Fire not getting enough oxygen?

I'm smoking on an Old Country Wrangler using hickory splits. I am using a dog bowl through the smoker's damper to attach the RD3. While the HM is able to keep the temperature fine the smoke isn't the thin white smoke you're looking for and you can taste some creosote build up. I've looked around and I've seen some posts saying that the PID setting need to be changed. I'm just using the default settings. What do I need to set these to and how does PID settings effect this? I'll post my settings and my graph





Thanks!

Rayo,

I see no one has responded to you. This site is mostly for Weber enthusiasts. Maybe there's a Country Wrangler site out there. Hope you figure out your temperature problem. What's a Country Wrangler? Would Like to see a picture.

I think this is it. Maybe someone can help? I'm all for trying to help people rather than to shut them down.

Old Country BBQ Pits Wrangler II Charcoal Smoker

Yeah, I'm with Chris. The heatermeter is not Weber specific and since this is the only forum devoted to the heatermeter, we get all types of smokers on here with all types of issues and this happens to be heatermeter relates.

What are you using for fuel? Wood, briquettes, lump

What are you using for smoke? Chunks or chips.

If you should be using chunks and if you are defiantly use less.

Is your fuel damp?

Your smoke issues is not PID related

Thanks guys John and Chris!!!
Chris, that is the exact smoker.
John, to answer your questions
Fuel/smoke: I start with Briquettes but I'm using hickory splits for the entire cook. (1 every 45 minutes or so)
Fuel doesn't seem to be damp and the split are "seasoned" over a year.
I have my top damper wide open too if that makes any difference.

I'm sorry, why are you trying to use a controller on your pit when you need to feed it splits every 45 minutes? I've never run a controller on my stickburner and I don't plan to because a stick burner requires wood so often there's no need for a controller.

Because I want my temp to be consistent without having to fool with the damper all night long. Smoking a brisket without really being able to take a pee break is not fun.

It's tough enough trying to get an offset running off of charcoal in a charcoal basket to operate smoothly, putting in fresh pieces of wood every 45 minutes is not conducive to great temperature control.

If you have to tinker with your pit so much that you can't take a whiz without things going awry you need to practice and learn better fire control for your pit. A controller will not help much because each time it shuts down the blower you are getting a lot of creosote action coming from your splits. If using charcoal and the blower shuts down there isn't nearly as much creosote produces because all that has been burned off prior. Good pitmasters who use an offset generally have all their vents wide open (or even the firebox door open) and control the temperature by the size of the fire. It's essential to run this way to get a clean cook. My advice if you insist on trying to get the controller working is to run it with the fan speed as low as possible so it's constantly running. Of course once you finally do achieve this you'll find that you're already controlling the pit with the size fire you are running with.

Thanks for your input. I'll keep tinkering with it to see if I can get it to work. I've seen a few people in this forum post that they were using a HM on an offset smoker. I'm not sure if they're using splits but I'm sure it can be done. I'll post my results*


*if I can get it to work

I made some modifications and I got some pretty good results in testing. I got the thin blue smoke I was looking for (most of the time). I still need to make a few tweaks in my procedure.
1) I ended up removing the dog bowl and drilling a hole in the fire box to connect directly to it. This freed up the dampers to get let in more oxygen but the air from my blower was too far away from the flames to do anything.
2) I extended a pipe from the connection, inside the pit to be closer to the actual fire. This allowed the blower to blow right onto the log. I added a 45 degree elbow to direct the air.
3) Now my only issue is fire control after I add and additional split after 45 minutes to an hour. Also when doing meats like chicken wings when I have to check often or sauce my temp takes a while to recover from an open lid situation.

Overall though I'm seeing some progress and I will keep posted with my results.