“When doing light amounts of meat in the model 3 I have noticed the wood chunks are starting a little combustion. Internal temp is about 15 to 20 degrees higher then set point. I was wondering for lighter loads is there a way with the WiFi controller to limit the wattage of the element?“
I’m thinking perhaps the combustion is causing your Pit temp to be higher than set point. Either that or you need to do an auto tune. The Pid will keep pit within 1-2 * of set point if tuned and no other sources of heat are present. Others can chime in on this to agree or offer other thoughts. There are also many ideas floated on putting wood in foil boats and using wood with a good moisture content such as wood from smokinlious.com. I do not believe there is a way to limit the wattage, the elements are either on or off, however the PID is capable of doing this in steps. (Explanation above my pay grade) I would also using an alternate thermometer check out the pit probe accuracy just st to erase the possibility of it being off, which I doubt it is.
On the cheese, I use a amazen tube smoker and not the cold plate or elements. It works great for me doing 15-sometimes 30#s at a time. Hope this helps to some degree.
I think Doug is spot on here! I am pretty sure the combustion is spiking your temp so fast that the PID isn't able to adjust down that fast.
There are different methods of avoiding combustion such as wood foiling, ramp-up (my preferred method), block positioning, etc.
Personally, I prefer the ramp-up method because it is so easy. I just start my smoker at 150 for the first 45 minutes and then up my temp to my final smoking temperature. This shortens the amount of time that the element is hitting the wood whether it is foiled or not at full power. After 45 minutes your smoker is able to slowly climb to your final temp without as much full element power.
I just have an analog #3, so I do it this way. But, if I had a D model or a WI-FI model that I could program steps, I think I would set the temp at 150 for the first 30 minutes, then 175-200, for the next 15 minutes, and then up to the final smoking temp.
I love to smoke cheese, and I utilize the A-MAZE-N smoker (I have both a tube and a maze version) for my cold smoking. I use the A-MAZE-N smoker primarily for cheese and bacon smokes. I don't use the smoke plate either. Depending on the time of year that you smoke your cheese, the A-MAZE-N smoker can push your heat a little high for cheese, and in those situations, I use frozen 2-Liter soda bottles to keep the temps down. However, most of my cheese smokes are in the Spring or Fall, so the temps are usually not an issue.
