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[slaga]

I keep looking at these photos and my mind is twirling as I try to understand how this all relates to the back of this smoker having more extreme temperature swings than the front, etc...

I am pretty confident in what I previously said below. To me the temp swings at the back are not really more extreme, it just runs a little hotter all of the time. Maybe its semantics but that is the way I see it. That is because the pellet bin at the back adds additional insulation to the already double walled construction and the front only has a thin sheet of glass for insulation. The area that has more insulation will be warmer. I have serious doubts reducing the size of holes at the back near the water pan will reduce the temperature gradient, front to back, by much. I personally feel hanging a welder's blanket over the front door would do a lot more to even out the temps front to back. Like you, when I get one I will tinker and see what works for me.

I really think it is because the pellet bin is at the back of the unit. The pellet bin is acting like double wall construction and the pellets in the bin are acting like additional insulation between the walls. The front only has a glass door. The back is more insulated so it retains more heat and that it is why it is hotter. That is my official SWAG.

[Bentley]

I went with the recommended 2% insted of my usual 4%, bad decision!  Unit had nothing to do with it!

Did you make any changes to the bacon prep?
Curious to see if you attribute the flavor to the cooker.

[Free Mr. Tony]

A few years ago, on another site and before I bought my pit, I mentioned that several Bradley smokers had installed low-speed fans from convection ovens and that Memphis pits have similar fans, both to evenly distribute heat.  I proposed to share the costs if someone would install one in their pellet pit that wasn’t keeping even temperatures.

That suggestion was roundly pooh-poohed as inadvisable by several long-term pellet pit owners and no one accepted my cost-sharing offer.

Nevertheless, I can’t let go of the idea that it would solve this issue.

Makes perfect sense to me. My oven is a convection oven with a heating element in the rear. I have a separate switch to turn the fan on or off. The temps are noticably more even when the fan is switched to on.

[Kristin Meredith]

I went with the recommended 2% insted of my usual 4%, bad decision!  Unit had nothing to do with it!

Did you make any changes to the bacon prep?
Curious to see if you attribute the flavor to the cooker.

I think smoking it on this pit made it more flavorful since he did not change the recipe except for salt.

[Bentley]

I am doing High Heat Tappecue graph right now, it has been 30 minutes, think I will post it!

[Bar-B-Lew]

Good to see the probe appears to be accurate.  I wonder if Thermoworks probes from the same series used in the Smoke could be used.

[LowSlowJoe]

I am doing High Heat Tappecue graph right now, it has been 30 minutes, think I will post it!

Or maybe with the lower salt, you both could actually taste the other flavors...

 If I made bacon with 4% salt, my wife would be furious with me, and I'd hear no end of the complaints.    I've grown very used to eating most everything with less salt, so for me, 2% works out very well.

[LowSlowJoe]

A few years ago, on another site and before I bought my pit, I mentioned that several Bradley smokers had installed low-speed fans from convection ovens and that Memphis pits have similar fans, both to evenly distribute heat.  I proposed to share the costs if someone would install one in their pellet pit that wasn’t keeping even temperatures.

That suggestion was roundly pooh-poohed as inadvisable by several long-term pellet pit owners and no one accepted my cost-sharing offer.

Nevertheless, I can’t let go of the idea that it would solve this issue.

I have been wanting to install a convection oven type fan into a smoker for many years... I've just never thought of a good way to install one in some way that would be relatively easy to do.  I also have had concerns about what all the smoke would do to the life of such a fan.   

[bregent]

Good to see the probe appears to be accurate.  I wonder if Thermoworks probes from the same series used in the Smoke could be used.

I'd be surprised if they used the same thermisters.

[Kristin Meredith]

I am doing High Heat Tappecue graph right now, it has been 30 minutes, think I will post it!

Or maybe with the lower salt, you both could actually taste the other flavors...

 If I made bacon with 4% salt, my wife would be furious with me, and I'd hear no end of the complaints.    I've grown very used to eating most everything with less salt, so for me, 2% works out very well.

Would be nice, but with him controlling the salt, never will happen!!!

[LowSlowJoe]

I keep looking at these photos and my mind is twirling as I try to understand how this all relates to the back of this smoker having more extreme temperature swings than the front, etc...

I am pretty confident in what I previously said below. To me the temp swings at the back are not really more extreme, it just runs a little hotter all of the time. Maybe its semantics but that is the way I see it. That is because the pellet bin at the back adds additional insulation to the already double walled construction and the front only has a thin sheet of glass for insulation. The area that has more insulation will be warmer. I have serious doubts reducing the size of holes at the back near the water pan will reduce the temperature gradient, front to back, by much. I personally feel hanging a welder's blanket over the front door would do a lot more to even out the temps front to back. Like you, when I get one I will tinker and see what works for me.

