Is Your Pit Boss Not Smoking? Here’s How to Fix It

Many different factors contribute to the production of smoke produced by your Pit Boss.

So, it’s best not to panic if you find that there’s not enough smoke being emitted when you use your Pit Boss smoker.

There’s a very good chance that your pellet smoker isn’t broken. Instead, you might have to take a look at a few other variables. For example … 

• The type of wood pellets you’re using
• The Pit Boss grill temperature
• The internal temperature of your meat
• The situation of the firepot
• And more.

Many new pellet grill users often find themselves facing this sort of issue. So, there’s nothing to worry about.

Just keep on reading this article. And we’ll teach you why this may be happening and how you can fix it.

The Reason Why Your Pit Boss Isn’t Producing Smoke

The most common cause behind the lack of smoke being produced from your Pit Boss pellet smoker would most likely be the temperature.

Take a look at is the state of your hardwood pellets.

You don’t need to fork out a lot of money on high-quality wood pellets. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using cheaper pellets. 

But, you have to ensure they aren’t wet! You’ll find that it’s more difficult to get good smoke production from damp pellets.

Instead, they should be absolutely dry. They also shouldn’t be all clustered together.

Is Your Pit Boss Producing Too Much Smoke?

Having the opposite problem and your grill is producing too much smoke?

Don’t worry have a read of the resource for Pit Boss producing too much smoke. It will help you fix the problem.

Should A Smoker Be Producing Smoke All the Time?

If you’re not very familiar with the smoking process, you may think that it’s normal for wood pellet grills to be producing smoke all the time.

Well, that’s not how pellet grills and smokers work. It actually shouldn’t be smoking all of the time.

Your Pit Boss will produce the most smoke at the beginning of the cook.

The smoke will usually be white and it’ll look like white clouds. However, this type of smoke won’t give your food that nice smokey flavor.

Instead, it’ll add a slightly bitter taste to your foods. This white smoke is also often referred to as “start-up smoke”. 

The generation of clear blue smoke is what you should be looking out for. Because this is the kind of smoke that’ll give your foods the best smoke flavor.

Is It Showing Any Codes?

We have discussed all the error codes that Pit Boss units show such as the ER1 and ERH, if your unit is showing one of those see that page.

Is There A Way For My Pit Boss Pellet Smoker to Produce More Smoke?

Our top three tips for getting more smoke output out of a Pit Boss is to …

• Set the smoker’s temperature dial to a lower temperature for a longer period, this is especially important for longer cooks like turkey.
• Try out different wood pellets to see which ones work best with the pellet grill you’re cooking with
• Refrain from opening the grill lid

We’ve discovered that setting the temperature on the Pit Boss’s control board screen to 135 °F aids in the production of a good level of smoke.

You should first make sure that the Pit Boss temperature is set no higher than 250 °F. From there, you should slowly decrease the cooking temperature.

We’d recommend reducing it until it’s about 155 °F. This will increase the overall cooking time. But we think it’s well worth the results! If you’re having temperature fluctuations you might need to adjust your settings.

Your food will be left with that lovely smoky flavor!

As for the pellets, you should not use moist pellets. But you might also want to take a look at different types of pellets. For example, you could try out apple pellets, cherry wood pellets, or hickory wood pellets.

Different types and brands of pellets can also affect smoke production, so don’t overlook it.

How Much Smoke Should Be Coming Out Of My Pit Boss Pellet Smoker?

You’ll find that your pellet grill will produce different levels of smoke throughout the entire smoking session. This is perfectly normal.

For example, you might notice a lot of white billowy smoke at the very beginning of the cook. And there will even be moments when your smoker won’t be producing any smoke. 

The amount of smoke being produced during different stages of your cook will also vary depending on your specific smoker.

Different smokers will produce different levels of smoke. 

What Is the Exact Temperature Setting For Producing Smoke On A Pit Boss?

If you’re using an actual Pit Boss pellet grill or smoker, you’ll notice that it has a P4 setting. This will take the guesswork out of adjusting the exact temperature setting of your appliance.

If you’re working with any other type of pellet grill, we would suggest sticking within the temperature range of 135 ℉ to 200 ℉ for the best smoke for everything from steak to wings.

However, the default smoke setting that you’ll find on a Pit Boss sets the grill temperature to 160 ℉ – 190 ℉ on the P4 setting. This P4 setting simply refers to the speed of the auger pellet cycles of your Pit Boss.

If you don’t know what auger cycles are, it means the rate at which the pellets are fed into a smoker.

The auger pellet feeding cycles for the P4 setting will have your pit boss feeding the pellets through for 18 seconds after every 115 seconds.

In summary, you really shouldn’t fret if your smoker doesn’t seem to produce ‘enough smoke’. There are probably no major issues with your actual pellet grill or Pit Boss.

You should simply set your smoker to a lower temperature setting, and just make sure that you’re not working with any moist pellets. 

Happy cooking and good luck! 

Smoke On!

Charlie

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