Help and / or advice on Smoker Mods

KyNola · October 27, 2009, 10:21:54 AM

Chris,
That was my thought as well. The warm air smoke travels away from the heat source and as it cools when travelling through the cooler vent pipe that is being cooled by the outside air, the condensation is forming. Before I went to a lot of modifications I would try that set up again and place some sort of pan or something on the top rack of the smoker, run it for an hour or two and then open the smoker and see if there is any moisture in the pan or running down the interior walls of the tower.

KyNola

ArnieM · October 27, 2009, 10:29:08 AM

Well, if 10.5 isn't the brightest crayon in the box, I'm probably the broken crayon next to him.

The fact that you're getting the moisture outside would indicate that it's leaving the smoker. Basically, the moisture is condensing in the vent hose and running downhill. The problem with a longer vertical run would be that the moisture will condense in the duct and then run back into the smoker - not good. I might even go with a 90 degree fitting to minimize any vertical run.

Try this on your next smoke using your setup. Put a few layers of newspaper on the top-most shelf, below the vent. A few layers 6 inches square should do it. It shouldn't ignite due to the low smoking temps - but keep a fire extinguisher handy, which you should have anyway. Then, see how wet it is when you're done cooking. You'll likely have some grease and moisture. But, if it's soaking wet, that's not good.

ArnieM · October 27, 2009, 10:30:38 AM

Gee, I guess Ky and I think kinda alike. His pan idea is probably safer than the paper.

Caneyscud · October 27, 2009, 11:01:38 AM

If you can only do the configuration as you have, then a fan is probably necessary and will likely, at least partially solve the condensation problem also. What is happening there is no air movement in the Bradley save convection type currents. The hot air is rising into the duct like it is supposed to do, but since there is little back pressure from the Bradley, the exhaust has to cool before it travels down the duct - a slow process. The slow moving exhaust has lots of time in contact with the thin cold duct - so you are getting lots of condensation. Likely you will or are getting condensation back down into the Bradley. Air movement will help this. Adding a fan is the ticket - problem is how big and what volume to install without sucking out all the hard earned heat and cooling the cabinet down. I would suspect it would not be a very large fan, maybe the size of a computer fan. Might even find a battery operated one that would work - just set it in front of the end of the duct. Even then you might get some condensation. If you do, insulate the vertical part of the pipe by wrapping with duct insulation or just the pink stuff - maybe even a couple feet down the sloped part.

If you do decide you can have the duct sloping up rather than down. I would recommend you put a capped tee in the duct before the verical part with one of the legs of the tee pointing towards the floor. Theoritically any condensation rolling down the duct back toward the Bradley will be trapped by the tee.

Dr. Evil · October 27, 2009, 02:24:07 PM

Quote from: KyNola on October 27, 2009, 10:21:54 AM
Chris,
That was my thought as well. The warm air smoke travels away from the heat source and as it cools when travelling through the cooler vent pipe that is being cooled by the outside air, the condensation is forming. Before I went to a lot of modifications I would try that set up again and place some sort of pan or something on the top rack of the smoker, run it for an hour or two and then open the smoker and see if there is any moisture in the pan or running down the interior walls of the tower.

KyNola

I should have mentioned that there didnt seem to be any moisture on the inside of the unit. I opened it up a couple of times and felt around near the vent on the inside. It was dry.

Thanks guys.

HawkeyeSmokes · October 27, 2009, 02:27:43 PM

Did you notice if any smoke was backing up by the smoke generator? If so, that would be bad.

ArnieM · October 27, 2009, 02:40:53 PM

What Hawkeye said. If you see smoke coming out between the SG and the cabinet, the smoke (and moisture) is backing up. If that's not the case, it sounds to me like you're good to go.

Dr. Evil · October 27, 2009, 06:22:53 PM

Again, smoke didnt appear to be backing up.

It was about 35-40 degrees outside so I think that with the big temperature difference, it was just consensing a LOT. Seemed to work ok but there was condensation on top of the smoker since I was using a foam type gasket between the smoker and the dryer vent.

Ive been going through some of the pics on the site - looks to me like the way to have it is to have a rangehood/fan, large piping 3"+ and run it outside in the shortest distance possible.

Dr. Evil · October 28, 2009, 05:08:47 PM

Well, the ribs must have still been good....even the cat was liking them:

;D ;D ;D

RAF128 · October 31, 2009, 05:44:01 AM

This thread really interests me. I posted yesterday in a different area asking about this very thing. I like the picture of the venting. I have a window in my garage and opened it and put a fan in it buy it doesn't exhaust all the smoke. Garage now smells like a smoke house :) which isn't all that bad ;). My plan is to cut a piece of plywood to the size of the window and attach some of the aluminum venting to it and the top of the BDS. I considered putting a fan in the vent but thought it likely would pull too much heat out of the smoker so I'll try it with out. When not in use the plywood can be removed. I've thought of putting a shelf in the garage as a permanent home for the smoker and then venting it outside.

RAF128 · October 31, 2009, 05:49:06 AM

Another couple of questions. How did you attach the venting to the top of the smoker, and how do you adjust the vent?

ArnieM · October 31, 2009, 08:26:40 AM

RAF, this is just an FYI. MR started a thread on venting last month. This is just in case you didn't see it.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=11554.0

Dr. Evil · November 03, 2009, 11:48:32 AM

Quote from: RAF128 on October 31, 2009, 05:49:06 AM
Another couple of questions. How did you attach the venting to the top of the smoker, and how do you adjust the vent?

Raf, I drilled some holes in the top (4 to be exact) and used 4 #10-24 nutserts in the top of the smoker (if you dont know what that is, it is simply some connectors that have internal threads and they require a special tool to attach to the smoker. Its kind of like a pop riveter.

Anyway, if you are interested, I can take a pic of the internals and post it for you.

After looking at what some of the guys here have in their garages, i think the way to go is to install an old range fan, vert it to the outside and put the smoker under it.

RAF128 · November 03, 2009, 12:20:15 PM

Quote from: Dr. Evil on November 03, 2009, 11:48:32 AM
Quote from: RAF128 on October 31, 2009, 05:49:06 AM
Another couple of questions. How did you attach the venting to the top of the smoker, and how do you adjust the vent?

Raf, I drilled some holes in the top (4 to be exact) and used 4 #10-24 nutserts in the top of the smoker (if you dont know what that is, it is simply some connectors that have internal threads and they require a special tool to attach to the smoker. Its kind of like a pop riveter.

Anyway, if you are interested, I can take a pic of the internals and post it for you.

After looking at what some of the guys here have in their garages, i think the way to go is to install an old range fan, vert it to the outside and put the smoker under it.

The range hood sound like a good idea. It would help to vent the cigar smoke from the garage ;). Have a little cigar lounge in there.
I actually attached the vent hose to the top and used some sheet metal screws. So far it seems to be working.