I cooked a couple high-temp meats – chicken and tri-tip – and on cook 3, I tried to go low and slow on a pork shoulder. About 3.5 hours into the cook, the temp sharply dropped for no reason, to 140-150, and I couldn't get it to go back up. I tried switching to smoke boost and back to regular as reddit suggested, nothing. So I bumped it up to 450, and then … this.
by jowens510
8 Comments
Searwood searing meat. What more you want bud?
Check the firebox to see if it’s clogged with pellets.
I had a similar issue I had to work through. The best guess I have is the temperature dropped because there was a clog in the pellets and the fire went out. Once the clog was over, the fire box got overloaded with pellets, and when I cycled back through to start over there was way too many pellets in the fire box.
I cleaned out everything including the auger, and I started sieving my pellets so there was less dust in the hopper.
It only happened one other time, and when it started to flame I turned the heat way down so it would smolder out.
A smoker doesn’t burn off dripping well, so when you crank the temp you get a grease fire.
When smoking meat, you should use the upper rack and put a drip pan underneath. As someone else mentioned, when you raise the temp, those drippings are likely going to catch fire and you’ll have yourself a small bonfire. Hopefully everything works out for you.
Always vacuum after a couple of cooks. Always cover the grille to cut back on moisture exposure to pellets in the auger and/or remove pellets between cooks.
In my case I keep a tiny shop vac under the smoker and vacuum before cooking. I also put the cover on.
https://preview.redd.it/717lyckx3t2f1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=76e7619ed56064402c5f317cbbe2d4bd82c820e8
Definitely not the temp graph you want to see
Junk…Recteq for the win.