At most, you should be adding 5 wood chips every 45 – 60 minutes.
Don’t believe me?
Click here to Jump to my Testing
Don’t Be Like Younger Dylan!
When I was 13, the first smoker I ever bought myself was an Electric Smoker.
The first thing I ever smoked was beef jerky and I completely ruined it; The jerky consistency itself was fine but it tasted like bitter creosote flavored teriyaki.
I choked it down and learned my lesson.
The lesson being – you don’t need to add tons of wood chips and you don’t need to add them often.
What Masterbuilt Says About Adding More Wood Chips
Masterbuilt’s instruction manual states:
“Additional chips should not be added until any previously added chips have ceased generating smoke.”
Masterbuilt
However, this doesn’t tell you:
- Exactly how long that is
- How many to add
I can tell you from personal experience that it takes roughly 45 – 60 minutes for 5 wood chips to ash out.
Seeing is believing so, read on.
Testing How Long Wood Chips Last in an Electric Smoker
Just to have some independent variables:
- I’ll be using my Masterbuilt 40 inch electric smoker
- I’ll be using 5 hickory wood chips (all 4 tests were weighed to be 10 grams)
- My smoker’s temperature will be set to 250F
In order to minimize temperature swings I’ll be running 4 tests independently and taking pictures at 4 different timed intervals.
For example:
- Test 1 ends at 15 minutes.
- A photo is taken and observations are written down.
- Wood chip tray is then dumped and the door is closed.
- Temperature is allowed to come back up to 250F and 5 more wood chips are added.
- This process is then repeated at 30, 45, and 60 minute intervals.
Wood Chips at 15 Minutes
Visible smoke via the exhaust damper.
Wood chips have visible embers that have started to carbonize/ash, and are still smoking.
Wood Chips at 30 Minutes
Visible thin blue smoke via the exhaust damper.
Some visible embers on wood chips; Visibly more ashed over than 15 minutes.
Wood Chips at 45 Minutes
Thin blue smoke via exhaust damper.
Less visible embers on wood chips. Visibly more ashed than 30 minutes.
Wood Chips at 60 Minutes
No smoke via the exhaust damper.
Wood chips entirely ashed over. There is almost no smoke inside the smoke chamber.
Can You Add More Wood Chips for a Longer Run Time?
Seems intuitive right?
But what can and will happen is you’ll add too much white smoke; Pushing too much white smoke results in acrid/bitter flavors.
The above also results in the build up of a lot of combustion byproducts. This could lead to a “blowback” or backdraft where-in oxygen enters the system and causes a sudden exfiltration of smoke via the exhaust.
Here’s an example with Firefighters and why you don’t open doors and windows during a fire:
This same thing can happen in an electric smoker.
This is another reason brands like Masterbuilt advise against wood pellets in their electric smokers.