I really think it is because the pellet bin is at the back of the unit. The pellet bin is acting like double wall construction and the pellets in the bin are acting like additional insulation between the walls. The front only has a glass door. The back is more insulated so it retains more heat and that it is why it is hotter. That is my official SWAG.

  I'd be willing to bet otherwise.  Paul isolated some data from a graph that Bentley displayed back on page 8 of this discussion and in my opinion it pretty clearly shows that the 'peaks' of the swing above set temperature are significantly higher on the probes that were at the back of the smoker. The peaks that occur bellow the set temperature are more or less identical to the temperatures seen at the front. I've seen this type of thing repeatedly in various pellet grills I have owned, some worse than others.   I am pretty confident that this sort of thing occurs due to heat flowing more easily in one part of the grill. That is, as the fire intensity builds up ( more pellets in the firepot causing more intense flames) , that creates a pressure of sorts and it seeks the path of least resistance. That path, in this case I believe is at the back of the heat shield... exactly why this path of least resistance is at the back in this smoker is unclear to me.

   However, regardless of what the reason for more heat back there at the highest points in the swings, I think there's a good chance that just restricting the amount of space for the heat to flow back there, would very likely force it to go somewhere else... ( hopefully more towards the front ).

[Bentley]

Got to 400° in about 11 minutes, pretty impressive...although, how often are folks going to be running this thing at 500°?

[LowSlowJoe]

Got to 400° in about 11 minutes, pretty impressive...although, how often are folks going to be running this thing at 500°?

450F is about as high as I ever really go in my pellet grills, unless I'm like trying to cook a Pizza, and then I might want to get up to 550F or so, but I would have never really expected to be able to achieve even 500F in a smoker like this one. Pretty impressive really...  I wonder  how many biscuits could fit in this thing...

[Bar-B-Lew]

Yeah, the temp range on this thing is unbelievable.  If they ever found the right way to market this smoker, there would be less Traeger's sold IMO.  Not necessarily a knock on Traeger (as I own one), but I think they sell more grills because of how they go to market than based on performance.  They are like the Weber of pellet grills in my eyes.

[slaga]

I keep looking at these photos and my mind is twirling as I try to understand how this all relates to the back of this smoker having more extreme temperature swings than the front, etc...

I am pretty confident in what I previously said below. To me the temp swings at the back are not really more extreme, it just runs a little hotter all of the time. Maybe its semantics but that is the way I see it. That is because the pellet bin at the back adds additional insulation to the already double walled construction and the front only has a thin sheet of glass for insulation. The area that has more insulation will be warmer. I have serious doubts reducing the size of holes at the back near the water pan will reduce the temperature gradient, front to back, by much. I personally feel hanging a welder's blanket over the front door would do a lot more to even out the temps front to back. Like you, when I get one I will tinker and see what works for me.

I really think it is because the pellet bin is at the back of the unit. The pellet bin is acting like double wall construction and the pellets in the bin are acting like additional insulation between the walls. The front only has a glass door. The back is more insulated so it retains more heat and that it is why it is hotter. That is my official SWAG.

  I'd be willing to bet otherwise.  Paul isolated some data from a graph that Bentley displayed back on page 8 of this discussion and in my opinion it pretty clearly shows that the 'peaks' of the swing above set temperature are significantly higher on the probes that were at the back of the smoker. The peaks that occur bellow the set temperature are more or less identical to the temperatures seen at the front. I've seen this type of thing repeatedly in various pellet grills I have owned, some worse than others.   I am pretty confident that this sort of thing occurs due to heat flowing more easily in one part of the grill. That is, as the fire intensity builds up ( more pellets in the firepot causing more intense flames) , that creates a pressure of sorts and it seeks the path of least resistance. That path, in this case I believe is at the back of the heat shield... exactly why this path of least resistance is at the back in this smoker is unclear to me.

   However, regardless of what the reason for more heat back there at the highest points in the swings, I think there's a good chance that just restricting the amount of space for the heat to flow back there, would very likely force it to go somewhere else... ( hopefully more towards the front ).

Thanks. I was thinking the valleys were higher too but they are not. You made me take a second look and I appreciate that. You are right about the temp swings being more extreme at the back, and that changes my thought process to some degree. I am enjoying this review.