Common Theme

[BigOlDOg]

Around here with D2 controllers seems to be lack of smoke/flavor. Yes, we all know you want a faint clear light blue smoke but let’s just be honest that’s not always seen either. Now mix in the lack of smoke flavor it has people wondering...

While I’ve seen through different forums, www searches etc a variety of attempts to produce more smoke/flavor but one has recently gotten my attention and made me think.. This person put a piece of hickory down into the fire pot. What happened is a no brainer to me as in time that piece got hot and started to burn eventually igniting the pellets in the auger.. You can picture the rest of this story.

My thoughts.. What if you kept the ash in the pot but had a pellet or five (I dont know the right answer as it’s an idea) sunken with the ash that begins to smolder as the ash pile gets hot.. This should increase smoke, you’re not to the extreme of a lump of hickory along with the pellets and burning down your cooker but enough left behind to get a little more.

I understand Traeger’s recommendation of every five cooks to clean but I base that off of how long my cook is going to be and deviate when needed. Maybe that’s where I/we who complain are messing up?

 

[BigOlDOg]

So on top of my random thoughts and ideas I did this little mod too and when I lift the lid now actually see smoke within the chamber of the i885er..

 

[XavierH]

have you noticed a difference in the smoke flavor. i got a 575 pro last year and i noticed that the door is not fully flushed to the body of the grill. doing some research i found the lava lock product and i did the same. now definitely i do not get smoke coming out the corners of the door instead going out trough the chimney or grease trap.

have you also noticed if with the laval lock pellet consumption is still the same (less ? more?)

 

[Callahan cooks]

I am curious if jogging your temps up and down 20 degrees or so will help generate smoke. manually creating burn and smoulder phases in the firepot.

or a smoke tube....

 

[BigOlDOg]

It’s honestly hard to say. I did notice a difference in flavor when I changed pellet blends. When I lift the lid I can actually see smoke still in the barrel which is nice as I know it’s there. All of my smoke seemed to do the same out the exhaust or grease trap oh and the probe hole! Before it came out the lid too. Pellet consumption is hard to say maybe my temps were a little higher. Nothing crazy <10*.

I feel as if it lost a lot and the lavalock has been a solid investment.

 

[BigOlDOg]

I am curious if jogging your temps up and down 20 degrees or so will help generate smoke. manually creating burn and smoulder phases in the firepot.

or a smoke tube....

haven’t thought about that, speed up amount of pellets it drops to reach temp then pull the temp back down...that’s a lot of work for a long cook lol.

I’ve got a tube just hard to place when you stack it with meat lol.

 

[XavierH]

another question is should i lower the smoke stack cap... right now the bottom part is about one inch higher than the top of the smoke stack