Pellet Smoker More Temp Fluctuation Better Smoke Flavor or The Opposite

[cbritton]

I talked to a pellet smoker manufacturer and they talked about how little temperature fluctuation their smoker had. Supposedly holds temperature within a couple degrees.They said this produced more smoke flavor. I said I thought some pellet smokers had a cycle that purposely fluctuated temperatures to give more smoke flavor. He basically said it's a lie by other pellet smoker manufacturers that their controller etc weren't as good. What do you guys think?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

There needs to be a little fluctuation, but at the same time you don't want it to be massive. My MAK runs within 5 degrees of setpoint, and is arguably one of the best smoke producing grills on the market. Another brand with a VERY defensive group of owners supposedly runs within 5 as well (and is the best thing since sliced bread if ya ask the owners), yet I see more and more owners of that brand using not just 1, but 2 smoke tubes to supplement. Then you have some grills that swing 30+ degrees either direction and yet don't produce much smoke... I forget how tight the Weber smokefire runs, but supposedly it puts out top level smoke. My friends pitboss runs with about a 20 degree swing, and puts out good food. So really it just depends what you want to spend, how long you want the grill to last, and what type of smoke you're chasing... you won't get stickburner level smoke, ever.

Saying all that, I think there's a mix of feed rate and fan speed coupled with ventilation and deflector plate design that produces the optimal levels of smoke considering the nature of efficient burning pellets.

[cbritton]

There needs to be a little fluctuation, but at the same time you don't want it to be massive. My MAK runs within 5 degrees of setpoint, and is arguably one of the best smoke producing grills on the market. Another brand with a VERY defensive group of owners supposedly runs within 5 as well (and is the best thing since sliced bread), yet I see more and more owners of that brand using not just 1, but 2 smoke tubes to supplement. Then you have some grills that swing 30+ degrees either direction and yet don't produce much smoke... I forget how tight the Weber smokefire runs, but supposedly it puts out top level smoke. My friends pitboss runs with about a 20 degree swing, and puts out good food. So really it just depends what you want to spend, how long you want the grill to last, and what type of smoke you're chasing... you won't get stickburner level smoke, ever.

Saying all that, I think there's a mix of feed rate and fan speed coupled with ventilation and deflector plate design that produces the optimal levels of smoke considering the nature of efficient burning pellets.

Awesome thanks for the reply. Supposedly this one is very efficient as well. So it was very little pellet usage and temperature fluctuation equals better smoke. I wasn't sure if he was just being a salesman or what.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

If it was one with horns, it was a salesman... The standard for pellet grills is roughly 1lb of pellets per hour at 225. My friends pitboss burns a little more than that even in the summer and I burn significantly less than that year round.

[Jerod Broussard]

I focus more on a cold product being placed in the smoker immediately before lighting and making sure I got some smoke going from the get go.

After that, it is what it is.

[captainlee]

I saw something a while back by somebody who does the programming for pellet controllers. If i remember correctly he said that they build in some temperature fluctuation in the program for a better results.

[Donw]

Even if the controller probe is telling it that the temperature is so and so there are temperature range all across the cooking surfaces. Some places are going to be hotter while others colder. A white bread toast test helps find those hot and cold spots so you can use that information to your advantage while cooking.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

the question was specifically about smoke production, but I agree... every new cooking device you add to the arsenal should get at least 1 toast test or at least a temp gun check.

[glitchy]

There’s a lot more to it than just temp swings. I’ve had smokers with huge swings and little smoke flavor and smokers than hardly moved temps with good smoke flavor. The design of the airflow inside and the algorithm of the fans has more to do with getting more smoke. Most grill controllers lie as well and tell you the temp hardly changes, but if you monitor they do. Some grill vary fan speeds, some are just on or off, others run one speed constantly and control temps solely with pellet feed rates.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

From what I've seen, some truly lie and most just sample every whatever seconds. Either way is fine-ish... but I've seen a few that use the same sampling time for the controller as they do their probes. One of my friends kept overcooking stuff and I gave him one of my old TP wireless probes, sure enough a 5ish minute delay from when the meat was really done until the app registered it was actually done! No wonder he kept overcooking stuff.

[glitchy]

ItsAllGoneToTheDogs I’ve seen the logic do all kinds of things on the displayed pit temp. Most controllers I’ve seen are sampling more frequently than 5 minutes, especially if they’re keeping tight temps. However, they might only be updating the displayed value that often. I’ve seen several that don’t change the current pit temp unless it gets more than X degrees away from the set point. I feel like X is often 10°.

[Redwng]

My LSG pellet grill with the Fireboard controller oscillates the temp +/-15 degrees from the setpoint and the smoke profile from this cooker is fantastic. The smoke profile is much better than the Rec Tec I had for 8 years. I even get good smoke with the controller set to 350, unheard of on the RT.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I'm still dreaming that one day someone close to me gets one. I wanna play around with an LSG pellet unit so bad.

[Huskee]

At the end of the day you really need to to do a redneck scientific test: Cook the same darn thing with the same darn seasoning and the same darn pellets on two darn different pellet cookers with one darn swinging temps and the other darn steady temps and taste the darn two things side by darn side and form your darn opinion. Anything less is pure conjecture. Or should I say darn conjecture.

[DaveD]

Hey! Language!

[Huskee]

DaveD Touche, I should be settin' the darn example

[ofelles]

Damn good advise!

[Clawbear57]

My grill doesn't have a PID controller so I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the cook. The smoke setting is 180F but the temp sometimes goes up to 300F. I can't do an overnight cook without having to refill at least 3 times. Next time I want to get one that uses lump. I don't notice a strong smoky taste.

[bbqLuv]

Perhaps the temperature is too high.
My Traeger Timberline 850 burns about 1-1.5 lbs. per hour set to 225F.
An overnight cook is no problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxkU-I7e63E&t=60s