sand in the water pan ?

[hunters stick]

I have heard of sand etc in the pan, I have s/m 30 lb. digital elect. smoker, it aint all that,220, top vent, no gasket at the bottom of the door for the bottom vent-
pretty big temp swings, nearly impossable to finish sticks the way I need em, looking for what ya,ll do to stabilize the temp, built a steel plate/deflector with round holes to sit above the burner , pita but I think it,ll help, do ya,ll use a water pan? I never have,
was nowhere to put it , until I “fixed it” lol

Thanks, RC

[Jonathon]

hunters stick You can add automotive sponges to a water pan and leave them standing up so as much of it is sticking out as possible. This increases the surface area for evaporation and increases the relative humidity. Or you can also use a wicking towel, that you drape out of the pan, this works a little better but you need to have something below the pan to prevent it from dropping water on the bottom if you have an electric coil at the bottom. We will have a towel for this in 2023 at some poiunt

[hunters stick]

Thanks Jonathon, you would think a smoker this pricey would have a pan etc, nope, it is from New York, lol,
looking for the perfect finish,

[Jonathon]

hunters stick The higher you can get the relative humidity the quicker you can get through the stall, as higher humidity will make it harder for the water to evaporate off of the surface of your snack sticks meaning it won’t be able to cool itself efficiently and you will get the temp up quicker.

[hunters stick]

Jonathon
now I,m getting somewhere, many thanks, amazing how long it takes to figure this stuff out without good info,

looking forward to the next batch,
Thank you,

[Bob Stehlik]

hunters stick You can find Nomex Door Gasket material for BBQs and Smokers on Amazon. I’ve used it on all of my Traegers and it helps with temp swings. I still get them but not quite as wild. I also put some fire brick in the bottom and that helped also.

[salmonmaster]

hunters stick here’s my thoughts. Looking at your sticks, if their on the counter the way they came out of smokehouse, looks like the back sticks cooked hotter than the front sticks. That gasket at the bottom of door could be the problem for temp. swings. Cold air getting sucked up from bottom of door, up the front of smokehouse, out the top vent making for a cooler front of smoker, warmer back. That steel plate you made with the holes could be your answer if you can move it around a little bit. I have a aluminium pan at the bottom of my smokehouse that if I move it just a little bit, the heat changes a lot from side to side, and front to back. My smokehouse is way different than yours I’m sure, but the principal should be the same. And like Jonathon said, Humidity .

[hunters stick]

Thanks ya,ll
got her percolating right now empty, amazing whats happened thus far, with two probes, 1 in the center of the chamber an one next to the smokers built in probe It is within 3 degrees now, with the water pan plumb full, it took an hour or so the stabilize, I have nver had those two spots that close in temp… seems to be improving…

[TexLaw]

When it comes to something as small as that smoker, a water pan really does work well (plus, you get your humidity up). If you ever just want some mass to help smooth the temperature curves and don’t want to deal with water, just put 2 or 3 fire bricks in there (or as many as you want, I suppose).

[badexpresso]

Woah, a stick smoker has really Wide temp swings, so don’t get caught up in the hype. Yes, we like to control as much as possible, but when you take a step back, it all ends up the same. Yes, you can improve upon any smoker, dehydrator, oven, but those are personal preferences and not commercial preferences.

This sounds like imanazz, but use what you have and you’ll he fine

[hunters stick]

Badex,
Not an a*s atall, actually its electric with a digital thermostat, but I concur, we always wanna be making it better, bout to get it where I can live with it without it burning stuff,made a steel heat baffel
And added a water pan, when its fully warm it stays generally within 10 deg. Of the target temp, prolly time to lay my hammer down an make some links,

[bocephus]

Has anyone tried the ceramic briquettes used in gas grills in an electric smoker to try to maintain a more constant temperature?

[Bob Stehlik]

bocephus I’ve used firebrick which, once it heats up, helps hold a better temp. The firebrick in conjunction with a water pan, raising the RH, doesn’t eliminate temp swing but reduces them quite a bit. I imagine ceramic/lava rock BBQ briquets would help as well and would be easier to place inside the smoker because of their smaller footprint.

[bocephus]

Bob Stehlik I may try them in my Masterbuilt. I will probably put them on the bottom shelf and cover with aluminum foil.

[Jonathon]

bocephus I became interested in this a few years ago. I was slightly obsessed with getting the humidity to increase in the smoker and to reduce the wave of an electric smokehouse. I ended up taking fire bricks and putting some on each side of the smoker. It did reduce the wave, but also reduced the space in the smoker, so no go. The ceramic briquets is an interesting idea though! As Bob Stehlik said, it is an interesting idea and could work better than the bricks.

[hunters stick]

The wave is what bothers me the most, I can get it to settle down in about 20 minutes after I raise the temp , 10 deg. increments might work pretty easy but it,ll take forever to get it up high,on the other hand my new 11 lb waltons stuffer arrived today, here we go,

[samspade]

I use a inkbird pid controller. I put the temp probe near the electric heating element. That causes the element to cycle quicker. The result is slightly longer to reach a temp but once there only 5 to 10 degree swings.

[hunters stick]

Interesting,
Mine has a digital controller an it came with an inkbird, the sensor is 2/3 the way up on the back wall, sounds like I might need to move it close to the heat ? Did you have to hard wire yours into your appliance?

[salmonmaster]

hunters stick it’s to bad they don’t make the thermastat probe so it CAN be moved around inside the smokehouse.

[hunters stick]

I can move it but, It,ll require my toolbox, l