Hey Guys (and Gals) - I use the term interchangeably,
I just bought a Camp Chef XXL Vertical Smoker and I'm just about to take the dang thing back. I've "smoked" cornish hens for Christmas, some thick pork chops, and burgers a few times trying to figure this thing out. I'm hardly getting any smoke out of it.
I chatted with the Camp Chef people and took their advice. I bought new pellets as the ones I was using could have gotten damp. I can hear the auger turning and pellets dropping into the burn chamber, but it is super slow and not many pellets drop. I hardly have any ash after a burn, seriously, like a couple of tablespoons maybe.
Here's what happens. I put fresh pellets in. Turn the smoker on. Set the menu to High Smoke and it starts up. I hear a few pellets drop in. After a few minutes I get some fair smoke. I guess most would call it "dirty smoke". When the startup time is done I set the temp. For this example I'll say 250 degress but I've been playing with different temperatures. I hear the fan running. In fact it always runs the entire time I'm smoking which seems odd to me but I'm brand new to this. The thing will run up about 50 degrees above my setting so...around 300 degrees in our example. It frequently stays pretty high above the set temp but that's a battle for another. I just want some smoke now. After this it may or may not drop into range for quite awhile but the thing gives me no smoke.
I'll admit that I'm new to smoking the right way...thin blue line of smoke and all that but please don't misunderstand. I get that, but this thing will cook for as long as I leave it alone but almost nonexistent smoke. It may generate some fairly heavy smoke for a couple of minutes during that time but, for the most part I see nothing coming out of it. Nothing at all. No dirty smoke. No thin blue line. Nothing in between the two extremes. I might as well put my stuff in the oven.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.