Wood not burning

Also, keep the wood upfront where the element is hotter. It will help.

Just my opinion but I think the size of the wood is just as important and maybe more so than the amount. When I use small chips and/or Bradley bisquets they burn much faster and produce more smoke at the beginning but they don't last as long as larger pieces. Short smoked items that I want to have more smoke flavor I use small pieces and for larger cuts and long smoke the bigger chunks.

The pieces of wood that comes from CookShack are cut to the right size. In my experience to large a piece wont fit right and chips are best left for the charcoal barbeque cookers.

Had the same problem during my seasoning this evening. I got some smoke but after 4 hrs at 2hr the wood was only charred a little on one side. Guess I didn't pay to much attention to the location of the wood chunks. Hopefully by splitting the chunks in half and making sure I'm over the holes and element I'll get good results with the brisket I got on right now.

A Cookshack smoker without any meat load in it will heat up to temp very quickly and stay at that temp due to its good insulation. Therefore the heating element is not "on" for most of the seasoning time, and therefore not "burning" the wood chunks. When you load the smoker with some meat, you will find the wood is reduced to ashes unless you are doing a very quick smoke (such as 30 mins for shrimp). I avoid putting the wood over the holes in the wood box so as to let the heat into the wood box and to keep the ashes off of the element. In the two years I've had my AQ, I have tossed out a lot of ashes and virtually no chuncks of black wood. That's my 2-cents worth.

quote:

Originally posted by Nodrog:..I have tossed out a lot of ashes and virtually no chuncks of black wood. That's my 2-cents worth.

I've operated a 020 1-2X per week since March 09. I have a bucket that I put my black wood in. It's full now. The only ashe I get is in spots over/around holes. I dont' block'em - just overlap

I am always pleased with the smoke flavor - not undersmoking anything so... ash/no ash is of no concern to me now.

I suspect each smoker model may be unique for how it consumes wood.

I bought a 025 in April and have used it at least once a week since then and the wood would burn completely sometimes and sometimes it would just blacken the wood. It only burned the wood when I had a full load of wood. I called Cookshack about this several times. The first couple of times they wanted me to make sure the coil was touching the bottom of the wood box. The last time I called back they said they are aware of this problem with light loads of food and are working to solve the problem right now.

After 15hr with a 10 lb brisket at 225 only two of four 1oz wood chunks were reduced to ash. The other two were just charred on the edges. Should I call customer service about this?

How did it taste and was the smoke to your liking? If so, don't worry about it!