to avoid ahopper fire I fed pellets with the auger until it went out. Then I vacuumed out all the ash and pellets from the burn pot and restarted everything. It ran fine and I let it run at 200 overnight. Bumped it to 225 in the morning, wrapped mid morning and bumped to 300. A few hours in it errored three or four times, fan came on and off in a 30 minutes period, then again the pellet hopper started smoking. I put it out again and gave up and finished the briskets in the oven. What is happening?
ALSO, a couple weeks ago I added gasket tape to the door because of the lack of seal, could that be causing oxygen starvation and these issues?
Last edited:
