Old 055 vs. New 045

Place them at the edge of the holes and over the area where the element curves. Should be hotter there.

Please correct me if I am misinformed on this.

My understanding is that the new 45 has a 500 watt heating element, and the old SMO55 has a 1,500 watt element.

I am NOT an electrical guy by any means, and really don't know what the difference would be in terms of heating/causing wood to smoke, etc. But, IF I'm correct on the wattage numbers, (and that is by memory) would some of you who ARE wise in the ways of electricity and resistance heating enlighten us as to what the differences might be.

TO, I was thinking that it was a 750 watt element in the elite series? If so, you might want to put the wood in the center of the wood box with the edges of the wood covering about half of the holes. Don't get the wood too far to the right or left edges of the wood box. I like golf ball size wood also.

That's what I've learned after a few smokes. Hope this helps a little.

Oh! Sorry to hear that the wife took the old smoker, she sure knows how to hurt a man.

Thanks all. Used it last night and did position the wood differently, and it seemed to work a little better. Still didn't burn like the 55 used to, but the flavor was still outstanding.

I did discover another reason to like the old 55 more though. When I went to extract the bird I noticed grease on the deck. The cheap foil drip pan that came with the 45 had blown away!!! Guess I'll either buy me a metal one or put rocks in the cheap one....

Cal - your last line cracked me up. Good one!

The 55 has a 1200 watt element. (and you have my sympathies - a 55 owner here)

online information says Elite is 500 watts, and Qnorth says 55 is 1200. Still don't know what that means to us exactly.

The Elite is 750 watts.

I sit corrected. ...but still.

Why are you guessing?

Check the website for the latest info. Keep in mind over the years the actual element has changed, so what it HAD doesn't matter, what it HAS does

Taken from the web page just now:

Model SM025 750w heating element

Super Smoker Elite SM045 : New! This series replaces Cookshack SUPER SMOKER Models SM050 and SM055: 750w heating element

So, they both have the same 750 watt element

He's comparing the old 055 with a new 045 (not a SM025).

The website seems, as far as I can tell, to not have any info on it about the SM055 anymore. And we believe the SM055 to have a higher watt element...1200 watts. So the discussion is that we don't believe that these two models "both have the same 750 watt element" at all.

Well TO you brought up the old element and it's really irrelevant to his issue since he doesn't have the old smoker.

Wood not smoking in his smoker.

Hockey, I don't the the size of the element is relevant at all, because CS wouldn't be selling the news ones if they didn't work at 750 watts.

Try the suggestions above, putting the wood over the holes.

We've also been discussing recently about the size of the wood chunks.

Next time, cut them in 1/2 or just make the smaller, put them over the holes (for airflow) and see if that helps.

Yabbut it's relevant to me 'cuz I've got two 055's and I don't see any replacement elements online ..."in case" I ever need one! And I love, Love, LOVE them!

quote:

Originally posted by Thousand Oakie:
online information says Elite is 500 watts, and Qnorth says 55 is 1200. Still don't know what that means to us exactly.

TO, I don't know what the wattage is of either the 045 or the 055, but I think what you are wanting to know is what does the wattage difference mean.

Watts=Power, Power is equal to voltage times current. Voltage is a constant since your residential power is about 120 volts. So if comparing a higher wattage element to a lower wattage element, the hiher wattage element is going to consume more current. The function of the element is to produce heat, so if consuming more current and the voltage is constant the higher wattage element will provide more heat.

Our CS ovens control temp by cycling the power to the element (power on-elements heat up, power off- elements cool down). A lot of factors are used when figuring out what size of an element to use in an oven, ie. size of cooking area, insulation, obtainable temperature, etc.) But in simple terms, if you took two similar sized smokers and put in a bigger element in one than the other what you would have is a smoker that would obtain set point quicker with a hotter element but if the element was too large the temperature would have a tendency to overshoot set point much easier and would cycle power too frequent.

I hope this helps answer your question a little bit.

