I just finished my first run with the #3 and had mixed results with baby back ribs and whole chicken, butterfly prep. I prepped by autotuning the Auber PID using bricks as a heat sink and did a couple of runs empty to work out the smoke belching that I had read about. I settled on wrapping my apple wood with foil and ramping up to 140 for 30 min then 250 for the rest of the cook. I am a novice smoker, so I am doing everything the Myron Myxon way. He recommends a water pan, so I tried an aluminum pan filled halfway with apple juice for flavor and moisture. I placed this on the lowest shelf and place the chicken on a shelf directly over this. Then I had the ribs on another aluminum pan on the top shelf.
The smoker seemed to have a hard time getting to 250 even though I autotuned with what I thought would have been a big enough heat sink. I was concerned that the water pan was too much of a heat sink or it was causing the lower section of the smoker to be hotter than the top and allowing the #3's probe and rheostat to kick in and interfere with the Auber set temp and its wall mounted probe near the top of the smoker. So I quickly removed the back panel and bypassed the #3's temp control, which was something that I had planned to do in the future. That seemed to take care of the temp problem.
The chicken needed extra time but cooked well because I had temp probes in the breast and thigh (extra Maverick around). The pork ribs were by time only and turned out a little underdone (250, 2 hours uncovered, 1 hr covered with small amount of apple juice). Still good, had a good bark, but not fall off the bones tender (like I had before slaving over a modified offset charcoal smoker).
I know the smoke goes all throughout the smoker but is my water pan affecting the heat distribution. It's a good sized pan that comes to within 2 inches of all sides, front, and back. If the water pan is for moisture, can it be placed on the bottom, next to the burner in an aluminum loaf pan (and not take up valuable shelf space) or does it have to be directly over the heating element/smoker box?
The smoker seemed to have a hard time getting to 250 even though I autotuned with what I thought would have been a big enough heat sink. I was concerned that the water pan was too much of a heat sink or it was causing the lower section of the smoker to be hotter than the top and allowing the #3's probe and rheostat to kick in and interfere with the Auber set temp and its wall mounted probe near the top of the smoker. So I quickly removed the back panel and bypassed the #3's temp control, which was something that I had planned to do in the future. That seemed to take care of the temp problem.
The chicken needed extra time but cooked well because I had temp probes in the breast and thigh (extra Maverick around). The pork ribs were by time only and turned out a little underdone (250, 2 hours uncovered, 1 hr covered with small amount of apple juice). Still good, had a good bark, but not fall off the bones tender (like I had before slaving over a modified offset charcoal smoker).
I know the smoke goes all throughout the smoker but is my water pan affecting the heat distribution. It's a good sized pan that comes to within 2 inches of all sides, front, and back. If the water pan is for moisture, can it be placed on the bottom, next to the burner in an aluminum loaf pan (and not take up valuable shelf space) or does it have to be directly over the heating element/smoker box?
