Rebuilding my old fridge smoker

[CoreyMac]

I built an old fridge smoker years ago and it works pretty good but when I built it there were none of the electronic
equipment you can get nowadays. I used a little propane burned for heat and a couple if the electric BBQ lighters for smoking the wood
chips. It works OK but the heat and smoke control was terrible. I want to up grade using a Bradley smoke generator, and a Sausage Maker natural gas burner kit with a temp controller.
My question is, I have read about the PID controllers, but it seems that everybody who uses them has electric smokers.
Is there any benefit in using one with a gas fired smoker? and if so what kind of things could you control with it? Would it work to
control the gas valve? 

Thanks for the help.

Corey

[mjdeez]

I dunno but there was a recent discussion about this very topic in this post (see link). It would be a good place to start. Others on this forum (as you will read) are pretty familiar with what it would take to do it.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=14744.0

[CoreyMac]

Decided to skip the PID and just go with a basic thermostat to control the heat inside the cabinet.

[CoreyMac]

Next question is I was planning on running a cold smoke adapter with the smoke generator, by the pictures on the website it looks like the cold smoke adapter is fairly tall once the piping is installed. Is it best to try and introduce smoke as low as possible in the cabinet? As it sits, it looks like the pipe will come in about 24" above the bottom of my smoker. I would like to get it in as low as I can, but this means I will have to raise the smoker up (its on a stand with wheels). Not a huge deal but is it worth the effort.

Hope that all made sense.

Corey

[classicrockgriller]

Corey here is a pic of a cold smoke adaptor hooked to a Bradley.

The bottom where the smoke gen and cold smoke adaptor sits to

the bottom of the Bradley cabinet is 13". Hopes this helps.

[CoreyMac]

Thanks for the picture, it looks like the pipe comes in near the bottom of the cabinet. Not a problem, I'll just have to fab up a stand that
will lift up my smoker a bit so the piping goes in lower. I'm planning on pretty much gutting the cabinet for a refit anyways, won't take much more for a new frame.

Thanks
Corey