Qualify this from the start, that I've never smoked on a pellet pooper. And I see the complaints about the smoke created by pellet poopers. I have to wonder though, if the lack of smoke is because of complete combustion of the pellets.
When I smoke on my offset, when I'm getting a good fire with a lot of air flow, the smoke out the stack is clear. Can't hardly see it. But if I put my hand over the stack and leave it there a few seconds, I can smell smoke on my hand.
Having a lot of smoke is not necessarily a good thing, in fact, mostly its a bad thing. Meathead addresses that, he says for short cooks a lot of white smoke can be good.
Next time ya fire up the pellet pooper, put your hand over the stack and see if ya still getting smoke flavor.
On smoke rings, I don't try to get a smoke ring, if it happens fine, but its really not a measure of flavor. Its just a cosmetic appearance thing.
I think you're right on the money with the complete combustion thing Lynn. I mean the more efficient your combustion, the less smoke you get. It only makes sense! This efficient and near-complete combustion is
exactly what makes pellets such a good fuel source for a furnace.
As far as the quantity of smoke is concerned, I get that lots of white smoke is bad. And, for me at least, it's not about how much smoke I see coming out of my cooker. It's the comparative lack of smoke flavor that sticks to the food. It may have something to do with the "inexpensive nature" of the particular unit I was gifted (entry level from several years ago) and how the air/smoke moves about the cook chamber. But it also might just be due to how the pellets combust vs a chunk of wood sitting on a pile of charcoal.
After my first cook on it I did a little research (mostly because I didn't like the +/-25+ degree swings I observed). If you're trying to cook at a specific temp, say 250F, the auger feed (or poops) pellets into the firepot and ignites them. After a bit the igniter cuts out and the pellets sit there and smolder which makes smoke. As the temp drops, more pellets are fed to recover the temp and the process repeats. So instead of getting a constant supply of wispy smoke like on a WSM or offset (with a properly maintained fire of course), you get bursts of thick smoke intermittently throughout the cook. That might not be the most technically correct description, but it is what I observed.
There is, at least on my unit, a "SMOKE" mode where instead of trying to maintain a temperature setpoint, the controller/auger just feeds pellets on a time-based algorithm (ie feed for 5 seconds, wait for 30 seconds, feed for 5 seconds, wait for 30 seconds). The result is more frequent bursts of smoke, but since the controller isn’t trying to make temperature, you spend more time at a lower temp and extend your cook time. In fact, the only time I recall seeing the on-board thermometer exceed 200F was while the unit was in direct sunlight. To be fair, I've only ever tried the “SMOKE” mode once, and even then only for an hour before cranking it to 250F, but I barely perceived a difference in the amount of smoke on the meat.