Charcoal vs. White Ash Remains

How were the ribs?

I get the same thing sometimes and then sometimes I get white ash. Not sure.

If you also cooked the ribs at 200*, maybe it is a symptom of the low temp and the element does not stay on long enough at a time to thoroughly burn all the wood. Just guessing.

I noticed the same thing with my 009. Through some trial and error, I learned that in certain areas of the firebox, the wood will turn completely to ash, while other areas the charcoal results. In my case, the front of the firebox gives the better results, maybe that portion of the box is closer to the heating element. So these days I always put the wood in the fron portion of the box and we're good to go.

You might try an experiment with wood placed in various areas of the wood box and see if that is the case for your smoker. I think I've seen posts about adjusting the firebox steel supports, but that's not for me.

Good luck.

Thanks GLH and Floridave.

The ribs were just okay but I understand from this site that they require a bit more of a learning curve in the CS so there is still hope

Great thought on the frontof the box, definitelygoing to try that today. I have noticed from the seasoning that there does seem to be a greatdeal of heatdirected out of the box right by the door.

The element should not be touching metal at all. Be sure of that. It should be as close as possible to the woodbox without touching it.

Thanks GLH. The element is nottouching metal as far as I can tell. There is a fair amount of play in teh smoke box with the cooker design.

I cooked a pork butt last night with Floridave's idea and it worked great on that run.

I smoked a 4 lb. butt and used one chunk of wood right at the front of the smoke box. Perfect burn with nothing but white ash left over. The butt was also excellent.

Will be cooking 2 6lb. butts today and see how it works again.

I think it is a matter of the direction the convection is circulating in by the design of the cooker. It seems to naturally direct the heat up through the front by the door before rising.

I would reccomend based on the results that the wood be place as far front toward the door in the box as possible.

I leave the charcoal-y bits of wood in the box and put new wood along with it. "Seems" to me that I get a bit of the pink smoke ring because of it. Contrarily, I won't put in processed charcoal into the smoke box...just ain't natural!

And yes, my 55 incinerates the wood at the front of the smoke box and less so in the rear.

Think combustion.

Charcoal will happen from incomplete combustion and the wood itself just not "burning" completely. Lots of factors, but the simplest is just leave them in for the next cook AND take notice of where you place it in reference to the element.

Smokin'

The front of the box is where the highest temperatures of the heating coil underneath exist. Place all of the wood near the front. The Amerique fire box has been modified so that the front is the only place you can put the wood chips. The other thing you can do is to split the wood in smaller pieces.