Insulating an Original BS in Cold Country

oakrdrzfan · December 06, 2009, 10:12:42 AM

I have a new OBS and live in SLC, Utah which is cold right now. Does anyone have experience to share on how to insulate an OBS so that it can come up to temperature and stay there.

tia

FLBentRider · December 06, 2009, 10:14:42 AM

We have several members that smoke in cold temps.

A couple of foil wrapped bricks ( you can pre-heat these in the house oven (450F) if you want) will help

Do a longer pre-heat and no peeking will help as well.

MPTubbs · December 06, 2009, 10:29:06 AM

Also keep the smoker out of the wind. I found out that it helps alot.

Quarlow · December 06, 2009, 11:08:14 AM

Hello Tia and welcome to the forum. You definitly want to keep it out of the wind as the wind chill factor effects it alot. Just straight cold is not bad but the wind will get ya. As for insulating if you just put the smoker in some kind of cabinet it will keep the wind off and somewhat insulate it. Some of the guys got those plastic Garden storage cabinets for your shovels and stuff and then some folks built nice wooden sheds to house the unit. Some of them put them in there garages and then mount a stove vent fan above with the smoke vented to the outside which is really the ultimate setup.

oakrdrzfan · December 06, 2009, 11:57:59 AM

Quote from: Quarlow on December 06, 2009, 11:08:14 AM
Hello Tia and welcome to the forum. You definitly want to keep it out of the wind as the wind chill factor effects it alot. Just straight cold is not bad but the wind will get ya. As for insulating if you just put the smoker in some kind of cabinet it will keep the wind off and somewhat insulate it. Some of the guys got those plastic Garden storage cabinets for your shovels and stuff and then some folks built nice wooden sheds to house the unit. Some of them put them in there garages and then mount a stove vent fan above with the smoke vented to the outside which is really the ultimate setup.

I was thinking of just building a card board box with insulation to pop over the top of the smoker. Use a stove pipe to get it out the top of the insulated box.

Quarlow · December 06, 2009, 12:09:04 PM

Hey it is always good to experiment. If you got somekind of box big enough to go over it and see if you can find that rigid foam insulation with the silver foil on it, then line the box. You of course need to be able to open it to check things out. If you put a smoke stack on it you will have to keep it up off of the top so you can adjust the vent and to help with it drafting the smoke out. Hey play with it. You never know what will work. And ask questions here for sure cause there is alot of guys here that are damn smart.

oakrdrzfan · December 06, 2009, 12:13:43 PM

Quote from: Quarlow on December 06, 2009, 12:09:04 PM
Hey it is always good to experiment. If you got somekind of box big enough to go over it and see if you can find that rigid foam insulation with the silver foil on it, then line the box. You of course need to be able to open it to check things out. If you put a smoke stack on it you will have to keep it up off of the top so you can adjust the vent and to help with it drafting the smoke out. Hey play with it. You never know what will work. And ask questions here for sure cause there is alot of guys here that are damn smart.

That is exactly what I had in mind, the rigid foam insulation duct taped to card board box. Need to figure out air intake and exhaust. Should work!!! May have to tinker some, but should make for better control of temperature without a PID and ensure good temperatures on the cold days. Like today!!!

Quarlow · December 06, 2009, 12:16:53 PM

Hey give it a shot. Once you start working on it the ideas will come to ya.

Northern_Smoke · December 22, 2009, 08:55:05 PM

Hey, not sure if this helps but i have a thread going on where i insulated mine. I plan on testing it out for christmas supper so i have my fingers crossed. I used rigid insulation which had an R value of 12.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=13306.0