I have noticed that nearing the end of any long cooks my fec-100 seems to bellow more smoke than at any other time during the cook.
I`m still new to the cooker as I only have about 40 or 45 hours under my belt in terms of cooking hours but the last two or so hours the smoke is so heavy and woody that its very noticable, especially when the neighbours ask if everything is alright as smoke bellows from my garage,
I figure the only things that change after all them hours of cooking at the same temp is the amount of ash that might be collecting in the firepot.
Like mentioned in earlier posts, I clean out the firepot prior to each cook.
I thought that I might try something while its smoking heavily.
Saturday was two briskets and two large racks of beef bones and a grate full of baked potatoes.
There was roughly two hours left in the cook and was smoking heavily, I opened the door, and with a fork I dug into the firepot and stirred up the ash in the firepot in hopes of lowing the level of ash possibly exposing the lower air holes.
Well after stirring the firepot the smoke had all but cleared.
The difference was amazing for the short time left in the cook.
It seems that even after 8 hours of cooking, there was enough ash built up to partially block the lower holes allowing more smoke to build.
I`m not sure if anyone else has this problem of heavy smoke near cooks-end but for me, stirring the pot seemed to improve it greatly.
Any thoughts?
Roger
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