Jerky Making with a new "MOD"

[Consooger]

I'm posting this in here because it was my first run with this new mod when I was making venison. Ok, so it's been really windy and cold and I thought of an idea to help wind get into the vent. First off I removed my vent cover because it was getting all gunked up and I always run with it 100 % open anyways. SO my idea was to get a piece of aluminum piping that you would find for venting/duct work that was bendable in 4 different sections. My thinking was if ite windy I can twist the tube and the smoke/moisture will still come out and the wind/cold air inside would be limited.

SO I ran a batch of venison jerky today with this added (sorry I dont have pictures But I will get them uploaded) and first off the venison was a very wet marinade so there was a lot of moisture in the jerky and with this I ran the jerky specifically with the Bradley apple pucks (meaning I had a water bowl) So there was a lot of moisture inside the box. After I puled the jerky to go into the dehydrator and I moved the Bradley into my smoke room I noticed there was some moisture on top of the newly added smoke stack near the bottom (i taped this on securely with high heat silver ventilation tape) The venting is about 3.5 inches wide or so. Basically my question is will this be an issue causing more moisture inside the smoker (which I do not waht) or did I come up with a good idea that nobody thought of yet????

John

[KyNola]

John, I essentially did exactly the same thing and found the same moisture you described as well and had moisture dripping out of the end of the piping that would be considered the top of the smokestack.

Didn't know how to deal with it so I will be waiting to hear the info you get from the more educated members of the forum.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one. ;)

Larry

[JZ]

it's been really windy and cold and I thought of an idea to help wind get into the vent.

I am not understanding why you are trying to get wind into the smoker. That would cause the smoke to back up into the SG.

Enlighten me. :)

I think it might be a typo and you meant that this mod would assist in removal of the moisture from the smoker, by pointing it in the same direction the wind is blowing. If that is correct then my thoughts, for what they are worth are this 1) without the mod the heat will escape from the smoker into the atmosphere and there will be little condensation inside the smoker, because it is insulated, 2) with the mod attached the heat from the smoker will cause condensation as soon as it hits that thin wall sheet metal. If the mod was insulated I think there will be less condensation.

Not sure how cold or windy it is where you are but I use my smoker ( with the blankie installed ) in the wind and cold and it seems to work fine even with higher temp cooks. I just smoked some cheese tonight and it was only slightly windy and about -3*C and the temp in the smoker got up to 91* only using the AMAZNPS. I did some pulled pork at 220* for about 20 hrs a few days ago and the outside temps ranged from -5*C to about 4*C during the entire cook. The wind wasn't bad for most of the time but it blew up pretty good a few times and I didn't have any issues with condensation inside the smoker.

If I misunderstood you intent, ignore the above. :)

[Consooger]

I just read over my post and seems that my fingers were typing faster than what I wanted to come out. Basically if you see the attached picture I want to KEEP wind from getting into the smoker. As I said I did notice some moisture with this batch of jerky that I made but as I said the jerky was rather moist and I did have a water bowl catching the burnt pucks. Last thing I want to do is create MORE moisture in the box especially when doing jerky. Maybe I will run a batch of jerky next with a different source of smoke with no water bowl and see how that turns out.

[JZ]

I see the pic and what you are trying to achieve but IMHO I think it is counterproductive. You might be stopping the wind from blowing into the cabinet but that sheet metal pipe will be very cold and as soon as the moist, heated air from the smoker hits that cold pipe it will condense on the inside of the pipe and eventually drip back into the smoker. Without the pipe the heated air from the smoker will condense in the cold air outside the smoker and be carried away by the wind.

[HuntinFool]

A problem....your new vent is galvanized sheet, not aluminum.  I learnt that the hard way as well.  The moisture seems to really form on it, and result in nasty gray rain on your product...
I removed it.

[Consooger]

I removed mine as well. Turned out to be a bust! Oh well, back to the never ending fighiting of the wind