How long should smoke last?

Don't open or add wood.It is operating normally.

Eric

Grab yourself an adult beverage, rearrange your sock drawer and relax untill it hit's 190-195. Good thing's come to those who wait ..

Mark

Well it's too late for your original post.

But to the general question. How long should it last?

It always depends on the wood. Some will go out very fast, some will take longer.

USUALLY the initial amount of wood is enough.

Even though you might not see it, it's still probably smoking. The dirty/dense smoke you see is not as good as the blue/clear smoke (doesn't have all the nasty stuff in it).

I would go with that amount the first time and see if it's okay. If you want more smoke, next time add more chunks OR add chunks as you go. It's a hassle to do the latter, but some people like to get a lot of smoke out the outside. And opening up and adding wood adds lots of time.

Thanks for the tips folks. From lurking about on the forum I was under the impression that the smoke lasted most of the way through the cooking cycle so when I had seen that it petered out so early in the morning I got a litttle concerned.
It's great having a place like this to ask questions and getting such quick replies. Many thanks to the folks at Cookshack for sponsoring this site. The recipe book that came with the unit says a 5lb butt at 225 degrees should take about ten hours but I'm coming up on the 11 hour mark and still at 168 internal. I guess its a good thing I did'nt invite anyone over for dinner huh! I'll take mcnkc's advice and busy myself elsewhere but I'm twitching to crank up the dial. Its like the old Heinz ketchup commercial. Anticipation... Oh well the learning curve is the fun part. Thanks again folks.
Eric