The only time I do a water bath is with cold water and Ice or throw them in snow when they reach 156 to stop the sausage from cooking any more. I have added a pan of water on top of the burner to make steam and raise the humidity but I have not found that to decrease cooking time much but will try it again with the smaller diameter stuff and see if it helps
Dave

I just did 2ea 25lb batches of summer sasuage same seasonings and stuffed one batch in 73mm casing and it took 10 hours to finish cooking at max 180 degrees smoker temp and 156 degrees internal , one in 43mm meter casing with max 180 degree smoker temp and it only took 5 hours to finish cooking to 156 degrees internal so I am now going to do a lot more of my summer sausage in smaller casings as it saves a lot of time and you get the same flavor.

Dave

@blackbetty61 your problem can be several things, bad gasket on stuffer, sausage mix too dry, we had problems with this one time, added a little more water to the mix and it worked wonderful, and stuffing very small snack sticks causes extra pressure on the stuffer.

Dave

I do over 200 lbs of smoked sausages and 100 lbs of smoked fish a year and have found that the five most important considerations in purchasing a smoker are #1 The temperature control range and stability, #2 The size of batches you want to do at a time determined by the physical size of the smoker, #3 The smoke Generator mechanism, I like using the A-Maze-N 12" and pellets, #4 The cost of fuel used to operate the smoker, I just converted mine over to Natural Gas, and last but not least how much money or time and energy you want to spend to get a good smoker

Dave

Powered Milk is used as a binder and has worked well for me when I do not have a commercial binder for sausages

@Jonathon I have been making 100-150 lbs of summer sasuage a year and have found that if I course grind the very cold meat first, put it back in the freezer to chill while I put my 1/8" plate in my grinder and grind the cold beef fat 1/8" and then thoroughly mix the fat and meat together then grinding them 1/8 I get better mixing and protein extraction. I then thoroughly mix in all the other ingredients and the Stuff.

@Curtis-p. Be careful when using Pink Curing Salt as 1 ounce will cure 25 lbs of ground meat. Pink Curing Salt cannot be directly substituted for Mortons Tender Quick as a 2 lb bag Of Mortons Tender Quick only has .32 Ounces of Curing Salt and the rest is Salt and Sugar according to the label. Pink Curing Salt is Potent Stuff!!! and should be used accordingly.

@rhjbarney My smoker is similar, I converted it to Natural Gas as our Electric is very expensive and gas is cheap.
Dave

@Holden-Nyhus You might want to add a convection fan to your smoker to mix and circulate the air to provide a more constant temp throughout the space, I added a convection oven fan in the top of my smoker and it seems to help keep a more constant temperature.

I agree on the Masterbuilt 30 or 40. I if you can afford it I would go with the 40 with the larger capacity . I personally use a A-MAZE-N 12 " smoker tube in the smoker instead of chip dropper it comes with as one tube of pellets gives off 4 hours of uninterrupted smoke.

Dave