woodvette wrote:i am not sure how long the oak has been drying. the smoke was white and there was quite a bit of it throughout the whole cooking. i had the chimney full open and the intake was hardly open at all so i could get the temp regulated around 275. i did have several pieces of the oak in the firebox at once. reason i did was was to try keeping it burning for a long time. so maybe i did not have enough air flow? and too much wood at once?
thanks.
It sounds like you were cooking with fire instead of a good coal base. Learning fire management will be the key to success on a stick burner.
1.) Find out where the cooker likes to run without fight it.
2.) learn when to add a piece of wood to maintain a clean fire and not lose your coal base.
Example: My big Cooker runs between 250° and 275°. At 260° I am adding a split the temps will continue to drop to around 250° then once the split catches will climb to about 275° this process takes about 30 to 45 minutes.
No cooker is the same they all require learning. If you have as much white smoke coming out around your doors as you do your exhaust you could have drafting issues what are you cooking on?