Use a Bradley as a Food Dehydrator

[ddtdustin]

All
I was just messing around yesterday day and thought of something that might work, but I have a few questions/concerns.  I know a few people have added fans to the rear of the Smoker Tower to circulate air and better distribute temperature.  What if someone placed the fan in the hole for the SG instead of in the rear of the unit, fresh air would move over the heating elements, through the V tray and out the vent at the top of the smoker tower.  In this configuration the smoker would now become a dehydrator assuming you are using a PID or some other means for low temperature control.  The immediate issue with this configuration is that you have removed the SG and can no longer add smoke.  Here are a couple of ideas to get around this.  First many people use a Cold Smoke Adapter which separates the SG from the smoker tower and allows lower temperature smokes.  The fans could be installed in a cold smoke adapter.  The other option would be to install the fan in the smoke generator and add some form of ducting to force the air into the existing hole on the smoker tower.  I have taken my SG apart and believe you could add the fan to the right wall (the wall next to the tower when installed).  You would have to drill holes in this wall to let the air flow into the smoke tower.
My first question is how many CFM should the fan blow.  I think the OBS is around 2.6 cubic feet.  The fan which I have in the picture runs at 32CFM so it only takes 4.8 seconds to move 2.6 cubic feet or air.  I believe this is on the high side.   If anyone could look I would like to know the CFM rating of standard food dehydrator and the approximate cubic footage.  I also thought you could add a damper to limit some of the air flow.
My main plan for adding the fan is to make jerky (dehydrate it).  I did make 4 lbs this weekend with the fan running and some tape added to limit air flow.  However I do not think it decreased the drying time much.  The jerky is roughly 5x2x3/16 and has been taken 9 hours at 140F.  I did increase the temperature to 150 for 2hrs at the end.
My next question is how much benefit could you get by using the fan on a regular smoke?  I wonder with the fan blowing would it effect/decrease the smoke favor?
Please let me know your comments.
Thanks
DDT   

[GusRobin]

Just buy a dehydrator?

[Tiny Tim]

If you really want to do something similar, while keeping smoke capabilities, just get a 4 inch duct fan, power cord, and rheostat type controller to feed it more or less power to get the airflow to the speed you want it, and set the duct fan on top of the vent at the top of the cabinet.  The SG has louvers and holes for airflow, as well as a small air gap between the generator and cabinet, that should be plenty of fresh air draw.

[ddtdustin]

Gus
Yes I could just buy a Food Dehydrator, that is simple enough.  But I thought this was a good idea and I wanted to share it and receive some feedback.  If I bought one I would have to make space which is prime in our kitchen;
Thanks
DDT   

[wetzel1977]

If you dont want to buy a dehydrator then do want tiny tim said that should work just fine