Smoker too hot! What to do?

[lokidog]

I have a smoke vault that I cannot get under about 250 degrees.  I have lowered the chip pan to cover the burner hole so it is as close as possible.  When in its original rack, if I turned the heat really low, it would not smoke.  It still seems to get hotter than I would like for jerky.  Smokes a turkey perfectly in about four hours though.

Thanks.

[NWBREW]

Pictures?

[whitey]

Check your thermometer..
Make sure its reading correct.Most likely it isnt.
That would be the first place I would look.

[NRA4LIFE]

Are you using sawdust or chips?  When I want to smoke at low temps, I use sawdust as it will smoke better.

[chrisb]

close your air in/out ports almost if not all the way.

[dirty24d]

close your air in/out ports almost if not all the way.

 

Would be my best guess.

[carpsniperg2]

Yeah, play with the vent. + you can always stick something in the door to keep it open a little. I had to do this with one of our old big cheif smokers.

[Jason]

My buddy has a smoke vault propane and he's always complaing of the hight temps, says he can never get it below 270.

[lokidog]

I've tried stopping down the vents, closing the top increases the heat.  Closing the bottom ones stopped the chips from smoking.  I have not tried closing the bottom vents since I lowered the chip pan.  I will have to try that.

I use a mix of fine stuff, larger chips and pellets.  My last batch I ran out of chips so ran some apple branches from a neighbor through my planer, thye should smoke at a pretty low temp.

Thanks again for the ideas.

[TeacherMan]

Where is my mind? When I read the post I was thinking you found a hot woman that was a smoker and you didn't know if you should go out with her or not 

[lokidog]

Where is my mind? When I read the post I was thinking you found a hot woman that was a smoker and you didn't know if you should go out with her or not 

   I am a happily married man!  And, I would never date aq smoker, no matter how hot.

[jeepster]

i use a charcoal verticle bbq/smoker combo.... its what i got... but ive gotten good results... not great... but good...

ive smoked a few times on it, and tried a few things....ive been keeping a metal bucket with a few brequettes in it seperatley, and just putting one or two coals on the chips at a time to keep the temperature down but you need to poke at it like every 15 minutes.

i found a map-gas or oxy/accetelyne torch is a good way to get coals hot if you need em asap
i also use a spray bottle and mist the coals if they are burning too hot... along with an infared mechanics thermometer

but it still gets just a wee too hot, so tomorrow im going to go dig a hole about a foot and a half deep  maybe 2 feet and place the coal pan in the bottom, and dig a an airvent hole that i will control with a chunk of plywood... im also going to line the main hole with foil to keep the dirt-taste out and then take the legs off the smoker and just put it directly over the hole.... the lowest rack should be 2+ feet above the coals.....

simple.... cheap.... pretty damn close to how the indians did it...

[lokidog]

Sorry, should have included that the smoke vault is propane fired.