Coverting an old refrigerator into a smoker

[pikeman_95]

Mike


That is a good load. Looks like you think big. I like to make it worth while when I break out the equipment.
Is that Moose meat?? Just a guess.

Kirby

[Mr Walleye]

Yes, you do have to design something into the smoker to look after any grease that may drip. If you designed it with the smoke and heat in the bottom portion of the cabinet you could easily foil the lower portion of the main cabinet (meat area).

As far as the circulation fan goes, to me, the circulation fan simply circulates the air in the main portion of the cabinet to keep the heat more balanced. For placement you need to consider where you will draw the air from and also where you will be blowing the air to. You can easily create a  channel in the back of the cabinet to either suck the air from the top of the cabinet or vise versa. Some other things to consider is the type of fan and cfm of the fan as well.

Just to throw another screw into things... the second big smoker I built does not have a circulation fan and functions great.

Mike

[Mr Walleye]

Mike


That is a good load. Looks like you think big. I like to make it worth while when I break out the equipment.
Is that Moose meat?? Just a guess.

Kirby

Hi Kirby

Moose meat from Moose Jaw.... that would make perfect sense!  ;)

I think that load was a mixture of deer and pork.

Mike

[pfowl01]

You can easily create a  channel in the back of the cabinet to either suck the air from the top of the cabinet or vise versa. Some other things to consider is the type of fan and cfm of the fan as well.

Mike,
I'm not familiar with these fans and how they work. What did you use and how did you install yours? I've looked at your thread on your first smoker and your fan seems to be installed different than the pic in the grainger catalog that you had a link to.

[beefmann]

looking good so far, id build a channel along the back, install the heater near the top draw the air over it and  down to the bottom and place the smoke generator near the bottom, the area where you  took out the refrigeration unit id put the controls and remote a pid and possible timer

[Mr Walleye]

You can easily create a  channel in the back of the cabinet to either suck the air from the top of the cabinet or vise versa. Some other things to consider is the type of fan and cfm of the fan as well.

Mike,
I'm not familiar with these fans and how they work. What did you use and how did you install yours? I've looked at your thread on your first smoker and your fan seems to be installed different than the pic in the grainger catalog that you had a link to.

Paul

The second big smoker I built did not have a blower in it and still doesn't have one. It functions fine with out it and it is a lot higher cabinet than yours. You just want to make sure you heat is coming into the upper cabinet in the center and that the cap spreads it evenly in all directions. With the Bradley smoke generator poking through into that bottom cabinet that virtually gives you the air intake as well. Add the heating element in the lower cabinet and with a 5" or 6" hole in the center going from the lower cabinet to the upper cabinet and a 4" vent in the top you should be creating a pretty good draft. I think I would give it a shot with our a circulation fan first. You could always add a circulation fan afterwords if you found you really needed one. It would save a few $ too.

Even with a circulation fan, if you have a big load, for me that's 100 lbs of sausage, the lower level will be complete first. Not really a big deal for me, especially now that I finish them in a hot water bath.

[pfowl01]

Mike,
OK..........the cabinet measures 19"w 34"h 16"d. Punched it into the BTU calculator.....  http://www.heatershop.com/btu_calculator.htm
And it gives me anywhere from 750-1500btu, depending how you punch it in.
I'm thinking 1500w of heat should be enough. I'm going to use a PID to control them using two SSR's, a Bradley smoke generator and a fan is yet to be determined. I think I'm going to mount all of this in the lower cabinet ( except the PID of course ) and cut a hole from the lower cabinet to upper cabinet and fabricate a diffuser that Nepa sent me plans for.
When I'm going to hot smoke.........I think what I'm going to do is have a extra large removable water pan that would cover most of the floor area to catch all the drippings. When I'm not hot smoking ........take it out. I will get rid off all the plastic in the unit, get ride of the door seal and replace......... but what are your thoughts on the light?........keep it or get rid of it? Would be a nice feature, but not sure if would cause a problem down the road or not.

