I used my new Smokette for the first time today. I used a Maverick Smoker Thermometer to monitor the smoker and meat temperature while I smoked two chickens. I initially set the smoker temperature to 225 degrees per the recipe in the cookbook I received with the smoker. The smoker never reached 225. I increased the smoker temperature setting to half way between 225 and 250. The temperature got to 226 and then began to drop to a low of 200. I then increased the setting to 250 degrees and the temperature never got over 225. I was expecting the actual smoker temperature to exceed the setting and decrease to lower than the setting so that the average would be about the set temperature. I am wondering if my smoker is working correctly??? The meat temperature never got over 172 degrees eventhough I left it in the smoker 2 hours longer than the recipe said. I was trying to get the meat internal temperature to 180 - 185 degrees which is the correct temperature for poultry according to several cookbooks. I even checked the calibration of my Maverick thermometer and, if anything, it is reading high. Any suggestions?
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