Is the smoke always “on”? (I have 58 year-old pellets but will probably use new pellets). Just wanted to know if there is a way to turn the smoke off.
Thanks.
Yes. I wired an on-off switch into mine.
I know of no instance where a pill-type smoke generator was equipped with a switch. There is no real need for one, since, unlike the fluid types, they are not damaged by being run dry. Just don’t put a pill in and the smoke will stop in a little while.
I have both friends and some family members who are extremely sensitive to the “smoke” even in small quantities, Whether from pills or bottle. Wanted something I could turn off completely, and turn back on again in the event of a prospective sale, without having to burn it all out afterwards. Also, I prefer not to run the heater element constantly to no purpose, even if doing so is far less problematic than running most of the liquid ones dry, as Bob reports.
Run them dry or run them wet, the heater elements do “go bad” eventually, do they not? Many of the postwar steamers can be a bear to open up to repair the smoke unit. Hence the switch: in and out once, and that’s it.
(Williams has advised me that one can run some of their newer models without liquid with no harm done.)