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[george255]

I once saw a Youtube video that showed someone plugging the vent holes on the back of their Pit Boss grill, I'm guessing they were trying to trap more smoke inside or keep more heat in. I'm trying to get more smoke flavor in my cooks and I was wondering if anyone has tried to plug their vent holes to trap in more smoke. I have a 700 series with no smoke stack.

[ylr]

You may be running the risk of choking the fire out, if you plug too many back vents. A smoke tube would be a better choice, if you need more smoke. Using 100% hickory or mesquite helps, too.

[george255]

Thx YLR for your input, Choking out the fire is what I was leaning toward, but not to the point where it goes completely out but to maybe get a bit more smoke out of my pellets. I did purchase a smoker tube about a month ago and that really worked out good for those low and slow cooks. And your right about the Hickory and mesquite pellets producing more smoke, those 2 have been my go to lately for extended long cooks reserving my smoker tube for cooks when I want to use something like apple. I will try plugging the vent holes one of these days, i'm really curious to see what happens?

[george255]

O.K I tried plugging the holes on the back of my Pit boss Grill just for the xxxx of it and it did nothing. I went back to the Pit Boss Competition Blend pellets and they produced more smoke and less ash than anything I have tried in the last 4 months since buying my grill.

[TravlinMan]

Fan forced combustion 'NEEDS' the air flow to function properly.

When you restrict the flow - it reduces combustion efficiency, and in a pellet grill designed as yours will significantly increase the chance of burn back in the auger tube..

Restricting the vent holes - the combustion air will be forced out of every other path available for it to escape - including the auger feed tube and pellet hopper.

You will find the greatest added smoke flavor to your smoker will be the makeup of pellets you feed it.  Find what works well for you and stick with it. When trying different brands - just try one bag at a time and see how they perform in your unit.

... Just my

[ScottE]

Lack of airflow will also cause pellets to burn dirty which results in a black, acrid smoke that stinks and coats whatever you are trying to cook. It's not too pronounced at low (smoke) temps and gets worse as the temp goes up. I understand the desire, Danson models are not great smoke generators. I added a variable speed control on my CS450. That helps a small bit, but using a smoker tube is where I've ended up when I smoke on it.

[SmokinHandyman]

My Louisana puts out plenty of smoke.

[george255]

Thanks for the reply's everyone, I only covered over 3 of the 5 vent holes on the back of the grill so I would still get some airflow and it didn't cause any problems and didn't really change the smoke output. This was just something more of a experiment than anything else and it proved to be useless when it comes to smoke output. I did purchase a smoker tube that gives me 5 hours of extreme smoke and that my friends is the answer to the lack of smoke flavoring I was searching for.

[okie smokie]

Thx YLR for your input, Choking out the fire is what I was leaning toward, but not to the point where it goes completely out but to maybe get a bit more smoke out of my pellets. I did purchase a smoker tube about a month ago and that really worked out good for those low and slow cooks. And your right about the Hickory and mesquite pellets producing more smoke, those 2 have been my go to lately for extended long cooks reserving my smoker tube for cooks when I want to use something like apple. I will try plugging the vent holes one of these days, i'm really curious to see what happens?

Your pit will cool down due to reduced air (oxygen) flow.  Your control will then try to get the heat back up to set temp with more pellets. The lack of oxygen will probably prevent this from working. Maybe you get more smoke initially, but not sure what happens next.. Most of the pit instructions I have read advise against this.  On a stick burner, with no fan, adjusting the vents both at the fire box and chimney is done to control the temp, but not to increase smoke per se. Takes a real pro and a lot of attention to get that right.  Engineers? feel free to disagree, as I am not an expert. 

[ylr]

Combining this thread with your auger burn back thread, are your vent holes plugged when the burn back occurs?

[george255]

No YLR my vent holes are not being blocked off, I only tried the vent blocking one time during a slow cook with a shoulder, I only had them plugged off for about an hour just to see what was going to happen. The tube burn back situation started happening when I was experimenting with other brands of pellets. It seems like it's going to smolder inside the tube whenever it feels like it regardless of what brand of pellets I use. This all starts to happen after the shut down cycle is complete and the fan shut's off.