smoker blanket

[rigstar]

heres some pics of my blankie










all snuggy, with some red green tape to finish it off

[SouthernSmoked]

Niiice! But that is called Kentucky Chrome.  ;D

One question - did you cover the door?

[rigstar]

funny ;D

no i didn't cover door, can't remember whose post i read that did this before, but he said he
didn't cover door, and still had good results
1 burner - no mods yet- -8*C, 15 mins to heat up to 280*F
so seems to work good so far without door covered,
we'll see when it drops down to - 35*C how it works,
have some left over just in case

[watchdog56]

Where did you get that and how much was it?

[rigstar]

sorry watchdog,
i am not sure, i got the stuff from work,
it looks like bubble wrap with heavy tinfoil on the outside
i try to take a pic of the middle for you

[rigstar]

here's a couple of pics , hope this helps

[rigstar]

well almost finished another smoke - canadian back this time
and as with another smoke i did the other night of ribs,
could not get smoker over 205*F, which is not bad just takes
a little longer to get food done.
i am not sure covering the door would make much difference.
i have all the stuff i need to do a second 500 watt element, so i think
that's where i am headed
thought the covering might make more of a difference, it has made a difference,
just not enough for myself
only -10*C outside right now, can't get it over 205*F, that was with a full load of
back bacon in, 24 lbs. worth
just some info for whoever wants it

[rigstar]

an update
finished back bacon smoke
about 2 1/2hr longer than what Habs said it would,
due to size, temp, not sure, but i think temp had alot to due with it
i think it would have taken alot longer without the blankie, so i am
glad i did

[CLAREGO]

i own a chargriller with sfb the only way i could keep the temp in it was to get a welding blanket temps were not an issue but this is cool idea  ;)

[JZ]

Did you preheat the smoker?

I did the same thing with my smoker and posted some results of times and temps. I think the key is to make sure the smoker is preheated to 250* before adding the food.

With the Snuggie / Blankie, the whole smoker seems to act as a thermal mass. I noticed that the recovery time was very short after adding food or opening the door. But I have not yet done a smoke where I added a big load of cold food to the smoker - to date I have only added a whole chicken or 4 racks of nuts or 2 butts. The outside temps were around -5*C but  I was  impressed with the quick heat recovery after loading and checking progress.

[Quarlow]

Damn. I had a good 50 feet by 8 feet of this stuff I got out of a container. I didn't have any use for it so it went into the dumpster.

[Habanero Smoker]

The ambient temperature definitely had an effect on the cooking time, if you could only get the smoker up to 205?F, but that is good since it was 14?F.  If the cabinet could only get to 205?F, that is 20 degrees lower of what temperature I use. So that will definitely add more time, and probably your recovery time was very slow. As mentioned above if you didn't preheat, or let the loins set at room temperature for a while that would increase the overall cooking time. One other thing that would increase the time, if you took them beyond 140?F.

[TedEbear]

no i didn't cover door, can't remember whose post i read that did this before, but he said he
didn't cover door, and still had good results
1 burner - no mods yet- -8*C, 15 mins to heat up to 280*F

If he was heating the coking chamber up to 280*F I'm surprised it didn't trip out the high temp limit.  I think it is set at around 275*F,  These things are smokers, not ovens.   :)

[rigstar]

yes i preheated, 265 on the bradley temp, sorry the 280 was on the
maverick
yes it was you JZ who i got the idea from, now i remember your handle,
sorry about that but i couldn't find your thread, thank-you for the idea

i did let the loins sit on the counter for roughly an hour or so, so warmed up
a bit, but not throughly i am sure, so they were on the coolish side i think
yes the recovery times were certainly better than without and so was warm up
time. i noted preheat time was about 15 min's whereas it was about 45-1 hr in same
outside temps before. now thinking back on what i did, i probably should have let cabinet
warm up for another 15 mins or so to make sure entire cabinet was warmed up, not just
the temp probes. but was excited that it got hot so quickly i just grabbed food and put it in;lol
didn't take note of recovery time, all i noticed is that it was alot
quicker with the blanket on

overall i think blanket was worth doing as JZ pointed out better preheat and recovery times,
concerned abit about overall cabinet temp being low due to outside temps, but 200-205*F
still gets food out of danger zone when cooking, just had to plan ahead when smoking
something i want for supper.
i will be doing upgrade(mod) to dual element as i think as temps continue to drop
up here in the great white north, i will be attempting to smoke in sub -25*C weather,
and might not be able maintain 205*F cabinet temps.
so like a good boy scout, i am going to be prepared;lol

[JZ]

At -25C I doubt the Snuggie would be enough to get temps up for a big load. Might need to add an electric blanket under the Snuggie lol. Probably best to do the dual mod. One thing to consider is that with all that heat under the bottom tray you might get stuff burned easier. I even have burned (well overcooked) nuts on mine, even though I rotated the racks several times and switched them from front to back.

I read someone else added a fan to their dual mod and that evened out the temps enough that he did not even have to rotate racks. Worth considering while your in there doing the changes anyways. Good luck.