I finally had the time and cooperating weather to finally do a long smoke.  I had two racks of St. Louis style ribs ready to go.  For about three hours everything worked great.  I had it set on 225 and the grate below the ribs were reading about 235 and the grate above the ribs were reading about 200. Then it went crazy.  I first noticed a huge amount of smoke everywhere.  At first I thought something caught on fire.  The smoker was cleaned before this including cleaning out the firepot.  I had only used it twice for heating up sausage and not a long smoke.

I looked at the temperature and it was at 165 and it then started to rapidly go up all the way to 450 degrees.  It was so hot the water was boiling.  I then lowered the temperature setting and opened the door.  I could hear the fire roaring and see the flames shooting at past the heat deflector.  Within a few minutes it started to cool down.  When it got down low enough I reset the temperature setting to 225 and closed the door.

This happened four more times before I was able to take the ribs off.  Each time I would notice a huge amount of smoke out of every seam it could and I could hear the roaring fire.  It was so much smoke I could not  see through the glass door.  Each time I opened the door and lowered the temperature setting until the temperatures would come down.  Except for the first time I was able to keep the temperature down to around 300.  Each time the temperature would drop and then go up rapidly.

There was hardly any wind blowing and the ambient temperatures where in the upper 80's.  This was as much work as a stick smoker would be.

Any ideas what would make this do this and how to fix it?

Another issue is I could not get my smoke tube to smoke.  It would smoke when the door was open, but it did very little smoke when the door was closed.  I took it out four times and while it was out it would smoke, but when I put it back in the smoke would stop.  I also tried different locations for it.  I guess it had to be an air issue.

 I would most definitely call the manufacturer..It sounds like a controller issue to me..

 Not 100% sure on this; the smoke tube may not getting enough air as the smoker is rather well sealed and may have a low volume fan.  Where was the smoke tube located?

I would call the mfg.  Sounds like certainly an air circulation issue for the tube smoker.  They won't help you with that.  It may be a fan issue causing the over smoke issue too.  Did you set the smoker to 350° at startup like the manual recommends and then dial back to your set temp when it hits 350°?  Not sure why that would be an issue but that is what they recommend.  Maybe it does something to dial in the controller.

I used it for a several hour jerky cook and didn't have those type of swing issues, but I was at a very low temp setting too.

I left mine going all day just to see how it did and I had a similar experience. I only noticed it twice though in about an 8 hour period. At the 150 setting I had a spike around 300, hours after I started it. Then I bumped it up to 225 and had a spike a few hours later that went over 400. Both times the only reason I even noticed it was because I saw it billowing a lot of smoke so I watched to see how high it would go. Mine was empty and the ambient temps were in the 90s. Oddly enough I do not recall Bentley having any issues with temperature spikes when he was testing your smoker. Because of that I wanted to get a few more hours of smoke on mine to see if it happened again before I said anything, to the manufacturer or here. But now that you mentioned the same thing, I may not be alone.

On the other hand at the smoke setting it runs great. I had mine on the smoke setting for about 4 hours the other day and the temp just went from 150 to 180 on a 90 degree day. I was pretty happy with that. I was pretty happy with the smoke production too.

 I would most definitely call the manufacturer..It sounds like a controller issue to me..

 Not 100% sure on this; the smoke tube may not getting enough air as the smoker is rather well sealed and may have a low volume fan.  Where was the smoke tube located?

I tried the tube on the grate right over the water pan in the center and on the side.  I then tried it on another grate about 4" of so above the water pan again on the side and in the middle.  I have my five grates spaced evenly in the smoker.  I even loosened up the latch a little to see if it would work, but it would not stay lit.

I would call the mfg.  Sounds like certainly an air circulation issue for the tube smoker.  They won't help you with that.  It may be a fan issue causing the over smoke issue too.  Did you set the smoker to 350° at startup like the manual recommends and then dial back to your set temp when it hits 350°?  Not sure why that would be an issue but that is what they recommend.  Maybe it does something to dial in the controller.

I used it for a several hour jerky cook and didn't have those type of swing issues, but I was at a very low temp setting too.

I actually did do as the manual says to do it.  I don't know why, but I did it anyway.  It worked perfect for around three hours.  Even when I did the required shutdown where the temperature are set to 350 it worked great for 15 to 20 minutes. 

I was lucky that the ribs were just put into foil when the biggest spike hit.  Even with all of the temperature issues the ribs turned out pretty good. 

I have already sent an email to Pit Boss.

 I would most definitely call the manufacturer..It sounds like a controller issue to me..

 Not 100% sure on this; the smoke tube may not getting enough air as the smoker is rather well sealed and may have a low volume fan.  Where was the smoke tube located?

I tried the tube on the grate right over the water pan in the center and on the side.  I then tried it on another grate about 4" of so above the water pan again on the side and in the middle.  I have my five grates spaced evenly in the smoker.  I even loosened up the latch a little to see if it would work, but it would not stay lit.

Not surprising. The firepot is going to consume most of the O2 and not leave enough for the tube. Just curious, is there not enough smoke flavor without it? More smoke flavor was the one reason I was considering one of these.

It did seem to smoke more than my GMG does even when it was not going crazy. I would not plan on using the smoke tube the next time.

I do need to find out how much to adjust the smoke stack cap.  I had it about a finger width like Bently showed it in one of his pictures.  I thought I read somewhere the cap was adjusted different for cold or hot temperatures.

It did seem to smoke more than my GMG does even when it was not going crazy. I would not plan on using the smoke tube the next time.

I do need to find out how much to adjust the smoke stack cap.  I had it about a finger width like Bently showed it in one of his pictures.  I thought I read somewhere the cap was adjusted different for cold or hot temperatures.

In the assembly manual it said for smoking temperatures, cap more open. At higher temperatures cap lower. I do not have the time to screen shot it right now but I will later

Page 11 from the online manual mentions it

https://pitboss-grills.com/downloads/pbv5p1_manual_77550.pdf

Not really related; but my Jr. has far greater temp swings when it's hot outside.

curious to hear what the mfg says

It sounds like it went out, dumped more pellets and relit!  Take the chimney off!

It sounds like it went out. dumped more pellets and relit!  Take the chimney off!

This is what I thought it was doing.

The first time it did this I had some company and I was not watching it closely.  But when the temperatures kept getting higher, more and more smoke coming out and then hearing the boiling water and fire after opening the door I knew something was wrong.  I did open the vent a little to see if it helped, but it still did it.

I have been reading on the Pit Boss Facebook group about the 225 temperature setting not working correctly.  They are saying to use either 200 or 250 instead.  Some have said they had to replace the thermocouple.

The way it is working now I would not do anything overnight.  When it was working great I was already thinking about doing a full packer brisket, but not now.  The grate temperatures via two oven thermometers was showing great temperatures for three hours. 

I am curious how full the firepot is when I clean it tomorrow.

It sounds like it went out. dumped more pellets and relit!  Take the chimney off!

+1

It Has to have O2..  and lots of it for the pellets to rekindle and light off after an auger cycle.. 

The first indicator that there was a lack of O2 is your smoke tube wouldn’t stay lit..