3.5D Wood Questions

[Jimeo]

I’ll cast my vote for the chunk of charcoal after a smoke, my experience is ash equals combustion.

[LarryD]

Combustion requires fuel (wood), heat (element), and oxygen...  You could change the wood and possibly cut down on the combustion, but the reality is you want it to smoke and and wood that starts smoking is at risk of combustion if it's hot enough and has enough oxygen.  You can ramp up the heat over time as suggested by Jim to try to prevent the combustion.  Once the smoker is full of smoke it will have less oxygen and the heat can go up some more.  Finally, you can restrict airflow/oxygen to the wood which is what the foil does.  The best way to do that is to restrict the access inside the smoke box by reducing the number and size of holes through which oxygen can be introduced.

On a side note, here's a shot of some of my wood after a smoke from a some time ago...

[Walt]

This has been an interesting  topic over the years. Animated opinions as to the outcome are abundant.  I really have not had an issue that, I felt, reflected poorly on the final product. I leave the chip screen all the time.  Early on, I saw it puffing once or twice but haven't seen it in years.  Big believers in the fancy wood abound. I have not drank the cool aid. I have a great source for free pecan & fruit wood but I also use big bo store bought chips regularly with great success. Much of this depends on personality & generally how anal retentive one is. Try it setup various ways and come to your own conclusion.

[ken h]

This has been an interesting  topic over the years. Animated opinions as to the outcome are abundant.  I really have not had an issue that, I felt, reflected poorly on the final product. I leave the chip screen all the time.  Early on, I saw it puffing once or twice but haven't seen it in years.  Big believers in the fancy wood abound. I have not drank the cool aid. I have a great source for free pecan & fruit wood but I also use big bo store bought chips regularly with great success. Much of this depends on personality & generally how anal retentive one is. Try it setup various ways and come to your own conclusion.

Walt, thank for your perspective on this.  I am about to embark on setting up my SI in various ways to sort out what is going to work for me. There was a learning curve when I got my Weber SMC years ago and there's a learning curve with the SI.  I got the Weber figured out and Im sure I will get the SI figure out as well, especially with all the great advice and support on this forum.