[pikeman_95]

The only thing I would add with regards to a fan is it will help circulate the smoke more. I feel this is also a benefit other then leveling out the heat. I feel that the circulation helps attach the smoke molecules to the sausage. As you can imagine some of the smoke enters the smoker and never comes in contact with the surface of the meat. A fan increases this contact therefore increasing the smoke saturation. I have found it has helped in my smoker because I have tried it both ways and can see a difference.

Kirby

[Mr Walleye]

Sounds like your getting a pretty good plan together Paul.

Those old fridges actually had pretty good insulation in them so I wouldn't be surprised if a 1500 watt element would work. You should only require one SSR though.

As far as the light goes I don't know why you would leave it in there. The bulb would be constantly covered in smoke residue and would very likely seize the bulb in the socket.

Mike

[CoreyMac]

I like the idea of housing the heat and smoke generator in the bottom section  

Mike,
I was leaning that way also....I would have to seal up a few things first though
Question is....where do I install the fan? Main cabinet or lower cabinet?
I would also like to build this to have the capability to hot smoke if I want to......say up to 250-275deg. What is going to catch the grease? Thought about maybe putting a water bowl in the main cabinet similar to a gas smoker setup........any thoughts? I'm totally open to ideas and suggestions here ;D

I was planning on adding a small duct fan in mine out the top. I'm going to use a 4" chimney top with a damper in it, then if I need more flow just pop the chimney top off and pop on the duct fan. Putting it on a fan control rheostat will control the speed. I can see the only time you would need a fan would be for say doing jerky when you need to dehydrate. Regular smoking shouldn't really need one. You can get duct fans for pretty cheap.


Just a thought
Corey

[pfowl01]

Mike,
Yea I guess your right about the light....I could see it becoming a problem also. Just would have been a nice feature......although what about a housesold range light? They are covered by a removable glass dome.......you would just have to clean it every so often. Hmmmmmm....I think I'll let that one simmer for a bit ;D
What do you think about installing the fan where the light use to be....

make a channel going down and have it blow just above the diffuser in the main chamber?

How about this fan? http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TDU9  To big?

[CoreyMac]

76 CFM @3040 rpm wow it would be a wind tunnel. Would work if you can slow it down a bit.


Corey

[Mr Walleye]

Mounting the fan in the light hole might be interesting. That blower motor will handle intake temps up to 450 degrees which would work great. The only thing to keep in mind is the motor portion of the blower needs to be on the outside of the smoker.

CoreyMac
76 cfm may not be that high. If you read the specs it shows the cfm is 76 but the cfm quickly drops to 50 when there is flow restrictions. I don't full understand it but longer the run you try to flow air through, the more the cfm slows down. Add corners and its even more. Also, using a rheostat would control it as well.

Mike

[CoreyMac]

Mounting the fan in the light hole might be interesting. That blower motor will handle intake temps up to 450 degrees which would work great. The only thing to keep in mind is the motor portion of the blower needs to be on the outside of the smoker.

CoreyMac
76 cfm may not be that high. If you read the specs it shows the cfm is 76 but the cfm quickly drops to 50 when there is flow restrictions. I don't full understand it but longer the run you try to flow air through, the more the cfm slows down. Add corners and its even more. Also, using a rheostat would control it as well.

Mike

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan/hvac expert but it seems that by my calculations the cabinet is 6 CU/ft and even 50CFM would give 8 1/2 to 9 air changes per minute.That would almost blow all the smoke out of the cabinet. Its a nice little fan ,and it would definitely need to be slowed down to almost nothing.I have yet to test my deal but it seems to me that now that I have calculated everything (correctly I hope) If the smoker is outside, if there is enough vents properly installed a fan is almost not necessary. Different story for dehydrating however. But this is all my opinion, I have never done any actually testing so I could be completely wrong (happens a lot ;D)

Guess it boils down to put the fan in and let us know how it works ;D

Corey

[muebe]

Would a small 12V computer case fan be a better option? You would just need a 110AC to 12DCV voltage regulator. They are inexpensive and widely available...