There are few things more mouthwatering than a nice piece of chicken, pork, or beef that has spent hours in your smoker cooking to juicy perfection. This beautiful thing is only possible with a good quality smoker that has an integrated auger system that turns the meat as it cooks to hold in all those wonderful flavors and evenly distribute heat. Therefore, if the auger motor of your smoker goes down, it can have dire consequences on the outcome of your smoked foods. To make sure the auger doesn't quit on you completely in the middle of cooking up your favorite meat treats, there are a few signs that can tell you the auger motor is having problems.
The auger motor gets jammed easily during long intervals of use.
When the cogs inside of the auger motor start to wear down, it can mean the cogs skip rotations when the auger is turning. This can cause repeated pauses and jams when the auger is in use. You will likely not notice this unless you check on something cooking and just happen to catch that the auger isn't turning because most of the time, the problem will correct itself after a few rotations.
There is a noticeable difference in how your smoked meat turns out.
When you are smoking something in your smoker, the process can take several hours to complete, and opening the chamber of the smoker re[peatedly will just slow down the process. Therefore, a lot of times auger problems go unnoticed, but what you will notice is a drastic difference in the quality of your smoked meats. You may see that one side of what you are cooking appears crisper or done than the other or that the meat is not uniformly cooked throughout. This is a good sign that there have been intermittent stops of the auger during the cooking process.
The auger is slow to start when you first turn it on.
A lagging startup is one of the most obvious signs that the smoker auger is having problems. This is often because the motor is wearing down and its inner components are no longer reacting the way they should when you first turn on the unit. If you spot lagging startup with your smoker's auger, make sure you check on it periodically throughout the cooking process to ensure it is still in rotation as it should be, as it could potentially stop functioning at any time.
To learn more, contact a company like Outlaw Smokers.
