Smoke condensate from vent

Did you season the smoker first?

Open the door during cooking to let some moister out.

Hey Jim,
I noticed that this is your first post, so I'm wondering if you have just recieved your smokette?....did you season it as suggested in the owners manual?......if you did season it, then let us know how much wood you were using? (a mistake that alot of people,yours truly included, have made)
Also, did you try to coat the sides and top with anything such as Pam or a similar product????

hope the forum can help you with this.

cookin-n-arkansas

Hi, all--
Thanks for the helpful replies.

I seasoned the Smokette as per owner's manual instructions, and have been using it with great success for several months. I used 4 oz (per the recipe) of dry (Luhr-Jensen bag'o chips) apple wood. Maybe it's too damp here in Seattle?

Jim

Jim,
Is it possible to place the chicken more to the side so it isn't directly under the vent?

Steve

Or put the food on a lower shelf and put another shelf above it with a foil cup under the vent. It's unlikely that it'll drip more than a few spoonfuls.

But I wonder why it would drip in the first place. I have never had anything drip from the vent onto food � maybe you had more than one thing in the smoker and seasoning dripped off the upper product and on to the lower. Did you have a thermostat running through the vent hole that may have collected the wet smoke and allowed it to run back down into the smoker?

I had only the chicken in the smoker, and had cleaned it well (I thought).

I just (2 minutes ago) finished smoking a duck. It had a much smaller drip blemish (this time smaller in size than my little fingernail), but this time (for the first time) I did have a temperature probe wire running through the vent.

Both the chicken and the duck were big (about 6 to 7 lbs); I couldn't position them to avoid the centrally-located vent.

I really wonder if the humidity is the problem. It is often moist in Seattle (grin), and the smokette is in our garage. Although the garage is always dry, maybe the air exchange was insufficient? With the chicken I opened only the human door while smoking; with the duck, I opened both the human and car doors (I also opened the smoker door for 30 seconds or so after it had heated up, to try to let moisture out).

Next time I will try the container under the vent trick.

It's nice to have more experienced people offer suggestions. Thanks!

Jim

Jim,

Try running your probe through the door. Also, make sure that the drain hole isn't partically pluged. The only air movement you get through the smoker are those two holes and if one of them is partically blocked sometimes you will get condensate dripping back down the vent hole.