To Soak or Not To Soak and Wood Chips?

Best not to soak. Soaking will add a musty odor. When you need to replenish your chips, visit the Cookshack website and purchase the small chunks...they come in several varieties and are designed for your type of smoker.

I started off soaking the wood since everything I read up to that point said it should be done that way. It wasn't until I got here that I started seeing advice against soaking the wood, and so I tried it dry and the smoke lasted just as long. So I've used dry wood since then.

I always used chips until I upgraded from my Masterbuilt smoker to my Cookshack - I still use chips since I have quite a few bags to use up. But the chunks have their place:
when doing long, overnight cooks, the chunks last longer.
For short cooks, such as ribs or turkey, the chips are fine.

Soaking is bad advice from the smoker manufacturers.

Why?

It makes the wood smolder, not burn. That white smoke you see is because of input burn and carries the impurities.

Clear/blue smoke is preferred.

Creosote taste comes from oversmoking, too much white smoke.

Try it without soaking. You might have to burn more, but that's okay.

KEY is how does it taste to you. Do go by how much smoke you see or don't see. Go by taste.