Dyna glo smoker question

[Crow Hunter]

I picked up a used dyna glo electric smoker in an auction. It appears to heat fine and control the heat, but I am having an issue with getting the wood chips to start burning and produce smoke. I had the smoker up to 250 degrees and the wood chips did not ignite. It seems to me that the wood chip tray sits too far from the element, a good inch or more above it, I had a little chief smoker back in the day where the wood chip pan sat right on the element. Anyone else had this issue? I could use my amazn smoker box in there, but it seems to me this should work as designed. I had an independent temp gauge in there so I know it is getting to the temp it says it is at. It is assembled correctly per the manual. Thanks for any thoughts.

[leech~~]

The wood doesn't ignite, it just smolders.  Try putting the wood in and let it start to smoke before you put your meat in, could take 15mins. 

[Crow Hunter]

Sorry, I meant to say smolder, not ignite. I let the smoker sit at 250 degrees for well over an hour and no smoke whatsoever. I suppose i could try pellets instead of wood chips. The manual says to use wood chips that are at least 1-3 inches long and no more than 1/4 inch thick, or wood pellets. Some of the wood pieces look a little blackened, but never started to smoke. 

[leech~~]

59 minutes ago, Crow Hunter said:

Sorry, I meant to say smolder, not ignite. I let the smoker sit at 250 degrees for well over an hour and no smoke whatsoever. I suppose i could try pellets instead of wood chips. The manual says to use wood chips that are at least 1-3 inches long and no more than 1/4 inch thick, or wood pellets. Some of the wood pieces look a little blackened, but never started to smoke. 

 

Yeah that doesn't sound right, shouldn't have anything to do with the wood type or pellets. Got any pictures of the wood pan and element?  Hope that's not why it was for sale? 

Here's a picture of my Char broil smoker wood box sitting right over the element. She smokes like crazy with any wood I've used. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by leech~~

[Crow Hunter]

It's a little hard to get great pictures, the wood chip and water pans are on a rack on a drawer that slides in and out. Here are the pics I was able to take. The first shows the water and wood chip pans in their rack, the second shows the wood chip pan above and to the right of the element, you can see how high above the element (lower left) it sits.

Thanks for your help!

[Crow Hunter]

When the drawer is pushed in all the way, the wood chip pan sits directly above the element, but too high, in my opinion. I suppose I could modify it to sit lower, but the thing should work as designed.

[Mike89]

did you call their customer service??  and maybe you tube or google too...

[leech~~]

52 minutes ago, Crow Hunter said:

It's a little hard to get great pictures, the wood chip and water pans are on a rack on a drawer that slides in and out. Here are the pics I was able to take. The first shows the water and wood chip pans in their rack, the second shows the wood chip pan above and to the right of the element, you can see how high above the element (lower left) it sits.

Thanks for your help!

You may want to try getting one of those cheap point temp readers and see what the element is reading at?  May be it's just not getting hot enough or yeah just set the darn thing right on it!  

Is the water pan sitting lower then the one you have wood in?  If so may the bigger one is for wood and the smaller one water?  

It's looks so darn clean in there it may have not work right for the last guy? 

Edited June 29, 2021 by leech~~

[leech~~]

This is what the new Dyna Glo electric smoker setup looks like on-line now.  It looks like they now changed things around and the wood pan is sitting right on the element. They may have found out they had an issue back then?  May be take that rack out, put the wood pan right on the element and put the water on one of the smoking racks like their showing now? 

 

 

dyna-glo-electric-smokers-dgu732bde-d-4f_145.webp

Edited June 29, 2021 by leech~~

[Crow Hunter]

I got a reply from their customer service, said it need to be at least 180 degrees F to produce smoke, but  I get no smoke at 250. I sent my photos to their customer service. I will experiment and figure something out. The water pan is larger, the two pans can not switch positions, the water pan position is not above the element anyway. Taking that rack off and sitting the wood pan directly on the element may be my first experiment. Do you use water in the smoker when you smoke? I don't think I ever have. Again, I really appreciate your input. 

[leech~~]

3 minutes ago, Crow Hunter said:

I got a reply from their customer service, said it need to be at least 180 degrees F to produce smoke, but  I get no smoke at 250. I sent my photos to their customer service. I will experiment and figure something out. The water pan is larger, the two pans can not switch positions, the water pan position is not above the element anyway. Taking that rack off and sitting the wood pan directly on the element may be my first experiment. Do you use water in the smoker when you smoke? I don't think I ever have. Again, I really appreciate your input. 

I only us water on long smoking items like brisket or Turkey.  

Yeah the unit I posted above is not the tray unit like you have.

Hope you figure it out.  Let us know if you do.  

My smoker has a lid with holes over the wood.  I wonder if you tried some tin foil over it with holes poked in it to hold more heat but let the smoke out?  

 

[Crow Hunter]

That's another good idea. I will post here when  I figure out the best way to solve my problem.

[Big Dave2]

On 6/28/2021 at 7:04 PM, Crow Hunter said:

I picked up a used dyna glo electric smoker in an auction. It appears to heat fine and control the heat, but I am having an issue with getting the wood chips to start burning and produce smoke. I had the smoker up to 250 degrees and the wood chips did not ignite. It seems to me that the wood chip tray sits too far from the element, a good inch or more above it, I had a little chief smoker back in the day where the wood chip pan sat right on the element. Anyone else had this issue? I could use my amazn smoker box in there, but it seems to me this should work as designed. I had an independent temp gauge in there so I know it is getting to the temp it says it is at. It is assembled correctly per the manual. Thanks for any thoughts.

 

To be honest, if it were me, I wouldn't even try to fix it. I would get an a-maze-n smoker or pellet tube, put it on the bottom shelf and use that for the smoke flavor instead. To me, the worst part of an electric smoker is the fact that you have to refill the wood chip box every 20-30 minutes. With a pellet maze or tube you can get more than enough smoke time for any cook. 

 

 

[Crow Hunter]

Thanks, I have the a-maz-n smoker and used it last night to smoke some sausages in the smoker, it worked fine. I did have to relight the a-maz-n a few times, I think I need to get it going better before I put it in the smoker, I had not used it in a while. 

[rundrave]

12 hours ago, Big Dave2 said:

To be honest, if it were me, I wouldn't even try to fix it. I would get an a-maze-n smoker or pellet tube, put it on the bottom shelf and use that for the smoke flavor instead. To me, the worst part of an electric smoker is the fact that you have to refill the wood chip box every 20-30 minutes. With a pellet maze or tube you can get more than enough smoke time for any cook.

 

this x100 I do the same thing with my electric smoker

[Big Dave2]

11 hours ago, Crow Hunter said:

Thanks, I have the a-maz-n smoker and used it last night to smoke some sausages in the smoker, it worked fine. I did have to relight the a-maz-n a few times, I think I need to get it going better before I put it in the smoker, I had not used it in a while. 

 

Maybe it needs a little air hole?

[Crow Hunter]

I used it again yesterday, let the amazn burn longer before I blew out the flame, and it smoked fine. This smoker has no air intake on the bottom?? so I just left the lower drawer cracked to get air into it.