Question on what wood should look like post cook and vent settings

[hocash]

Hi. I'm using a Smoke Vault 24. It's a gas powered smoker. I used cherry chunks today to season this new smoker. All the vents were open to the max. I noticed that after a 90 minute smoke at between 225 and 250 degrees, the wood in the tray (I only used 3 chunks) had mixed results. One of them burned ok and turned to ash. Two of them just turned black on the bottom so I flipped them midway and the other half got black. But didn't really decrease in mass a lot.

What should the wood look like when I'm done? My impression from Meathead's rib instructions seem to indicate all that wood should be gone within like 40 minutes.

Thanks guys. I'm a total newbie when it comes to smoking. Glad to be hear.

[hocash]

I guess I'm asking if I need to close vents on the bottom (pretty sure top should be fully open) and whether I need to cut the chunks down to smaller pieces. They did seem to be properly sized chunks.

[Huskee]

Honestly I wouldn't worry zilch about that. You may have had one piece drier than the others, or one piece got more heat from the flame somehow. Wood shouldn't look like anything specific or not like anything specific. It will burn how it will burn

[boftx]

I have never used that rig, but my gut is telling me it has to do with the position of the chunks relative to the vents. I would repeat the process to see if the results are repeatable then move them around a bit if they are.