Limited smoke flavor on Pellet Pooper

[Texan79423]

My nephew bought a pellet and really likes it. I have been his BBQ go to guy in the past. Lately he is complaining of not getting the smoke flavor on the pellet pooper he has before. I am a stick burner and have no idea what to suggest.
Any suggestions??

 

[GrantAshton]

He can get a smoking tube or similar. Or move to a cooker with less air flow.

 

[sudsandswine]

So you’re saying he was previously using the pellet grill and was satisfied with the smoke level, and then something changed and when using that grill now, he feels as though the smoke flavor is less pronounced?

 

[gtsum]

Try lumberjack 100% hickory pellets. If not enough, add a smoke tube like an amazing tube. If that doesn’t do it, move to another type cooker as pellet cookers tend to have a lighter smoke flavor


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[AWilliams]

Pellet cookers will have the lightest smoke profile. Maybe shoulda bought a stick burner?

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

He will never get the same flavor from a pellet grill as from a stick burner. Even adding a tube (which will increase smoke flavor) will not give the same awesome flavor that comes from burning wood.

 

[zippy12]

He will never get the same flavor from a pellet grill as from a stick burner. Even adding a tube (which will increase smoke flavor) will not give the same awesome flavor that comes from burning wood.

I agree after using my stick burner and thin blue smoke ... I threw my pellet tube and pellets away!

what a silly idea!

 

[Lahawk1]

Exactly the reason I sold my pellet grill. Tried all the suggestion on how to increase the smoke flavor with little results so it had to go.

 

[Dweverett]

I think I've had the same issue and I can't decide if it's changes in my preferences over time or if there really has been a change in the smoke that's being produced. If anything, the Lumberjack's I'm using now should be producing more smoke than what I used a few years back. Even at low temperatures the smoke is basically invisible.

I need to clean it better, particularly really cleaning out the smokestack. It's nowhere near blocked but there is enough crud that it could be creating eddies etc. That said, I would have guessed that disrupting the draft would increase the smoke not decrease it, but who knows.

Food is still good, just not what I remember.

 

[SmokeRingsMatter]

OK since nobody bothered to ask, What pellet smoker did your nephew buy? Some pellet smokers run hotter then others. For example, My treager timberline can run as low as 165F and produce insane amounts of clean smoke in super smoke mode. My Rec Tec runs around 180F with extreme smoke mode. Both produce clean smoke flavor at those temps. But once you start running hotter, the smoke flavor gets less pronounced. I hate to be that guy (no i don't, i love being that guy) but some of these smoke flavor problems are user error, not understanding how these pellet smokers produce more or less smoke.

 

[Shadowdog500]

This is a common complaint about pellet grills. Here is the solution that worked for me.
It’s a Heavy D stick burning diffuser. https://smokedaddyinc.com/product/the-heavy-d-stick-burning-heat-diffuser/

Here is how it works. https://youtu.be/ex4GD_l-5Fc

 

[sudsandswine]

We still don’t know if the problem was that the grill is now lacking smoke flavor when the same grill was fine before, because that’s different than the whole “pellet grills have a lighter smoke profile” thing. Based on the OP, it’s phrased more like the former.

 

[smoke ninja]

things that may help.

use 100% hickory pellets. some pellets have a base wood and a flavor wood. hickory seems to be one of the stronger pellets. look for 100%

start on smoke setting for the first hr

keep cook temps under 250, higher temps dont smoke as much on pellet cookers

just enjoy the light clean taste of pellets. smoke in bbq is an accent not the overpowering predominant flavor