good smoker bad butt

First test the smoker. Run it empty, set at 250 and tell us what temp it stabilizes.

Are you running this on an extension cord?

I do believe that the smoker is working good during the break in and first cook it held around the set temp with about a 10 degree swing on both sides of the set point.I had it set at 210 and never saw it below about 195 I don't think and I saw it as high as about 225 regularly.

Dan, you might have had the thermometer probe in a vein of fat or against a bone. This could give you an erroneous reading. Did you move your probe around to make sure that your reading was accurate? Also, you might want to check your probe for accuracy. Place it in a pot of boiling water and check that it reads 212 degrees or at least within a couple degrees of that. Some folks recommend using ice water but I don't favor that method because you want to cook at the higher temperature and just because a thermometer is accurate at 32 degrees doesn't mean that it's accurate at 212. There are other factors such as span and linearity that can skew the upper reading. Also, don't open the door so much. Most folks recommend leaving it shut as much as possible. The common thinking is that each time the door is opened you add 30 minutes to the cook time.

Yep,28 hrs seems extreme.

If your internal temp probe is correct,18 hrs,without opening the door,at 225� would not be out of some folks experience.

Each door opening could add 25-30 mins to an otherwise empty cooker.

I'd suggest a confirmed oven temp of at least 200�,if you are just timing it for overnight,and a confirmed oven temp of about 225� after you awaken.

If it won't get out of the low 180�s,boost it to 240�-250� to finish it.

Don't open the doors,until it gets about 195�.

Hope this helps a little.

I have checked all temp probes and they are good I just can't imagine how a butt in a smoker for 28 hours wouldn't reach 190.

Ok I will try again do you have any advice before I start such as set temp rack position or any thing else you can possilbly think of.

Put it in the middle and follow my post above.

If it don't work,mail it to me and I'll eat it.

See, if you were next door, I could walk over and solve the problem, over the internet is a challenge.

I have never has a butt take that long in a model 9 so it mystifies me also. Something has to be off. Does the 009 have a dial for 210? And you said only a 10 degree temp swing, that's not normal, it's usually bigger, but because it's not doesn't mean that's bad, just sounds different. If the smoker is set at 225 and it's a 9 lber, it took over twice as long. It certainly sounds like the smoker was not at the temp indicated.

I'd go and test on the thermometers, in boiling water. Then I'd check for the temp of the smoker set at 225 or 250.

Also, you never said if it's on an extension cord and if so, what gauge?

I did my first one for Christmas, two actually 15#s total weight. Below 0 when I started, 2 hours at room temp then it took about 16 hours in the smoker for the bottom one to reach 190, just rub it. Started at 225, opened the door once at 13 hours cause I couldn't take it any longer. At 9 hours it was up to about 161 and thought it may be cooking too fast so I backed the temp down to about 200, it made very little progress for the next couple hours so back up to 225 but it was a slow climb to 174 (like 3 hours). So as I was running out of time on Christmas Eve day, I then bumped it up to 250 for an hour (that seemed to help push it a little) and then back down to 225 for the last hour. I was going totally by the thermometer except the one quick peek. It was very moist when done and not too smokey at all with 4+ oz of hickory. Don't we hate it when we can't see what's cookin'.

OK I just took my second pork butt off the 009 and it looks great .I smoked it until it had an internal temp of 190 and it took 15.5 hours alot better than the 28 of the last one.I never opened the door I think that helps alot.Thanks for your help all.

That sounds more like it. Lately I have been averaging 18 hours for a 8lb butt.

What is weird is my first few butts only took about 14 hours.