Am I not burning the wood correctly or sold crappy wood?

[Fwismoker]

"I usually smoke with apple wood or cherry wood chunks"
Was this your first time using splits?
If you normally cook with charcoal and chunks the elbow may work just fine, go to burning firewood and its a whole new game.

This is where my vote lies. The more I think about it he's been more than likely only burning charcoal and chunks with this setup and it's worked just fine. Jumping into stick burning though that setup just can't get the airflow for sticks.

OP if you want to burn sticks then go like cooker was stock but if you want to just do charcoal and chunks then it's fine and dandy just like you have it. Definitely nothing wrong with your wood though so don't blame the wood guy. Like I said earlier green wood is All GOOD if you have the proper airflow.

 

[killerasp]

How much time did you let it burn before you put the meat on? Is the wood well seasoned?

About 30 mins. The wood is kiln dried as per NY state law.

I was using splits with a diameter less than a soda can.

 

[killerasp]

For reference, here are the sizes of the splits that I have been using. Just under 16" long.

 

[killerasp]

Take that elbow out and toss it in the trash your restricting the exhaust which messes up the draft. YOU DON"T NEED IT! Offsets need to move large amounts of air to burn efficiently. Restricting the exhaust causes a back up of stale smoke in the main and will back up to the fire box robbing the fire of oxygen needed to burn clean. Charcoal & chunks are not that efficient in an offset your better off burning splits.

Thanks for the tip! Will remove the elbow and try again.

 

[killerasp]

Was it the chicken drippings sizzling off/burning? How long have you cooking on that offset? Was everything the same but the wood? Has chicken always turned out good before.?

This was my 8th cook on this on the OJ Longhorn but first time using splits of wood only instead of cooking 100% with charcoal and chunks. Decided to try to switch over to splits to try to get higher cooking temp. I was going through 1-2 bags of kingsford briquettes to maintain 325F for a 7+ hour cooks.

 

[Fillmore Farmer]

Take that elbow out and toss it in the trash your restricting the exhaust which messes up the draft. YOU DON"T NEED IT! Offsets need to move large amounts of air to burn efficiently. Restricting the exhaust causes a back up of stale smoke in the main and will back up to the fire box robbing the fire of oxygen needed to burn clean. Charcoal & chunks are not that efficient in an offset your better off burning splits.

You almost need a cigarette after reading that....

From what I've read and based on my limited experience, quality smoke comes from good wood, hot fire, good air flow and hitting 'secondary combustion'. Seems like several or all of these were missing?

With regard to wood, some of those species you mentioned didn't sound like conventional wood used for Q'ing. birch, beech & ash...I dunno, I stick to the classic Hickory, mesquite, oak, cherry, apple, etc. I have a feeling some of that ash or beech went-off in the wrong way!

Dunno about that elbow but I can't see why it'd be beneficial unless you're trying to hold the smoke in...which is contrary to airflow.

Last thought (and my big thing lately)...it's better to have a smaller fire burning HOT then a big fire that you need to choke-down with air flow in order to stop it from getting things too hot. When you start choking-down the intake to a big fire you can bet there's no flames on that wood and you'll end-up with more creosote as the wood isn't coming near secondary combustion. My understanding of secondary combustion comes from reading Franklin's book....can't say I'm an experienced/expert myself. But yeah, a smaller fire burning hotter may help with airflow as well.

Start with the elbow but keep it to one or two tried & true woods and make sure that fire is running hot....I'm sure you'll dial it in.

 

[pbj]

Your smoker has a 90 degree bend in the smoke stack right next to the one you put in. They are too close together creating an (for lack of a better term) air lock, I agree, get rid of the elbow.

 

[krex1010]

The species of wood you have are perfectly fine btw...in fact I like a blend of hardwoods. I use beech all the time, it's one of my favorites, similar to oak but a bit milder. Ash is a mild, nuetral smoke. Birch and alder are in the same family, alder is very popular in the northwest. The rest of what you mentioned are all standards.

 

[krex1010]

The other thing that came to mind is that your wood is lion dried...a little known fact is that wood can be too dry, which can lead to incomplete combustion and very dense, dirty smoke, which combined with your smokers air restriction could lead to dirty, sooty food.....basically the short story of wood being too dry is that it off gases so quickly that a lot of the particulates that would burn fully are sent up with the smoke, which in your case would have dirty smoke circulating around cool pieces of chicken, which is a perfect deposit place.

 

[landarc]

If you ever want to go back to charcoal, skip briquettes and use lump. It burns hotter and will let you run the cook hotter. You need to mix at least 25% wood chunks with lump. However, offsets are not that efficient with charcoal.

That elbow modification, as with the dryer vent, is an attempt to keep the smoke flowing at grade level. It doesn't really work, as it actually traps hot air in the top of the pit. Tuning plates are the only really effective solution.