Thanks West Tex, that does enlighten...a bit anyway!

But now you've got me thinking someone could tweak the thermo on the unit, and set it to go blazing at 350 deg's or so, certainly voiding warranty...not ME, of course...but it does make one ponder!

This is not good news! My new 045 arrives tomorrow! I'll let everyone know. This is my first CS cooker and I'm sensing some dumbing down of the product.

Actually Big K, I know the newer products ...your new 045 specifically... isn't dumbed down at all.

You will have all the new features that my units don't have, digital controllers, thermo's and all, better-sized interior, etc. Regarding the heating element, I have NO DOUBT at all, that CS has "right-sized" it for your unit.

CS seems to have no goal other than to continually improve their products to be flat out the best they can be. If the 045 wasn't better, they wouldn't be making it: of this, I am sure.

OK, it arrived last evening and is up and running right now "breaking in". But this was not without issues. It kept tripping the GFCI.

CS specs a 15 amp circuit, plugged directly into the wall. I have mine on a 20 amp. I used a 6' 12/3 extension cord (no moisture anywhere!) so I could locate it just outside as instructed. This is a typical contractor's extension cord. I dug out a 100' 10/3 cord I use for powered suspended scaffolding and it's working. Good thing I have powered suspended scaffolding but tripping GFCIs seems to be a widely experienced problem from other forums I've looked at.

Thousand Oakie, even this is going to disappoint you. The control unit mounts to the top of the cooker with eight screws provided in pre tapped holes. I got the eight screws ok, but I have 16 holes, eight drilled in the wrong place. Oops?! They plugged the wrong holes with some type of filler and shipped it anyway because the extra holes don't show when the control is mounted.

I'll let you know if the wood burns completely after break in then we can explore the finer points of heating elements!

Hickory chunk reduced to fine ash. GFCI never tripped again, so lesson learned is use the extension cord that resembles a garden hose!

Maybe West Tex or someone else can comment on this. Once the smoker reached the preset break in temperature, the heating element was kicking on and off every 4-6 seconds, seemingly maintaining the desired temp on a pin head. Is this a good thing?

Hey Big K, the on/off interval that you mentioned is pretty similar to my SM020. However, the on/off ratio will obviously change with conditional changes such as with the amount of meat that you are smoking and the temperature of the meat with relationship to the smoker temperature. Outside temperature will also have an influence on the cycling. The new digital controllers that CS uses is what is controlling the on/off cycling that you are refering to. Because of these controllers and the frequent cycling is why these new smokers hold their temps really tight to their set point. The older smokers used mechanical thermostats that cycled power much more infrequent and experienced much larger temperature swings.

As far as your GFCI tripping and your extension cord is concerned, I would try the GFCI outlet again with the 12/3 extension cord. I can't help but wonder that your experiences so far with the first ext. cable and the GFCI outlet were due to what has been talked about on this forum multiple times. A GFCI is intended to detect an inbalance in current between your electrical outlets hot and neutral legs and trips when indifferences as small as a few milliamps exist. From reading comments on this forum it appears to me that occassional elements have trapped moisture within them. The elements are somewhat sealed and prevent much moisture from entering. However, moisture could be trapped within the elements when they are being manufactured. After running your smoker for the first time the hot element pushes out the moisture and allows it to dry out. Unless you live in a really humid environment and use your smoker very infrequently, I believe that the elements remain dry enough to prevent small amounts of electrical current from bleeding from the element to the casing of the element which is grounded and causes your GFCI to trip. A 12/3 extension cord is way big enough to handle the 7 amp full current load of your smoker especially being only 6' long. If using that cord again still trips your GFCI, than I would suspect a problem with the cord itself and not the smoker.

I'm not sure if anyone at Cookshack might read this thread, but if you do, you might consider baking out the elements for a while before they are installed in the smoker prior to assembly. Then maybe tossing in a bag of dessicant in the smoker before it is boxed up. This may eliminate some if not all of these frequent GFCI issues that I see popping up from time to time.