Supplemental smoke in the Akorn

I know most of you are fine with the way you are used to using the akorn, but I am the perpetual tinkerer and like trying new things. Forgive me if this has been tried and posted before,,,,

I wanted to know if there would be enough air flow to keep the Amaze-n pellet tube going with it placed in the ash pan. I set up the lower vent at a half inch and quarter inch at the top. I also filled the basket full of lump to mimic an actual cook situation. With it positioned inline with the lower vent, the pellet tube put out plenty of smoke for about three hours this afternoon. There was a steady flow of smoke leaving the vent under cold conditions. I suspect that after firing up the coals, there would be a much better draw over the pellets.

Again, I know it won't be for everybody,,, but if your interested,,,, it works.

This gets considerable discussion over on the Kamado Guru.

The general consensus and the opinions of the manufacturer of that tube are that it will burn down in the position you have it as long a the bottom vent is fully open.


It will lend itself well to cold smoking cheese.


The same group is fairly consistent in saying that it doesn't work when you are are actually running the grill on slow and low cooks with a restricted air input.

I've never tried it based on their experiences.

Hmm,, interesting. I wonder what about the coal burning would potentially keep the pellets from smoldering. A mass of lump coal impeding air flow was actually one of the things I considered, so I filled the basket up to represent full cook restrictions. The tube is full of nothing but ash now. I can't imagine the heat would impede air flow, seems it would increase the draw through the lower vent?

I do know that the pellet tube requires proper lighting to stay lit, even in open atmospheric conditions. Failure to get them lit well, and they will soon extinguish.

Thanks for the input Dub, I'll have to look at the KG threads.

I think it's simply the fact that your lower vent would be closed much more while the grill is doing ribs, butts, briskets and such.

I wanted to try it and was set to order a tube until they told me not to waste my time. You already have the tube.......I'd be interested in seeing how it performs for you.

Obviously more testing is warranted.

Interesting. Let us know how it works, seems to me that what Dub is saying would turn out to be true, but you never know until you try it. I've never had any problems getting plenty enough smoke just burying some chunks of wood randomly in the lump.

I looked at this as a method to cold smoke cheese. A little concerned about it keeping lit, though.

Please report back if you do more experiments.

Found a video on smoking cheese with it:

I'll fire her up, get her stabilized, and update on my findings after work this evening.

I wonder if you could cold smoke fish with that tube?

This just a guess or hypothesis, since GA1dad said he did have the vents on low but with no charcoal burning.

I am wondering if the updraft due to the rising heat of the coals burning above (on the grate) sucks what little air is available right in and up, pretty much robbing whatever is in the bottom of the ash pan. Especially with the vents low, there is less air coming in to begin with.

Wonder if the supplemental device would work if you could mount it somewhere nearer the inlet, forcing air to pass through. But, like others said, why? If more smoke flavor is needed, I would just add more wood to the stack.

So I'm not really sure how to interpret the results.

I guess I will first set up the details of the experiment.

Step one,, fire up the cooker. Single cotton ball soaked in alcohol. No wood added to the lump charcoal.



Another thing I'm experimenting with is a water pan, hoping it acts as a heat sync and will help keep temps stable. I added a few thick onion slices for aromatics.



At about 130 degrees, I closed both vents to a half inch,,, and waited. Once it got to 200 degrees I fired up the pellet tube. I've used this a half dozen times in the UDS, and have found out the hard way that you "really" need to get this thing going good before it's ready.





Positioned in the ash pan next to the vent,, notice it is opened at a half inch.



For the first 45 minutes, I had nice thin blue smoke as shown below. Then when it reached 225 degrees I closed the top vent to just under a quarter inch and the smoke pretty well stopped. I decided it was a wash, but left the cooker going while I went for my evening walk. I figured I'd see just how stable it would hold temps with the water pan while I was away.



An hour later I returned from my walk to find the cooker holding 235 degrees and smelling like cooked onions, but with no smoke coming from the vent.

Out of curiosity I opened up the ash pan and found this,,,,,,,,, and when I opened the cooker it was filled with light smoke. So was it just burning so clean it appeared to not be working??



Keep in mind that this thread was nothing more than me documenting an experiment to satisfy my own curiosity. I'm not promoting the tube over chips or chunks. I am however gonna try a for real cook with it sometime to see just what kind of flavor I can get using it.

Excellent pics and description of your experiment.

I've never used one of those tubes but have hoped there was a way they'd work. Some real interesting types of pellets that can be found that would add some great flavors to cooks.

Looking forward to your future runs with it.