Thin Blue Smoke vs Thick White Smoke

[RangerOne]

I use a Smokenator with my Weber 22.5". I use the Minion Method, so I put about 30 pieces of unlit charcoal and a chunk of wood into the Smokenator, and then add 10 lit coals.
Usually, I get a nice thin blue smoke within a few minutes. I wait until the kettle is up to temperature and add my meat. This is what usually happens and I am very happy with these results.

Sometimes when I start up, I get a thick white smoke that lasts for 15-20 minutes. Sometimes after an hour or so, I notice the thin blue smoke has stopped and I open up the kettle and give the coals a quick stir. This will usually start the thin blue smoke again, but sometimes I get that thick white smoke. The same thing happens if I add a fresh piece of wood during the cook. Sometimes thin blue smoke, sometimes thick white smoke.

The thick white smoke does not happen for every cook, but it happens enough to be annoying. Can anyone tell me how to avoid starting the thick white smoke, and if it starts, how to turn it back into thin blue smoke?

Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Allan aka RangerOne

[1buckie]

Not always something you can "turn back into" a different burn quickly.....

1st look at possible cause......even slightly damp charcoal will cause a slower, dirtier burn.....not even like rained on.......just a bag left out where dew or moist air can get to it.......

Same basic thing with wood....if it's picked up some moisture, just enough, you'll get some slowing of the burn......

That's one aspect.......

Another piece of it is having the fire hot enough at any given time to not slow or stop the draft, or smooth airflow, thru the cooker......what you'd want to look for is the smoke "pushing" out the exhaust vent.....that's a visual check that tells you the airflow is fast & smooth.....

If the fire slows or 'dwells', you get chugging white or gray smoke, assuming the fuel is sufficiently dry like above.....

Possible fixes might be :

Make sure you have good & dry fuel of any type (I don't assume you're leaving it out & getting wet or damp, just a thing to watch out for)

Make sure you have a thick enough coal pack & are starting off hot enough to keep that burn going that hot or slightly higher

Attempt to start off reasonbly close to your constant running temp.......I like to start a little hotter, but not much, as the cold meat going in will cause a drop......if you start off way higher up, it CAN run the risk of choking the fire if you're trying to bring the temp down too, too much........

Pre-heat the wood chunks on top of the cooker to get them somewhat closer to burn heat.....that will help them catch better & be less likely to chug & smoulder.....this , i guess, would be if you're adding in....any chunks already in would be heated by adjacent charcoal.......





Any kind of lower heat cooking is a little tricky, in that you're teetering at the burn point.....a little high, burns fine.....dip a little low, puffy dirty fire.....

Hope this helps......

[SwampDonkeyzBBQ]

+1^^^. Great advice on good fire management.

[Troy]

the shitty white smoke is coming from the charcoal.
don't add your wood chunks (or food for that matter) until the white smoke is completely gone.

it will go away once all of the unlit briqs are heated up thoroughly.

[RangerOne]

Thanks 1buckie. Lots of good information for me to look at. Preheating the wood is something I did not think of.

[1buckie]

Thanks 1buckie. Lots of good information for me to look at. Preheating the wood is something I did not think of.

I've spent a ton of time at Smoke Ring & some at Bretheren & Smoking Meat & a lot of scouring around other sites found by way of those places....... running fires, or problems with running fires are maybe the most common topic of all......leads directly to temps, cooker design, length of cook times, setups of all kinds.......
It really pays to be attentive to what the people with UDS, WSM's & maybe most importantly, people with larger offset cookers say : Small, hot, clean-burning fire......heat the cooker enough to get the 'draft' going.....moving the air thru the cooker......this simple concept still holds true for the kettle.....pre-heating splits on top  of the firebox is common practice for offsets......

[MrHoss]

Thanks for the insight Buckie....I've been using a kettle to cook for the last year and a half pretty regular and you made me think.