Yes so in essence anyone saying that using nothing but wood with the stoker or GURU in a stick burner would lead to heavily smoked meat IS DEAD WRONG.
The experiment in the video was for the sole purpose of demonstrating that the stoker COULD run a stick burner. After 2 or so hours if meat had of been on there (as it has been with the nearly 16 TONS of meat I have cooked since then) there was no smoke and only the stoker provided the air.
I would have to ask someone, would they put meat in a pit and THEN start the fire? No, why? Nasty meat. So please, don't anyone come off with a silly conclusion that the smoky 2 and a half hours while the stoker got the ridiculous amount if wood smoke free is a typical case for me.
I think between gas, air, logs and charcoal at first I get a managable bed of coals in 30 minutes and a pit perfect for meat. But this video was not about that.
I took My smoker, packed it with wood FAR BEYOND REASON AND SANITY, to show that the 25CFM blower could keep up.
No one does this. Unless they have lost their freaking mind! LOL
So back to reality.. the use of the stoker as far as air aspiration follows the same rules as leaving your air damper in a certain position.
A pitmaster that properly makes sure he places the proper sized logs on the fire, that have been properly preheated, over a proper amount of coals that have not been allowed to go out, at the proper time, will have little problems with smoky meat.
You don't have to follow all these rules (Heck I use full barked logs of Post Oak now) and have no problem with making thin smoke or none at all...