SmokinTex is Leaking!!

[radtech]

I just got my new SmokinTex 1400 yesterday. I seasoned it for the suggested 4 hours. I think it's going to be a great smoker. However I have noticed that there is quite a bit of smoke coming out around the top of the door. I know the smoke is supposed to come of of the "exaust" hole in the top, but I was under the impression the exaust hole was supposed to be the only place smoke came out.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Won't this leak cause my meat to dry out? At least thats my impression from this threads in this forum.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Radtech:confused:

[s.a. blue]

Mine does the same thing. I read somewhere on the forum that it is normal and will seal itself.

[smokin-tnpete]

With use it will seal its self off. Mine took one long smoking I think it was 20 hours, never leaked again. Also it should tell you the leaking like that will go away with use in the manual.
Enjoy the best smoker make. Mine is seasoned well,That is where the taste comes from. The more you use is the better everything will taste.
Pete

[radtech]

Thanks for letting me know. I really like the SmokinTex so far. It does a great job.

I have another question. The first time I used it, it kept a constant temperature. But every time after that I has had temperature swings over 50-60 degrees above what I have it set for. The Faqs on the website says this is normal for there to be 45 degree temp swings. I have had mine set for 225 and it has went all the way up to 280 and 290. Am I doing something wrong? Anyone else experience this?

[topgun]

This is normal, as others have said. Mine smokes at the top right corner of the door a bit. I don't think it has affected any of the things I've done...everything is goooooddd...

[brisketboy]

Just ran mine for the first time yesterday-did it twice. Two 5 hour sessions, and it already looks better than it did when it first started smoking. I reloaded it this morning and turned it on and left. I'm gonna stick some jimmy dean sausages in there later this afternoon and give those a go. So far this rig looks killlllller!!!!! Can't wait to sink my teeth into some sweet smoked pork!

[ChainSmokr]

Yep, I took some measurements on the temp regulation and it's pretty wild. There turned out to be at least 3 different factors causing significant instabilities.

I liked the brisket, turkey, and chicken, but the problem I ran into was smoking salmon. That needs to be well regulated. Salmon is so thin and sensitive that it doesn't take long to affect it. Going 20F too high, even briefly, will cook it too fast and fat curds will form on the outside and the texture will be way off, and the ST 1400 turned out to be nowhere near that close.

I'm kinda looking into hacking up an electronic design that would anticipate the temp swings and prevent them. It's possible. One problem though is that the element NEEDS to swing to a high temp in order to smolder the wood. If it stays at 170F for salmon smoking without getting hotter at least briefly, the wood won't smoke.

[smokin-tnpete]

Bet your getting your cold meat up against the thermostat. That will make it work harder and cause the temps to swing like that.
Try to keep meat away from the thermostat and it will not be as bad. But I for one don't even keep up with what mine is doing. As its such a great product. That its a set it and forget it unit.:D
Pete

[ChainSmokr]

Nope. I have been testing this for awhile now. I use a thermocouple in the free air above the rack with no meat.

I started at a stable 170F temp. When it's turned on, there is a delay as the burner/woodbox heats up where there's almost no temp rise in the box. By the time air temp rises by even a few degrees, there's enough heat built up in the box that the temp will rise quite a bit even if you cut off the power immediately. The location and design of the thermostat is far less prompt and accurate than this, too. This is true even when there's no wood in the box.

With wood in the box, the combustion adds a significant amount of heat to that same test and the temp rise is more dramatic. In fact I'm trying to figure out if there's really any way to do this with an advanced controller because if we don't get the wood burning we get no smoke, but the burning really makes the temp just run away uncontrolled since turning off the burner doesn't stop it. Esp if wood chips are used. Like 5 min of power to the burner before the box temp starts to rise, but then over the next 10 min after shutting off the burner the box temp rises another 60 deg. It'll eventually peak and come back down but it takes awhile.

It's just hard to reconcile this with salmon, which is intolerant of high temps since the aforementioned curds form. I'm shooting for like 10F variations at most.

[smokin-tnpete]

Being your looking for that close of temps. I don't think your going to get it. I do know my 1500 does better full then empty. And if I'm doing jerky I leave the door open just a little.
Also there's a cold smoker plate,
https://id214.chi.us.securedata.net/smokintex.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=33
This may be what you need to be looking at. As I don't think its going to be easy to keep these units within 1o degrees. Shoot my wife has a $30.000 oven for samples for her work that will not hold that.
Pete