Hot smoking using the cold smoke adaptor

[Jamesdw4]

With the bcold adaptor attached and the heating element active in the smoker tower, can you effectively hot smoke? Any pros or cons? I ask because I am tired of changing the configuration back and forth for hot or cold smoking . Also, would separating the smoke generator from the smoker tower reduce wear on the smoke generator(I read where some people had problems with the heating element in the smoker tower getting too hot and damaging the smoke generator)?

[classicrockgriller]

If you are asking if you can leave your smoke gen in the cold smoke adaptor and smoke/cook at say 225*.

Sure.

The one thing you do lose in the winter time cold the smoke gen burner if left on generates 125 watts of heat.

Not sure how much you save on wear on the gen.

Maybe someone will be along that knows.

Welcome to the Forum!

[Quarlow]

Now I am no expert so I am just going by what you'd figure but I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to leave it attached to the cold box. As Sonny said when it is cold out you would lose the extra heat the burner gives off but since you raised the question if you had the second heating element conversion you would have no problems that way. An advantage might be that to change the bowl of water for the pucks you wouldn't lose much heat out of the tower but you will still need a pan in the tower to catch the drips. I am glad you ask this as I am just designing my Bradley townhouse which will include space for the cold box and it would be good to not have to change back and forth. Welcome to the forum, glad to have you with us.

[RAF128]

You didn't say whether you've go an OBS or a digital.    I don't think you can with a digital.   There is the sensor to contend with and it's too short to reach the smoke generator and if you try to turn on the element you'll get an E message.    With the OBS is should work  but you may not get the temp up that high.    Usually the element in the SG is inside the cabinet and it supplies heat too.   

[Smokin Soon]

If I were to do a permanent setup like that, I would look into adding the second heating element. That little bit of heat that the smoke gen provides is really needed with a full load.

[Quarlow]

You can get a longer sensor cord, I think Scott has them, mmmmm I could be wrong about Scott but someone on here has them. I would do the second element for sure.

[Jamesdw4]

Thanks everyone for your help. Glad I joined the forum!!!
I have the original smoker and a BBQ Guru.
For hot smoking I guess I would need to get another bowl for the smoke tower?
Since the smoke generator would be out of the way, I was thinking about adding a sheet of ceramic tile(cut a pizza stone to fit) on the bottom and some "Grill Greats" to go on top of the drip tray to add some thermal mass. I hope this would help dissipate the heat better and reduce the heat fluctuations when the door is open and closed in the smoke tower.

[Jamesdw4]

Great suggestion. I found where someone had done the mod. I would like to do the mod, my only concern is proper heat dissipation. Maybe since I have the smoke generator out of the way I can look at how I can change the heating element layout with two elements. Maybe one on the back and one on the front?
Any ideas is greatly appreciated!!!

[BuyLowSellHigh]

I believe you will get the maximum benefit if you add your thermal mass above and below the food, with all of it above the heat source.  On my six rack it seems to help the temp come back a bit quicker after the door is closed. But it will take longer to initially heat up - you need to heat the mass and store the heat.   Bricks and paver stones work well and are dirt cheap.  For a drip tray in the tower you can use an aluminum pan where the bowl usually sits.

[GusRobin]

I have the OBS and have the 2nd element added and don't need to worry about adding any bricks etc for heat mass and don't need to worry about losing the extra heat from the generator. When I built my Habitat for the Bradley, I designed it to permanently have the cold smoke set-up and to use for both hot and cold smokes. I decided not to permanently run it that way for a couple of reasons.

When I do an overnight smoke I substitute a larger pan of water to catch the pucks and drippings.I have the Bradley cold smoke kit and it doesn't accommodate a larger pan so you would have to watch it more when using a lot of pucks. A custom made cold smoke box would solve that problem. The other issue is with the OBS sometimes the pucks are not as fully burned when cold smoking as with hot smoking. Might be the additional heat that the puck gets from the element (just guessing). Since I hot smoke more than cold smoke, I didn't want to waste the pucks.

So my design allows me to do either. When I hot smoke I disconnect the cold smoke box (with the hose still attached to the box) from the cabinent and store underneath). It is not much of a pain to switch, but then again I don't switch between the 2 methods that often. But iif Ii did it still would be pretty easy to do. (a link to my setup -http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=16087.0)

[classicrockgriller]

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=16087.0)

link to Gus' Bradley Castle

[Jamesdw4]

Wow!!! Now that is a cool setup.
Question on the second heating element. Do you have a problem with uneven heating because of both elements being so close together? Do you notice the back of the smoker tower to get real hot?

[Jamesdw4]

One more question, would you share the diminsions of the habitat? I really like the cold smoke setup.

[GusRobin]

I never wrote the dimensions down as I kind of designed and built on the fly. But I went out and measured so here are the overall dimensions. If you need any specific measurement, let me know and I'll go measure. Feel free to ask any questions or PM me - your choice.

[Jamesdw4]

You have been a big help. Thanks GusRobin!!!!!!!