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You may however have a pellet smoker and these use wood pellets to provide both heat and smoke. Read as gas but rather than lighting the gas burner, just switch on the electrical element and that's it for many electric smokers. Controlling heat intensity is through the regulation of the gas flow. The gas burner will then in turn heat a ash pan or lava bricks and it on these that you place the wood chips.
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You clearly need enough fire to heat the smoker but after that it's about controlling the burn to give a steady flow of smoke from the wood chips and an even heat for the length of time you need.īy comparison gas is straight forward.
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You need a decent fire but not such a raging one as you would have in an wood fired offset smoker. To get your fire going use an odour-less firelighter cube and place some charcoal on top and open the bottom damper to get some airflow through the smoker. You may or may not have a water bath, personally I prefer to use one as it increases humidity and so helps build a pink smoke ring on the meat. Heat is from the charcoal fire in the bottom of the smoker and smoke is provided by wood chips dropped onto the fire. Note:- There must always be some airflow otherwise your fire will die and your smoke will turn stale.Ĭharcoal smokers come in all shapes and sizes but the principle remains the same. When you reach this stage you can batten down the hatches and start to regulate the temperature using the dampers. You'll be hardly able to see the smoke and probably question whether this is right.but it is, it's perfect. Your fire is ready when the all the exposed wood has charred and the thick white smoke has turned to a wispy blue colour. In the first instance get everything open (dampers, doors lids) and get as much air to your fire as possible. To get you're fire going I use hardwood kindling and an odour-less firelighter. I find that I normally have the flue damper fully open and my heat regulations is purely regulated by the firebox damper. Regulate this using the damper on the flue and the firebox. The heat is controlled by the intensity of your fire which in turn is controlled by air flow through the smoker. Wood is fantastic, I think it's probably the most difficult to control but there's something rustic about it. the firebox is set to the side of the food chamber. Typically a wood fired smoker will be an offset smoker ie. For more details on your choice of hardwood, use my section on barbecue wood chips.
#Smoker automatic feeder manual#
One other point general to this smoker instruction manual is that whenever I refer to wood I'm referring to hardwood and never softwood. Note:- As you read on you'll notice that there's a lot more detail for wood and charcoal fired smokers because these are generally the more difficult to control but don't be put off if you're using this article as part of your research for buying a meat smoker because at the end of the day, these units (in my opinion) offer the most fun. This will get you going and no doubt as soon as you've started you'll want to learn more so I'll put some links through the page where you drill down into more detail about each subject.
#Smoker automatic feeder trial#
There is an element of trial and error and believe me, I’ve made a few errors in my time so don’t be too disappointed if your first attempt isn’t exactly perfect. Indeed smoking is an art form as many pitmasters will tell you.
#Smoker automatic feeder how to#
Most smoker instructions manuals cover the assembly of the unit but rarely will you find a smoker instructions manual that actually covers how to set up your smoker.