Grilled meat always attracts our taste. Indeed, you can hardly find a person who can say- no water comes to his mouth when seeing the juicy, soft, and smoked meat. And wood-fire flavor brings the grilled meat flavor to the next level.
And Camp Chef Pellet Grill is the trustable & reliable grill to make such smoked meat in your own home. You can’t be a master Camp Chef user after cooking several recipes with it.
Going through some errors like Camp Chef not smoking is an issue you will experience if you get your feet wet using the Camp Chef.
Your Camp Chef Pellet Grill will not provide enough smoke if you put poor quality wood pellets, set the temperature too high, or the auger gets clogged.
To solve the smoking issues, we compile this Camp Chef Troubleshooting guide. So, keep scrolling and go ahead with us.
Why Is My Camp Chef Not Smoking?
You can hardly notice the smoke coming out from the Camp Chef. But the thin & blue smoke is already there. However, if you find your Camp Chef is not smoking, we bet you make the following mistakes.
1. You May Set The Grill At Higher Temperature
The lower the temperature your wood pellets burn, the more smoke you will get from the grill. And the higher the temperature the pellets burn, the less smoke it will produce. It’s the rule.
If you set the cooking temperature above 220F to 230F, you will get little to no smoke. So, take a look at the temperature setting of your Camp Chef grill and ensure it’s on the Smoke setting. Otherwise, your smoker won’t generate enough smoke you need to gain the smoky flavor.
2. Problem With Wood Pellets
Pellets are the main elements that help to generate smoke and the temperature you need for cooking. Without wood pellets, grilling meat is like driving a car without fuel. Indeed, pellets are the ingredient from where all the heat and smoke comes from.
If you put wet or moist pellets, you will never expect your grill to produce smoke. The humidity will enter the pellets if you don’t store the fuel after grilling or leave them in the hopper.
Also, you will not get enough smoke if you don’t replace the wood pellets frequently. On top of this, poor-quality pellets that contain filler will never produce the smoke you crave for. Even if you use bad pellets, you may find your Camp Chef keeps shutting off frequently.
3. A Clogged Auger Motor
The auger of your pellet grill is responsible for feeding wood pellets into the fire-pot. Without it, the fuel you put in the hopper will never move to the fire-pot. Similarly, if the auger gets clogged by pellets or dust, it fails to feed fuel to the fire-pot. And without wood pellets, you can’t ignite your grill- let alone produce the smoke.
Putting wet pellets or too much fuel is the culprit behind the auger issue. Therefore, a defective auger motor is also responsible for this problem. If you want to get your grill to function properly, you must clear the auger blockage or replace the auger motor.
In this case, you should disassemble the unit to clean or replace the auger motor. We recommend you hire a professional if you are not mechanically inclined. Or watch the video if you wish to replace by yourself.
3 Effective Tips To Get More Smoke Out of Your Camp Chef?
Here are the three proven ways to get more smoke from your Camp Chef or other pellet grills.
1. Cook At Smoke Setting
Every pellet grill generates more smoke at low & slow temperatures. And your Camp Chef Grill is not an exception to that. So, ensure you set your Grill to the smoke setting, which we believe keeps the temperature at the lowest setting on the dial.
When you set the grill on Smoke Setting, it will feed pellets at the slowest rate to keep the fire going. But it keeps the temperature low, which produces more smoke.
2. Use High-Quality Pellets
Considering the pellet quality is a must if you want to gain a smoky flavor. Dry and fresh wood pellets burn cleanly and produce smoke. We recommend you go for the fuel that has no filler. On top of this, the density of the pellet also matters a lot.
For example, you will not get the amount of smoke a hickory pellet provides from the apple pellets. How you store the wood pellets also affects the pellet quality. If the moisture gets into the fuel, you don’t get quality smoke from it.
3. Get A Smoker Tube
If you are not satisfied with the smoke you get from the grill, we recommend you get a smoker tube. Fill the smoker tube with dry & fresh wood pellets and light them up. Then, place the smoker tube in the cooking chamber to impart the meat with smoke.
Camp Chef High Smoke Vs Low Smoke
Like other pellet grills, Camp Chef Pellet Grill has two smoke settings- High and Low. High Smoke Setting will help to smoke a brisket and impart the meat with a robustly smoky flavor. Plus, it will help to gain the smoke ring if you cook at the high smoke setting.
Now, you may ask- what temp is high smoke on Camp Chef? Well, 220 degrees is the high smoke setting on Camp Chef. However, it can fluctuate between 200-240 degrees depending on the outdoor temperature. Smoking a high smoke setting, you will gain the smoke rings on the brisket.
On the other hand, you can cook bakery items like pies by setting your Camp Chef on a low smoke setting. But, what temp is low smoke on Camp Chef?
160 degrees is the low smoke setting on Camp Chef. However, it may fluctuate depending on the weather conditions. In this setting, you can cook delicious bakery food items like bread and cheesecakes.
Camp Chef Smoke Setting 1-10
From the above chapter, you already know Camp Chef has two smoke settings. When you break down the smoke settings with numbers, the high smoke settings fall between 6-10. And the low smoke setting is between 1-5.
If you are not too interested in heavy smoke, just bring the Smoke number down to 5 or below. At this low smoke setting, cooking bakery items like cheesecakes are perfect. On the other hand, if you want to test the brisket with smoke rings, crank up the Smoker number to 7 or above.
Conclusion
From top to bottom, we broke down the culprits responsible for the Camp Chef, not smoking. Among them, cooking the meat at a high-temperature setting is the main mistake every grill user makes in the beginning. Pellet Grills produce more smoke at low and slow temperatures.
So, we recommend you set the Camp Chef Grill at Smoke settings to get more smoke. At the same time, you can try out fresh & dry wood pellets to produce sufficient smoke. Lastly, place a smoke tube in the cooking chamber to impart more smoke to the meat.
