Pellet tube: gimmick? useful?

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ttkt57

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This Christmas present was all but forgotten till I saw it in a stack of "stuff to organize" lurking in the corner of the garage. The sun it out today, so I thought I'd light it up and see what's up with it. I probably should have tried it on my pork butt cook yesterday but forgot I had it.

Opinions? Gimmick? Useful? Nasty white smoke? Flavorful blue smoke? Band-aid? Cat's pajamas? What's your take?

 
BillN said:
I have the A-MAZE-N pellet smoke which works great IMO. I love it for doing apple wood smoked cheese. Definitely a great tool to have as part of your smoking arsenal.

https://www.amazon.com/MAZE-N-Pelle...eywords=a-maze-n-smoker&qid=1614630964&sr=8-5
Click to expand...


Ok i got questions on this.

Does it really smoke for 5 hours on a single fill?
How much heat does it put out? i need something like this for when i do bacon and fish on the gasser at low temp, the smoker box for my grill is kind of useless
Have you used wood chips instead of pellets and how has that worked out?

Thanks in advance
 
What Bill said plus additional or another layer of smoke for bigger cuts of meat
 
Pulmah Finger said:
Ok i got questions on this.

Does it really smoke for 5 hours on a single fill?
How much heat does it put out? i need something like this for when i do bacon and fish on the gasser at low temp, the smoker box for my grill is kind of useless
Have you used wood chips instead of pellets and how has that worked out?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Yup in my maze style I have had it burn in excess of 4 hours with both ends lit where it meets in the middle and well over 7 hours with one end lit.
 
Yes with a full tube it'll go 6 hours easy, very little heat as you blow out the flame and let it smolder like charcoal.
Good for cold smoking, it does put out a fair amount of smoke, use plenty of ventilation.
 
Pulmah Finger said:
Ok i got questions on this.

Does it really smoke for 5 hours on a single fill?
How much heat does it put out? i need something like this for when i do bacon and fish on the gasser at low temp, the smoker box for my grill is kind of useless
Have you used wood chips instead of pellets and how has that worked out?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

My 12” pellet tube does put out good smoke for 5 hours but you do need to watch where you put it.

I usually put mine on the left end of the grill grate where there is no direct draft and it does smolder for the entire 5 hours.

A few weeks ago I moved it to the back of the grill grate to make room for more food. It wound up being in a direct draft from the fan driven air coming up between the back wall and the grease tray. When I opened the lid about an hour and a half to two hours into the cook I found that the pellet tube was on fire and all but the last inch or so of pellets were already burned.
 
Nice gadget to have. I've only used mine for smoking cheese. It's a 12" A-MAZE-N tube and like others have said it will probably burn for 5-6hrs easy. I've never used it past 4hrs but still had pellets left. Also, you wont get thin blue smoke because it doesn't get hot enough. The pellets smolder but I don't think that's a bad thing, the cheese is always good and not bitter or harsh tasting.
 
ttkt57 said:
This Christmas present was all but forgotten till I saw it in a stack of "stuff to organize" lurking in the corner of the garage. The sun it out today, so I thought I'd light it up and see what's up with it. I probably should have tried it on my pork butt cook yesterday but forgot I had it.

Opinions? Gimmick? Useful? Nasty white smoke? Flavorful blue smoke? Band-aid? Cat's pajamas? What's your take?
Click to expand...

jkKeUem.jpg


I have a 12" & 6" tube smoke generators. I use them for cold smoking bacon, hams, Buckboarded pork items, and sausage or bologna that has Cure #1 added. It's possible to use them for smoking cheese, you just need to have a smoker with a lot of volume and very good drafting (I use a sawdust smoke generator for cheese and butter, as it's almost impossible to over-smoke it). Sometimes the ability to block open a door or lid will help. Tubes do produce a small amount of heat, and my 12" tube gives me about 6 hours of burn time when I have the front elevated slightly.

LCM5RvF.jpg


A lot of people with electric cabinet smokers like some of the Masterbuilt models use tubes for some extra smoke. I've tried mine in my BGE and drum during a normal cooking session, but both use such a small amount of draft that I can't keep the tube lit. I recall Todd from A-Maze-N mentioning elevation and pellets. But like I said, my tubes work great in my drum for cold smoking.

The best quality of smoke comes from pellets that do not have fillers. A-Maze-N sells 100% flavor wood pellets and so do a few other companies.
 
I've also used it for cheese. Put the tube at one end of the gas grill and a block of pepper jack or cheddar at the other end. It doesn't seem to make much heat but I still do it during cool weather so the cheese doesn't get greasy.
 
Pulmah Finger said:
Ok i got questions on this.

Does it really smoke for 5 hours on a single fill?
How much heat does it put out? i need something like this for when i do bacon and fish on the gasser at low temp, the smoker box for my grill is kind of useless
Have you used wood chips instead of pellets and how has that worked out?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I was on the A Maze N page the other day and heat output came up. They said that pellets designed for pellet smokers put out more heat than the ones designed for the Maze. I can't verify that as I have only used Treager pellets in mine.
 
I have the tray version, not the tube. Sawdust (I used shavings from a wood lathe) burns up about twice as fast as the pellets. Still plenty of time 3-4 hours, to cold smoke cheese. I put it on a couple of bricks in my (cheap) offset firebox, vents all wide open. Go for maximum airflow.

I don't know that wood 'chips' would give a reliable burn, you will just have to test that.
 
Hi All I have the 12" version. I'm NOT too crazy about it.
1. MPIA to get going.
2. Still need more smoke flavor.In my RT 590.
Have you found the smoke flavor increase with it?
Best way too light it?


Thanks DanB.


PS Would wood chips work better for me?
 

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It puts out a lot of smoke, so yea, more smoke flavor, but you need enough ventilation to keep the smoke "fresh",
Easiest way to light is with a propane torch, pellets need to be dry, you may have to microwave the pellets for a couple minutes to dry them up if not stored in a sealed bag. let the pellets burn for a minute before blowing out the flame, and your good to go.
 
I use mine to smoke cheese and smoke pickles. It always lasts more than 4 hours and depending on the pellets i use sometimes can be a pain in rump to light. I put mine on hopper side of Jim Bowie and let the smoke drift over the cheese and or pickles which i put on chimney side.
 
bschoen said:
I have the tray version, not the tube. Sawdust (I used shavings from a wood lathe) burns up about twice as fast as the pellets. Still plenty of time 3-4 hours, to cold smoke cheese. I put it on a couple of bricks in my (cheap) offset firebox, vents all wide open. Go for maximum airflow.

I don't know that wood 'chips' would give a reliable burn, you will just have to test that.
Click to expand...

I've used wood chips when doing bacon and it burned very fast, maybe 2 hours. I just used pellets in it the first time this week for bacon and got over 4 hours.

In my LSG 42" offset the temp got up to 100 once when I left the tube in the cook chamber. I moved it to the firebox and the temp stayed below 50. It was 32 degrees outside. That was for cold smoking bacon.
 
okiej said:
I was on the A Maze N page the other day and heat output came up. They said that pellets designed for pellet smokers put out more heat than the ones designed for the Maze. I can't verify that as I have only used Treager pellets in mine.
Click to expand...

I don't know if that is a universal statement applying to all pellets designed for smokers or not. I tried some Lumber Jack pellets and they made more heat than the A-Maze-N pellets.
 
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