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Started by teebody, November 10, 2008, 08:17:35 AM

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teebody

I bought a large (36" X 36" X 48"H) commercial slow cooker and am trying to add a smoke generator to it.  I have the generator mounted but with the door closed all of the smoke vents out of hole for stacking the wood pucks in and not into the cabinet.  If I open the door, most of it will go into the cabinet.  The cabinet has a large opening on the bottom for getting air to the natural gas burner and a vent on top.  I think I am getting a draft out of the puck hole from the opening on the bottom.  I have considered adding a fan or air pump on the smoke generator to push the smoke into the cabinet. Has anyone had this problem and how did you get around it?  Any help would be appreciated.  Teebody

beefmann

Welcome to the forum Teabody

it sounds like you  have a ventalation problem I would try the following:

1) if the top vent is adjustable open it all the way and watch to see how  much smoke escapes .. some is normal in the smoking process. you miight have to play  with the vent to get it  dialed in.

2) if the top vent is not adjustable then leave the  heat off untill the smoking  process is compleate.. typically 1 to 4 hours of smoking is normal.

im sure others will  chime in on this as  well

westexasmoker

Welcome to the forum teebody!

I think you've got it figured out, the opening in the bottom is drawing through the SG sounds like to me.  Installing a fan would cure that, and as beef stated make sure your vent on top is open far enough!  Good luck and keep us posted!

C
Its amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't know what one can't do!

KyNola

Tee,
Just a word of caution here.  If the smoke is coming out of the puck stacking device, that means the smoke is backing up into the generator.  That will destroy the generator so you definitely want to get this vent problem resolved soon.

KyNola

teebody

Has anyone seen a fan or air pump mounted on a generator to push the smoke into the box?  T

Mr Walleye

Hi Teebody and welcome to the forum.

To trouble shoot it, it would help if you posted a picture of the unit and how the generator is mounted to it. Clearly it sounds like a vent issue to me. You want your top vent to be able to open enough to cause a "draw", thereby sucking air through the generator and into the main chamber along with the smoke. Without looking at it, it sounds like the top vent is not open enough or not large enough. I don't think pushing air by fan or air pump will solve the problem.

A couple of things to think about....

Is it possible the propane burner is sort of "preasurizing" the chamber? If this is the case then a larger top vent would be the solution.

If you fire up the smoke generator with the top vent open and the propane burner still off, does the smoke still backup through the generator? If it doesn't, this would indicate the propane burner is preasurizing the main chamber. Again the solution would be a larger top vent or possibly a power assist to it.

I think if  you post some pictures it will be easier for everybody to give you a better idea.

Mike

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