Back up a little, please. What kind of smoker is this?

I use a Luhr Jensen type, an aluminum box with a stack of shelves that load into it from the top. An electric element on the bottom and a pan for the wood chips. Hopefully it's still working since my crazy-ass catahoula leaped a gate in the garage and took the smoker with her when she landed on the other side. That would be a disaster, but I would replace it with something similar.

There are cast iron barrel-shaped smokers for Texas style barbecue that have charcoal and probably wood chips and have smokestacks and tow behind pickup trucks. There are backyard grills that have smoker features along with their LP fuel that heats up the wood chips.

My smoker doesn't cook meat as much as flavor it; at least, I choose not to leave it in that coolish box for as long as it would take to cook some meat. I do salmon in it all the way usually, after brining it (it's detailed, I'm sure I've posted my recipe and instructions here before). Salmon might take the time involved to smoke two or three pans of wood chips (I use alder for salmon). I put a chicken in for a single pan's worth of chips, and bake it in the oven rest of the way. Same with turkey breast, maybe two pans, tops. Too much smoke flavor not only is overpowering, it isn't good for you.

In cool weather I do cheddar cheese the way my father taught me--put it on the top shelf and leave it in for 30 minutes. That's enough.

So, as with computer problems when we ask what make and operating system, please give us some of the hardware and power supply information.

SRS