Hi everyone, just bought a sm008 from a garage sale. Love the construction of it, and was really excited about the price I paid with the stand included. Brought it home, cleaned the racks and scraped the inside with a plastic putty knife, then wiped it down with some paper towels, as I downloaded the owners manual, and have been reading the forums for the past 2 days. Anyway wanted to check tempeture with the dial so I put a bowl of water in, set it for 200 degrees and watched the wireless probe I bought. Well it rose all the way up to 260 degrees it then leveled out to 240 swinging from 230 to 275. After an hour I opened the door and set the control to 175...it then went from 180 to 230... Went to the store the next day and all they had on sale was chicken breasts. Marinated 3 lbs put it in stuck one probe in the chicken, and one dangling next to the chicken all on the middle rack. Set it at 175. It rose up to 270. Then leveled off at about 220. About 2 hours in to it chicken was at 160. Went outside thinking it would be done and in the next 45 mins it dropped 14 degrees all the while smoker stayed between 220-260. After 3 hours it was at 151 and I finished it in the grill. So question is are these 40-50 degree swings normal or do I need a new controller or thermostat? And that was really weird having the chicken drop 14 degrees....either way I let it rest for 15 minutes after I finished on the grill...it still won my vote,and the neighbors also....
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