So I put off my 1st cook to Sunday. Found some great deals on Pork Ribs, Butts and Shoulders at Winn Dixie. On sale this week! Got some spare ribs and baby backs, will try one of each today. I dry rubbed them with 1/2 "Slap ya Mama" and 1/2 "Butt Rub" and let sit in fridge overnight. We like it a bit more on the spicy side. I did not remove the silver skin, never do.
I set up the smoker with 1 larger and one small piece of the provided Hickory chunks. I don't have a scale. I lined the bottom and lid of burner box with Aluminum Foil and popped the drain hole, thanks for the pointers! Put the temp probe in the thicker spare rib rack on the middle shelf and placed the baby backs on the top shelf. Full racks don't quite fit straight across so just rotated to a diagonal and fit fine.
Set temp at 225 and within 6 minutes had smoke and temp started coming up. Then "WHAM", got the bang. Fortunately I was inside or I might have spilled my coffee. It was a loud pop and a wheezing air sound as air blew out the smoke and drain holes I surmise. I knew to expect something like this but in my first 10 minutes!? No obvious damage externally, fingers crossed. Is this something to expect to be repeated frequently?
5 Hour wait, guess I'll have to watch the rerun of Bama getting beat by A&M! 