Cold Weather Enclosure

[Cantle Räucherei]

Hi All

As I sit here tonight, it is about 30 degrees f, and about to snow again here in Kamloops.  I haven't been using the smoker as the weather has been typically winter'ish.

I am ruminating on the idea of purchasing a small vertical storage shed to put the smoker in.  It would shelter the smoker, and I would put a ceramic heater in the bottom of it to preheat the air that would be drawn in thru a vent grill I would install.  Then the addition of a chimney vent at the top, and hopefully I would have a little bit of summer in the dead of winter.

Has anyone tried such an arrangement, or any suggestions or issues that come to anyones mind?

Thanks in advance
Scott

[TedEbear]

There are many threads with pics where people have either built a storage shed for their Bradley or purchased something and modified it.  The forum search tool would turn up some of those threads.  Here are several to get you started:

Suncast BMS1500 vertical storage shed?

beefmanns new smoker digs

Enclosure for OBS

My smoker just got a new home

My New Smoker Home

Winter Time Smoking

And my all-time personal favorite:  Christmas Day...Mission accopmlished... Bradley Mansion Ready

[Cantle Räucherei]

Hi TedE

Thanks for the great response.  Apparently this cold in my head is leaving me even more brain addled than I thought, never even dawned o me to do a search. 

Thanks again for the time in responding, it is much appreciated.

Regards
Scott

[aij]

30°F is not cold, it's barely even freezing. ;) I have yet to test my Bradley in such warm weather.

FWIW, the BDS4 did well at 25°F on my back porch. We'll see how it does today. It's now 20°F and will only get colder throughout the weekend, but it was able to get up to temperature, so...

I do put a cover over it to keep the snow off it when not in use. It's a lot cheaper than buying a shed.

To be fair, I have not tested it in strong winds yet, so if you have strong winds you may very well need an enclosure at 30°F.

[tskeeter]

My recommendation would be to skip the ceramic heater unless you can put it on an electrical circuit separate from the smoker.  Having both a heater and the smoker on a single circuit will most likely over load the circuit and make your smoker perform poorly.

As AIJ indicated, many folks in quite cold weather climates use their smokers out of doors year round.  You might find that your smoker performs to your satisfaction without needing to preheat the makeup air.

[cathouse willy]

I have my obs wrapped in a metallic insulation blanket (think hot water heater cover) you can buy it in a roll and custom fit a smoker blanket. Make sure to leave a hole for the vent.I bought a small vert shed and between the extra insulation and the protection from the shed I have no trouble getting the obs up to temp all year long,rain or shine.Hope this helps
Bill