 

[Doug Crann]

Toss the elbow. When I first started cooking on my RF my wood, all Cherry, was very green. Hit two pieces together and you got a very dull thud. Put them in the fire and you could stand there watching the moisture bubble out the ends. Never had sooty food...

 

[Bludawg]

The other thing that came to mind is that your wood is lion dried...a little known fact is that wood can be too dry, which can lead to incomplete combustion and very dense, dirty smoke, which combined with your smokers air restriction could lead to dirty, sooty food.....basically the short story of wood being too dry is that it off gases so quickly that a lot of the particulates that would burn fully are sent up with the smoke, which in your case would have dirty smoke circulating around cool pieces of chicken, which is a perfect deposit place.

Not True! I cook on Oak that has been dried in the TX Summer heat for so long ( 4-5 yrs)it almost Splits it's self as it's checked all the way through the rounds. Burns so clean the climate change loonies gave me an award to low emisions. :boxing:

 

[landarc]

Not True! I cook on Oak that has been dried in the TX Summer heat for so long ( 4-5 yrs)it almost Splits it's self as it's checked all the way through the rounds. Burns so clean the climate change loonies gave me an award to low emisions. :boxing:

Those guys were fired. New loonies have been brought in from California to review your case.

 

[killerasp]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. So it seems I should try the following:

- get rid of the elbow
- build a bigger fire (after reading more into what a 'hot fire' is, I fully understand what I have to do)
- pre-warm my wood (lol)
- keep the firebox door open to maximize oxygen flow into the fire
-

 

[Simp]

If you're not using a deflection plate. Your restricting air flow with the elbow in the smoke stack. I use the okj highland the smaller version of your grill. Before I put in my deflector plate. Had a similar problem. I was getting bitter food but the reason was bad smoke. The elbow caused air restrictions. The heat was rising straight to the top not allowing the vacuum effect. With the plate it keeps the heat grate level

 

[krex1010]

Not True! I cook on Oak that has been dried in the TX Summer heat for so long ( 4-5 yrs)it almost Splits it's self as it's checked all the way through the rounds. Burns so clean the climate change loonies gave me an award to low emisions. :boxing:

I'm talking about wood that is well below 10% moisture content, which is really doesn't happen unless it's kiln dried. I heat with wood and check moisture content and I've never seen anything lower than 16% moisture and that was some 5 year old locust that spent a few years in my garage. Granted Texas is hotter and drier than where I live but still I would bet your not getting your oak down to 5 or 6% moisture. The most efficient combustion happens when wood is between 15-20% moisture content.

 

[DownHomeQue]

I've Burned a lot of green wood in my offsets never had this result.. if your using exclusively green wood then preheat it and add charcoal when you add a green split.. Run your exhaust wide open and intake wide open.. I run mine this way and control the heat by the splits

 

[1MoreFord]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. So it seems I should try the following:

- get rid of the elbow
- build a bigger fire (after reading more into what a 'hot fire' is, I fully understand what I have to do)
- pre-warm my wood (lol)
- keep the firebox door open to maximize oxygen flow into the fire
-

Yes, get rid of the elbow and keep the exhaust stack fully open.
You don't need a bigger fire. You need a nice hot clean burning fire.
You don't have to keep the firebox door open. Some do and control the size of their fire. Others, like me, control the air with the air intake and the door closed.

 

[killerasp]

Okay. I ended up doing another wood burning test this weekend. Here is what I did differently and the results.

Before anything, I got rid of the elbow as many people agreed it was screwing up with my airflow. And you were right. Removing it helped alot but nothing everything was solved.

I built a good, healthy fire (nice pile of hot coal) at the beginning and kept adding wood to keep it alive about 45 mins before I decided to put a halved potato on the grill as a test. The main concern for me was if I was going to get any dark soot on the potato. And this time around, I did:

So the soot was NOT as bad as last time when I had the elbow on the exhaust so it was a good sign that I was onto something.

So I opened up the smoker so clear out dirty smoke and added some more wood to the fire. This time, I only added warmed up wood. To be honest, I warmed the wood inside the smoker right next to the firebox opening where it was the hottest. I think most people warm their wood on top of the firebox but I felt it wasnt hot enough to warm it up properly. And from there on out, the only wood I added to the fire was only warmed wood. And to test it, here is another potato:

No dark soot on the potato this time! Hooray!

So it looks like removing the elbow, warming up the wood and having a nice hot fire was keys to removing the dark soot smoke. I will have to chop up the 16" splints into more manageable wood chunks for my smoker. I still haven't cooked anything with this wood so I might try that next weekend.

 

[Bludawg]

split the splits into 1/3rds:thumb: I heat mine in the FB too