Idiot proof

You put wood in the woodbox, right? Did it come with any instructions? Are you plugged into a GFCI outlet? If so, are you sure it ain't tripped? Man, I can't think of anything else. The wood should have been burned up to white ashes by now. Did it get hot?

Did not come with instructions. I found a manual on the CS website. I did put the wood in the box. Outlet is live and not tripped. I have set up one more time, new wood chips. Unit is on. Is hot. Temp still swings widely.

I placed the box between what appear to be two heating elements. Seems to be the only place to put the wood box. I'm baffled. Hope it works with the new wood. I have a lage party on Saturday, Briskets are rubbed and ready to go...

Call cookshack service this morning.

My only other thought would be to put a couple chunks of wood in and set the cooker at 250º.

Put a remote probe through a ball of foil and set it near the temp probe.

Run it a couple hrs and check it about every 15mins.

That way you can tell service what you are seeing.

Thanks tom,
I'll be calling CS this morning. I was using a remote Maverick. Temps went all over the map, highest reading was 262, lowest dropped to 181. I'm convinced this is the smoker.

Even though the team has Mavericks,I'm somewhat skeptical of them.

Wood starts to smoke about 140º.

An empty cooker will have pretty big temp swings,and a load of cold meats will bring it down like a home oven.

Did the wood smoke?

throw a big ol piece of cheap fatty meat in there, she'll smoke up plenty (as long as everything is right with the smoker) The element might not stay on long enough on an empty smoker... I had this happen with my amerique, so i bought a 5 dollar piece of pork and re-seasoned the smoker with no problems

Good afternoon.
Thanks for getting back to me. Sorry it took me so long to get back on line. I've been in out of town all week.
Tom, I spoke to Karen at CS and she said the same thing you did about an empty smoker. Don, Karen called me again yesterday, said she spoke with the tech, up at CS and he suggested the same as you... try seasoning with some food in there and also suggested adding a container of water near the wood box. They thought that might get things going. I intend to give it a shot tonight. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Seems odd. I think the temp swing is normal, especially empty. My 009 did the same thing in the beginning, and since, I pretty much have stopped monitoring the cooker temp, just the meat. That said, I cant see why the wood isn't smoking. Mine smokes very quickly, with or without food. Whats the water suppose to do? Good luck.

Hmmm, I never turned mine on empty. Waste of juice

Hi Guys,
I had the same thing happen to my new 150. I put my wood in the box and turned it on and after 5 hours I checked it and it hardly burned the wood at all.I called John at Cookshack and he said with the new smoker, that the temps are bouncing all over because it isn't broke in yet. He told me to put a couple of butts in it and it would be fine. I had a brisket, so I put it in it and set it. It came out perfect.
The smoker needs to get black and get some grease on the walls to really work right. The sides were reflecting the heat and messing it up. Anyhow worked for me.

401K,

I have the CS50 also and have never had a problem in getting smoke. The temp swings are normal - don't worry about it as long as the cooker is heating up.

Are you sure you are sliding the wood box in the correct location and inside the heater enclosure?

I am curious..did the woodbox slide onto the element or did you sit it next to or under the element?Also,are you using an extension cord?

To everyone that has been good enough to offer advice, or questions;

I placed the smoker box the only way I could see to make it fit, that is between the two burner elements. No I did not use an extension cord, as I read that it would cause inefficiencies in the cook cycle.

I took Karen's advice and put a piece of cheap meat in the cooker, loaded the wood, and let it cook for about 8 hours to season the unit. I did get a pretty good flow of smoke from the "chimney" hole in the top as well as a bit seeping from around the top of the door. The smoke flow seemed to last about 45 minutes. When the process was complete, the wood was a deep dark black, but not the white ash I've seen others discuss here on the forum.

I then went ahead and cooked a 12 lb. brisket. Same experience with the smoke. I saw quite a flow for about 45 minutes or so. Started at 6:00 pm yesterday. Woke up at 8:00am today, went outside and the meat probe read 206 degrees. I guess I let it go an hour or two too long. Was so tender, I couldn't grab it out of the unit. I had to work my hands underneath and lift or it would break apart. Looks and smells great. I let it stand for 30 minutes, wrapped in foil and stuck it into the refrigerator. I'm told that will make the slicing easier. We will re heat it for tonight's dinner. Hope it's not dried out... I'm already hungry.

Wood is still Dark Black chunks, not ash. Is this normal? I will follow up later tonight or tommorrow to let everyone know how the brisket actually tastes.

I just pull the rack out with the brisket/butt on it & turn it into a piece of heavy duty foil. Then I can take my spatula and push the brisket off the rack.

Dpends on the kind of wood and how much moisture is in it, not sure you said. You are not soaking the wood are you? If you are, don't. Use dry wood chunks only.

Since one of your ealier posts said you did not have an owners manual, I'm guessing you bought your CS used. Correct? If that's true, is it possible there is a part missing?

I still think it might have something to do with where you are putting the wood box. In the CS50/55 the "wood box" is two pieces. Part is an outer housing that sits on supports and encloses & goes around the heating elements. Part two is sort of like a drawer that you put the wood in and this slides (like a drawer) into the outer housing.

If this does not describe what you have, then contact Cookshack Customer Service to figure out what you have and what is missing and get a replacment part shipped to you. Good luck!!!

Just to add my two-cents, for what it's worth. When I first used my model 50 (with an extension cord), I had extreme temperature fluctuations. I monitored the temp with two internal oven thermometers and found that the lower rack/s ran hotter than the upper rack/s -- due to the obvious reason of the location of the element. I also noticed that the unit was not stable nor true to the dial settings as far as the temp was concerned. I, like L.A.BBQ already mentioned, use the dial only as a reference and use the meat as the "control". In response to your initial question, as far as not getting ash from your chips, I agree with Q'n Mike, there may be some moisture in the wood ... do not soak the chips. My smoker lights off rather quickly (smokes within five to ten minutes) and all wood turns to white ash. I use mostly hickory and add one Kingsford charcoal briquette (for a smoke ring). Another thing, I don't recall ever seeing smoke leak out from around my door unless I opened it. My door closes very tight -- you may want to check yours out for possible damage or obstructions. Finally, the fact that your brisket is done, tells me your smoker is, otherwise, working.

I meant "model 55" -- sorry.

Thanks Guys.

Moisture in the wood sounds very plausible. I live in Miami Fl and we are never at a shortage for humidity. I will try to dry the wood in a conventional oven at a low temp for a while before my next smoke.
No I am not using an extension cord.
We just finished the brisket. Although I overcooked it a bit, it tasted very good. Little to no smoke flavor. I'll keep trying different things till we get it right.

I would try some different wood altogether. You can try to dry that out, but that doesn't mean it will change.

And the wood doesn't have to "disappear" to have smoked. That's one thing with any smoker is to learn it's tendencies. If you get a batch of wood that doesn't burn up completely, you'll need to burn more wood to get more smoke. After a certain point of burning, the wood is just burning, not giving off too much smoke anyway.

That's why we preach about "you'll have to determine how much smoke to apply". I know guys on the forum who love 8oz of mesquite on their brisket and others say 2 oz of apple is too much.