As I stated in another recent post, I purchased the charbroil electric
water smoker a few months ago and have gotten good results so far (good
pulled pork anyways).

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem or not, but I thought
I'd share it with the group nonetheless. I have found that once the
smoker is up to temperature and is good 'n hot to the touch, then the
thermostat controller itself absorbs a good amount of heat and I think
this results in the thermostat kicking off more than it should. It is
true that a thermostat's job is exclusively to measure temperature and
kick on or off to keep the measured temperature within a certain
adjustable range. But my point is that when it's set to high, it often
kicks off so frequently that the smoker has trouble getting above 210
or so. This is on a warm day, light wind, and full sun.

Besides not getting as hot as I'd like, it also has the effect of
reducing smoke output because the burner goes off and the wood chunks
start to cool down sometimes.

I can babysit the smoker and get around this problem by unplugging the
thermostat, quenching the thermostat probe in cool water, and then
re-plugging it. But this only has a temporary effect, and it'll become
heat soaked again in a few minutes.

A more productive solution is to get a small table-top fan and have it
blowing air across the thermostat housing to remove the excess heat it
has absorbed. By "tricking" the thermostat in this way, I can easily
get the smoker up to 250 or so. Will I eventually burn out the
thermostat or heating coil? Maybe. But so far, so good. At any rate,
I find this is absolutely necessary to get the smoker up to the temps I
want (usually 230) so I don't have much choice. I find it frustrating
that I need to cool the thermostat by forced convection in order to get
it to operate properly, but other than this, the charbroil has
performed well for me.

I just thought I'd pass this along to anyone interested.

I should also say that using a "thermostat fan" like this might
technically void any warranty on the product, and some might consider
this to be a fire hazard as well due to increased or prolonged
electrical draw although I don't see how it's any different than using
the smoker on a cold day when the thermostat keeps itself turned on
nonstop automatically.

I have noticed that the plug end of the power cord gets quite warm to
the touch, and this happens even when I'm not using my "thermostat fan"
to milk higher temps out of the smoker. So regardless of using a fan
or not, in the future I will probably be using a remote outlet instead
of one directly attached to my house's exterior as a safety precaution.
I have outlets by my pool pump, as well as outlets in my barn, which
are probably "safer" to use since these are dedicated circuits and are
run underground instead of being wired all over throughout the house
itself.

I did have the smoker trip a breaker once (actually it tripped the GFCI
outlet) which I think might have happened because the thermostat was
sitting there kicking on and right back off, almost flickering, about
once every few seconds. I suspect this happens occasionally when the
temperature is hovering right at the edge of the thermostat's range...
and in fact, using a "thermostat fan" avoids this situation, so there's
an added benefit to using a fan.

dakota2112 said

<snip Charbroil discussion>

I've had a CharBroil for several years and have not had the trouble
you are experiencing. Mine comes up to temp without complaint and,
while it sometimes varies a bit, it is always able to maintain my
required temperature.

Note, I've wrapped mine with two layers of a thermal blanket designed
for bullet smokers. However, this was to address heat problems on
cold fall days. According to this link, I was smoking on Oct. `01
(Midwest)

http://tinyurl.com/dssvg

My power cord gets pretty hot too.

From your description I'm wondering if your thermostat is bad.

hth


--
Better living through smoking.

"dakota2112" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> As I stated in another recent post, I purchased the charbroil electric
> water smoker a few months ago and have gotten good results so far (good
> pulled pork anyways).
> <snip>

I haven't had any problem maintaining required temp in my Charbroil
Electric. Note, however, that I use a digital thermometer at the grill
level, and just tweak my thermostat up or down to adjust until I have the
right temp. I also have sand in the water pan, which seems to run it a
little warmer than with water.

Wood chunks smoke just fine, provided I'm cooking at around 250, and I place
them relatively close to the element. I've tried lower temperature smoking
(160F) when I found the same problem you're having: the element isn't on
long enough to get the chunks smoking wekk. So I tried putting an old pizza
pan directly on the element, and sprinkling wood chips (vs chunks) on that.
Seemed to work much better...

HTH

/M
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