Masterbuilt 340G XL making smoke

[Mike99]

The daily question
I just bought a 340G XL (review to come later). So, I have been doing temp tests to see how well the thermostatic system works. The good news is it seems to work well.
Now it is time to make some test smoke runs. For this evaluation I had apple chips and chunks. So, being that most of my smoking will be at 225° I started there. I placed 2 wood chunks in the wood tray. Brought the smoker up to 225° and I ran it for about 2 hrs. and got no smoke and looking at the chunks I barely scorched one of the two pieces.

So, after letting the smoker cool down to ambient temp. I performed the same test with the same conditions, but I used about a 3/4 of a cup of apple chips. The end result was that a few of the wood chips had burned but just a few (after 2 hrs.).


So, next I performed the same test with chunks but I placed the chunks in the smoker and took the smoker up to 350° once I thought I saw a decent amount of smoke I dropped the temp to 225°. The smoker continued to product smoke on its way from 350° to 225° at some point the smoker ceased to produce smoke while on the way to or at 225° (there was plenty of wood left to produce smoke).

The wood pan sits about ¾” above the burner guard and that is the lowest it will go without modification.

Any Thoughts?
Many Thanks

[Bkhuna]

I use a smoke tube. The chip pan is rather useless.

[Dewesq55]

I rarely cook at 225°F anymore, but, that said, I have not had any issues with my Thermotemp producing good smoke throughout a cook. I mainly use chunks. I have occasionally used some chips to kickstart it, but recently have not done so and haven't needed to. I'm not sure what to tell you other than I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue with your cooker. I'm quite happy with mine.

[Dewesq55]

One thought that just occurred to me is perhaps if you left it at a higher temp until the chunk was really pushing out good smoker before lowering the temp it might continue after you lower it. I find that once a chunk "catches" and starts glowing in parts it will continue smoking with very little additional heat. This even seems to carry over to additional chunks you put on as long as you put them in contact with the expiring chunk which seems to help the next one ignite.

[Max Good]

I used about a half dozen chunks at a time, which needed to be replenished every hour at 225°F. I had no problem getting good smoke during the course of my tests.