Thermostate & cook times

rich,
i own a sm150 and my temp swings about the same as yours. maybe if you do a search for what you are cooking it might help.
you never did say what you are trying to cook but if you post that i am sure either myself or some other members will try to help you.
i know they are continually helping me
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

I had tried medium sized chickens which took an extended cook time. Then today, I tried a small (roughly 6 lb. packer cut brisket), after planning for a 8 hour cook at 225, it took almost 12 hours. My guest thought that it did taste great, but it took too long. How do you plan for guests, without a reference on time? I don't want to reheat and possibly dry the meat.

The cookbook is handy for some recipes,but the forum will provide better insight into temps and times.

You will find that a mostly empty cooker will give you the widest swings and they mean nothing to the cooking.

You will find that your house oven does the same thing.

Smokin' will constantly remind us to take good notes about every cook and he has even developed a great log sheet for us to use.

Experience and the forum will help ,in the future planning.

Now ,every packer has a mind of its own when it will give up.

As far as planning,comp cooks use the cooler technique.

When the meat is done,wrap it several times in heavy plastic wrap and then in foil.

Insulate a small cooler with newspaper,wrap the foiled meat in a heavy towel and place in cooler,cover with more paper.

It will stay hot for several hours this way and retain its juices.

You can also use the house oven at 140�to do the same thing.

If you have greatly underestimated your finishing time,you can foil the brisket,butt,or ribs and boost your cook temp to the max.

This will speed up the cooking.

Hope this helps some.

What Tom said

Ignore the cookbook. Check with us for times/temps.

Temp Fluctuations. Read through the owners Archive and you'll see +/- 30 is normal. And it's find. Don't worry about the variation. The smoker has worked well with this design for many years.

Like the others said, tell us what you're trying to smoke and we'll help out.

Smokin'

Don't completly discount the value of the cookbook. It is very useful if your smoker is on uneven ground.
Richard

Thanks for the information. I will try the cooler method next time and plan for plenty of cook time.

RPM...

...that's funny.

Actually the recipes are really good, it's the time's that sometimes I think need to be adjusted.

Rich,
I had the same problem this past weekend. Had
a very good choice brisket flat 8.6lbs with very
good covering of fat top and also on bottom side.
After 10 hours it was holding at 170 and had been here for nearly 3 hours. I use a dual thermometer
that measures smoker internal temp. I had the
009 set at 225 and it was showing 170 on the thermometer. I wrapped it in foil and placed it in the oven at 225 again I used both probes to check my home oven and it was regestering correctly occasionaly swinging up 10 degrees to maintain the 225. Anyway my brisket started climbing and was out within 2hours. The meat was
fine but I am now also concerned about my smokette.

Well,we are discovering that briskets are a mite independent.

Setting 3 hrs in the plateau is not at all unusual.

When it comes out,it usually does the next 20� rather quickly.

At 225�,without ever opening the door,might take 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hrs a lb. to finish

Foil will cause it to finish more quickly.

I wouldn't worry too much about the 009.

Remember Smokin's mantra,"they are done when they are done".

12 hours or more in the CS for a 6 lb brisket! You may want to start your cooking a few hour earlier. But, I know what you mean with company present - had everyone at the table slightly tipsy, one evening, waiting for a done pork shoulder. I have both a CS55 and a Grill Dome ceramic grill. Using real charcoal the ceramic grill would take about 20 hours to cook a 6 lb brisket and the plateau at 165 to 170 degrees would still be about two to three hours. The Cookshack 55 is my sports car version of smoking/cooking and I don't pay any attention to the fluctuation in internal box temperature.