Camp Chef Windwood Pro question

[Alpha1]

Thanks from the land of OZ, or here we say (Ahhhh’s) lol

[Draznnl]

Sorry, I can’t help you either, but I’m sure some Woodwind Pro owner will be joining this thread any page now. Anyway, welcome to the Pit from the Florida Suncoast.

[dubob]

Welcome to the Pit. You're gonna love it here.

I am a Windwood owner, but I don’t have the Pro. I’m only chiming in to alert you to my latest interface with the Camp Chef Customer Service (CS). I bought my unit before COVID-19. I had some issues with setting the unit up and converting to the then new Wi-Fi upgrade to the control unit. A call to CS was met with a live person on the phone immediately and great help in resolving the issue. I returned the Wi-Fi unit and got a full refund - it didn't work in my setup. I haven’t needed them since then until this year when I again upgraded the control unit to the latest Wi-Fi unit. I used my Windwood a couple weeks ago to cook a pork butt for some pulled pork and had some issues with getting the Wi-Fi connection to work. I called CS and it went to voice mail. I needed help right then. They called me back 36 hours later. Thanks CC – for absolutely nothing!!!

[bdelbanco]

Welcome to the pit! I have the woodwind pro 36 and have experienced what you described with wood being hard to light at low and slow temps. The best solution I’ve found so far is to throw some wood chunks in the cooking chamber to dehydrate and warm up (ala a stick burner) so that they will combust more easily. Then I start with a bit of lump charcoal in the smoke box. It lights more easily than wood and provides hot embers which will help light the wood. Have had solid results with that at temps as low as 180.

[Richard Chrz]

Welcome to the pit from La Crosse Wi.

[Clawbear57]

Welcome from Winston Salem,NC.

[JLR]

Welcome to the pit from Dallas. Let us know what you find out.

[racertrader]

I don't have a Windwood either...I don't even have a pellet smoker (but I'm doing research on them). Looking at their website, the pictures of the wood box look to me like they are using wood chips instead of the chunks I use on my PBC. Maybe the smaller chips will help? On that note, I think I want to get a pellet smoker for the convenience, but any unit that's around $1000-1200 is still made in china. The made in USA units are more than I think I want to spend; maybe I should just stick with my PBC?

[SandPiper]

I have a Windwood Pro and have noticed the issue of wood chunks not consistently igniting. I have usually gotten them to burn by using one of several approaches. Be sure the smoke box lever actually opens the buttertfly valve - it sits under the smoke box and allows the pellet flames to ignite the wood. You can check to see if the wood has ignited by pulling out the smoke box and looking at it. Once ignited, you can close the butterfly valve and smoking will continue. Larger chunks take longer to ignite, so I often include some smaller pieces next to a large chunk. Put the smoker level at 1/10 to allow more oxygen to the pellets which will make them hotter - also the smoke box puts out much more smoke than the pellets so you don't need a high smoke setting if you are using wood chunks. Also, opening the top of the grill allows more oxygen and may help with igniting the wood - but will also allow heat to escape. I usually add a chunk of wood at the startup cycle when the lid is open anyways - prior to heating up to temp. Finally, when all else failed in the middle of a cook, you could crank up the temperature - this worked when I wanted to raise the temp to crisp chicken skin. With these approaches, the wood burns and has produced smoke just fine - and ribs, chicken, and pork.
Good Luck