my smoker blew up!

cptdarel,
Do a search for "bang". There has been numerous discussions regsarding this issue. Noone is sure why it happens but as of this time I do not recall any permanent damage being done.

cptdarel,
I'm curious to know if the wood you used had been recently cut or was it completly dry? I've thought it might be pockets of moisture trapped in the wood that flashes over to steam and bursts when heated high enough. The burps I've seen from my smoker had LOTS of white smoke billowing out. Just a thought...
Brian

Just curious; why is your smoking wood in foil?

this has happend to me only once in the 08. the wife and i were standing a few feet away when she blew, scarde the tar out of us! next time it happens (if it does) hope someone else is standing there so i can get a big laugh out of it, my bad.the only thing i did different that time was i foiled some pellets, just dont know. paul

sorry for the miss understanding the wood was not in foil, just a bare piece of wood, wood was dry infact when it was done a nice little piece of white ash was left!
with the amt of steam etc i have to lean twards excissive amt of moisture dumpped on plate i dono

wow i didn't see tha topic below called bang bang!

Its wood gasses igniting........kinda like a flashover

I can tell you why this happens, dmerrell is right, wood vapors are igniting. I had this happen on my home made smoker the first time I used it. The reason you see it put out so much smoke, is because there is a very rapid expansion of gases, quickly forcing all the smoke out of your smoker at once.

During normal operation, there is very little oxygen in your smoker, so no matter how hot you get your wood chips/ chuncks, they smoke but do not burn or explode. The only time this is not true is when you first start up your smoker.

At this point you have 2 things working against you.

1. your smoker is cold, so when you turn it on, it calls for heat, and a lot of heat, trying to get to 225F or what ever your setpoint is.

2. Your smoker is full of oxygen, or at least the 20% found in normal air, from opening the door and loading your smoker.

As the wood starts to heat up, it puts off some very flamable vapors, and if enought build up and spill down onto the heating element....BOOM.

my first try on my homemade smoker had the wood tray too close to the heat, which made it worse.

One simple solution that worked for me is to add a few (4-8) little wood chips along with the chuncks. The chips are small, so the burn fast, and since there are only a few, they don't produce enought gas to cause a boom. By the time your chuncks have heated up enough to put out any gas, the chips are used up, and with them, the oxygen that could cause any kind of an explosion.

quote:

Originally posted by SandRaven:
[qb]

One simple solution that worked for me is to add a few (4-8) little wood chips along with the chuncks. The chips are small, so the burn fast, and since there are only a few, they don't produce enought gas to cause a boom. By the time your chuncks have heated up enough to put out any gas, the chips are used up, and with them, the oxygen that could cause any kind of an explosion. [/qb]

I learned something. This forum is great. Thanks, SandRaven.

Donna