Arnie, thanks for clarifying that. I just assumed the two units would fire up the same.
So for the purposes of helping answer DanC's original question, could he start his jerky in the prewarmed 160 degree smoker, smoke it for 2 hours, then finish it with the door open in order to keep his moisture down?
SpicyMeat, there are several restauranteurs on the forum who are much more qualified than me to answer that, however, prior to me getting my smoker, I made tons of jerky using a dehydrator. At that time, I never used a cure. Only marinated the meat and threw it on the dehydrator. Always worked fine. No ill effects.