Temperature Issues - New Heating Element?

[CUTiger80]

2 questions:
This weekend I smoked some chicken breasts in my SI#2 (it is approximately 1 year old).  The recipe that I was using called for smoking them at 275 deg.  I put about 2 oz. of pecan wood in the fire box sitting on a double layer of foil (for easier clean-up).  I set my Auber to ramp up to 150 deg for 30 min then up to 275 deg for the remainder of the smoke.  After about 1.5 hours, the smoker was only up to 238 deg and that is as high as it ever got.  I had 8 fairly large chicken breasts on the top 2 racks.  Does it sound like my element is bad or that I need to upgrade to the 800 watt element?
Also, my wood was black when the smoke was over.  Is that normal or should it be ashy looking? 
I smoked a Boston Butt yesterday at 225 deg for 4 hours (before covering and moving inside to the oven) and the smoker stayed dead-on 225 deg and again the wood (about 4.25 oz. of hickory) was black.  (I just started using wood that I bought from Fruita-wood, which I believe has a higher moisture content than the cheap Weber wood that I had been using.)
Comments on the heating element and the wood would be appreciated.

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[SuperDave]

Ravel, did you do a bypass on your analog temp controller?  Was it turned all the way up to 250 if you haven't?  That interference is the only explanation that I can think of for it not reaching the correct temperature.  It is a little thing, but check to see if the probe jacks are screwed on tight (plugs that plug into the Auber).

[SuperDave]

Wood change is due to ramp up versus full temp start to finish.

[CUTiger80]

Dave,
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I did do a by-pass of the internal temperature controller.
On the Boston Butt smoke yesterday, I put my Maverick probe in next to the permanent Auber probe and they tracked exactly, so I doubt that the plug is loose.
Also, I don't understand your comment about the wood.  After 4 hours at 225 with the butt, the smoke out of the chimney was pretty much non-existent, but the wood was black not ashy.  (Note that this is not unusual for my smokes, but just never really knew what the "finished" wood chunks are supposed to look like.)

[SuperDave]

I had a smoke where I could never get closer than 20 degrees to the temperature that I set in the Auber program.  I did another auto tune and it seemed to correct the problem.  There have been, however, a lot of complaints about inconsistency of the Auber performance as documented in the thread below.  Some have had to return the Auber for another one.

http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=3357.0

On the wood, I have seen several guys post that their wood normally looks like the charcoal with the #1 and #2 element.  If one does a ramp up on the heat, even more so. 

[swthorpe]

I have a #2 and for short smokes, the wood is always black and charred, and most is still present when the smoke is finished.  The only time I get to pure ash is on longer smokes, like boston butts or briskets.   I don't foil the wood, just put it in the back of the smoke box. 

[CUTiger80]

I had a smoke where I could never get closer than 20 degrees to the temperature that I set in the Auber program.  I did another auto tune and it seemed to correct the problem.  There have been, however, a lot of complaints about inconsistency of the Auber performance as documented in the thread below.  Some have had to return the Auber for another one.

Dave,
The strange thing is that the Auber "output" LED was on almost all of the time (like it was trying to get there).  I suspect that either my element is bad or my Auber is not outputting the full 120V (if that is possible). 
Unfortunately, when I did the chicken breasts and had the problem, I was using both of my Maverick probes in the meat.  I think that I will do a test run with a dummy meat load this weekend to see if I can tell what is going on. 
I have followed this thread, and even replied to it several times with my experiences.  Has there been any consensius on how to determine if the Auber is working correctly or not?  Both of my smokes this weekend were with the fixed smoker probe only (no meat probe). 

[Carp210]

This is wood from my last pork butt cook.  Total time was a long 22 hrs at 235.  Smokinlicous wood hickory and cherry.  Never turned to white ash like the wood from Lowes or Home depot.

[CUTiger80]

I have a #2 and for short smokes, the wood is always black and charred, and most is still present when the smoke is finished.  The only time I get to pure ash is on longer smokes, like boston butts or briskets.   I don't foil the wood, just put it in the back of the smoke box.

Steve,
Thanks for the feedback.  That would explain why the Boston Butt smoke resulted in black wood since I removed it after 4 hours and put it into the oven to finish.  I guess that the black wood does not necessarily mean that the wood caught on fire.  It is just that it has not fully decomposed.

[CUTiger80]

This is wood from my last pork butt cook.  Total time was a long 22 hrs at 235.  Smokinlicous wood hickory and cherry.  Never turned to white ash like the wood from Lowes or Home depot.

Thanks Dave.  That is exactly what mine looked like.  I feel better about that part now.

[swthorpe]

That's right, Ravel.  I have not experienced wood fire (the belch) for quite a while now, and my wood pretty much looks like Carp210's picture, although I as noted, I have gotten to ash on the longer smokes.   For me, the charred wood is pretty normal, but the food comes out with plenty of smokiness!

[Carp210]

Ravel,
You said "The strange thing is that the Auber "output" LED was on almost all of the time (like it was trying to get there)"

That makes a lot of sense.  My Auber starts to cycle exactly 40 degrees from target so you were right around the time that the Auber should have started to cycle and your light should not have been on all the time.  Was the Auber locked on 237 or was it moving up and down?

[Carp210]

Ravel,
How long was this chicken smoke begining to end?  Did you have the Auber meat probe in one of the breasts?

[CUTiger80]

Well, I went ahead and ordered a new element from Steve.  I still plan on testing my current one to see if I can determine if it is good or not.  My experience with elements like these in other appliances (ovens & water heaters) is that it is either good or bad, not somewhere in between.  I will try as best as I can to simulate the chicken smoke that I did last Saturday, but this time with one of my Maverick probes in the smoker to double check the smoker temp.

[CUTiger80]

Ravel,
You said "The strange thing is that the Auber "output" LED was on almost all of the time (like it was trying to get there)"

That makes a lot of sense.  My Auber starts to cycle exactly 40 degrees from target so you were right around the time that the Auber should have started to cycle and your light should not have been on all the time.  Was the Auber locked on 237 or was it moving up and down?

Dave,
I'm not totally sure since the chicken was getting done.  I was more tuned into the IT of the chicken breasts.  The highest I saw it get was 238, but I was not standing over it the entire time.  The total cook time was about 2.5 hours.  The first 1.5 hours I just let the smoker (and Auber) go until the IT of the breast reached 160 deg. (about 1.5 hours in).  I then opened the door and brushed on the BBQ sauce and then kept opening the door and checking it every 20 minutes or so with my pen thermometer to see when the chicken was done (165 deg).
I did not have the Auber meat probe in the chicken at any time.  The probe was not even plugged into the Auber.