Ready to season and cook - Placement of the smoker?

Monch · February 27, 2009, 08:53:23 AM

All,

I'm all unpacked, cleaned, and ready to rock and roll.

I have a questions about where to locate the unit.

Given the setup of my place, I'm considering a purpose-built shelf inside the attached garage on the exterior wall. I would then rig an aluminized dryer hose out the window. I would be able to plug directly into a GFCI outlet.

I'm thinking safety first and convenience second.

If I'm meticulous about venting the out-gasses to outside atmosphere, would I be safe?

To frame the question more appropriately, if it were your house, knowing the properties of the Bradley, would you consider this setup?

If the answer is "No way!", I will respect the advice. Not looking to "hear what I want to hear".

Thanks in advance,

Monch

Tenpoint5 · February 27, 2009, 09:47:33 AM

Monch,

I have my Bradley sitting on its own rolling tool cabinet. I either open the big garage door and roll it over close to it or when the wind and snow is howling here in Iowa I just crack open the walk-in door with the smoker by it. My wife kinda likes the smell of hickory in the garage. When it goes away she asks when I'm gonna be smoking again. So its a matter of weather or not you want your garage to have that distinctive smell to it.

To answer you question using the Bradley in your garage isn't any different than what you would do with a gas grill IMHO

Mr Walleye · February 27, 2009, 09:51:09 AM

Monch

Tough question.

I think you do want to exercise caution when doing this in an attached garage. I do have mine setup in my detached garage. Having said that I have taken a number of precautions to eliminate or try to eliminate any potential problems. One fire hazard there is, is if you allow your water bowl to evaporate and/or you allow your spent pucks to pile up. The risk is that the pucks don't extinguish properly because of the lack of water in the bowl and the grease dripping from something like a pork butt may cause it to ignite. Now, this rarely happens and can be avoided by emptying the bowl of spent pucks and refilling the water bowl once the smoke portion of the cook is over with, usually about 4 hours into the cook. To eliminate this risk I have build a permanent cold smoke setup. This is made a lot easier now because Bradley offers this as an option. By using the cold smoke setup there is no way for the grease to drip on the spent pucks because they are not there.

Here is a link to my setup in the detached garage. The 3rd photo down is the photo you want to look at, just click on it to enlarge.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7616.msg82164#msg82164

I think there are definitely ways to minimize the risk, but as with any appliance, there still is some risk. With my setup, I have eliminated as much risk as possible and my risk is my detached heated garage only as opposed to my garage, home and family.

Not really an answer... just my thoughts on the subject.

Another option might be to have a separate outside structure to house the Bradley so as not to risk home and family. There are a number on this site that have done this as well.

Mike

aces-n-eights · February 27, 2009, 09:57:29 AM

My only question is about your vent hose. Here's what i did...

I got the cheapest scratch and dent hood from Home Depot and mounted it above my Bradley and then vented it to the outside. My concern with your suggested plan is that your smoker may not vent the smoke properly. You don't want to have a fan mounted directly in the hose because it may pull the smoke through the smoker too fast. You also don't want to slow down the smoke and have it back up into the smoker. I don't know how long your exhaust hose will have to be to get it to the window and then out.

I think safety- wise you'd be OK because the smoke is not too hot. You need to be able to air out your garage because you WILL get smoke in the garage as you open the door moving food in and out.

The bottom line is that the Bradley is designed to vent without assistance and altering that - either slowing it down or pulling it through - will alter the performance of your smoker.

I'm sure others will chime in. I can tell you it is really nice to have my smoker inside where i can use it year around, no matter the weather!

Mr Walleye · February 27, 2009, 10:04:50 AM

Monch

Just to add to my post...

I'm a little over cautious... probably because I'm in the insurance business. There is no question as A&8's said it is really nice to be able to smoke in a comfortable environment especially in our weather here in Canada. It's not uncommon for it to be -40 with wind chill in the winter here in Saskatchewan.

Mike

Monch · February 27, 2009, 10:26:22 AM

All,

Thank you for all the FAST advice.

My fallback was to procure a rolling cart and push it to the doorway of the garage...Good idea Tenpoint5!

I am not as handy as A/8 obviously is...I'm envious of your setup!...and the winters in south-central Wisconsin aren't as "stiff" as in Canada.

SO...I'm taking everyone's advice!

Nix the hose exhaust idea; be cautious about the fire hazard..despite how unlikely; and get that puppy on wheels!

Brilliant.

My setup won't be picturesque, but I'm hoping the final results will be!

Ya'll are about the best forum participants I've run across. Thanks a heap.

oldsmoker · February 27, 2009, 01:35:54 PM

A&8's looked at your setup.Great looking just one question is your hood and fan hooked up to electricty?

aces-n-eights · February 27, 2009, 04:03:29 PM

Old SMOKER, yes the hood is powered up. It is right next to the breaker box in the garage so it took all of about 18" of romex to get it going! Basic range hood, high/low fan and light. I've found i need to run the fan on high to keep up with the smoke output ;D

West Coast Kansan · February 27, 2009, 09:33:27 PM

Any more info on the wife that likes the smell of hickory in the garage and says smoke more if the smell goes away ??? Would like to get one of those or at least arrange a conference. ::)

Mr Walleye · February 28, 2009, 05:05:11 AM

Quote from: West Coast Kansan on February 27, 2009, 09:33:27 PM
Any more info on the wife that likes the smell of hickory in the garage and says smoke more if the smell goes away ??? Would like to get one of those or at least arrange a conference. ::)

:D :D :D ;D

Mike

La Quinta · February 28, 2009, 05:11:39 PM

WCK...WCK...WCK...you know I do know your wife...she is lovely....you should be careful...we chicks stick together ya know... ;D

IKnowWood · February 28, 2009, 05:51:44 PM

A&8 do you still get a good amount of smoke backup. I got a similar setup but the hood can't handle the amount of smoke. I get swirling smoke coming from all areas in the hood and it filters back into the garage. A good bit does go outside but I still get a lot inside. I end up opening another door or opening a window with a fan to vent the rest before it backs into the house (not that it is to bad, we love the smell). My hood has some bends up then down to get outside. I worry that the issue is the bend down, the warm air may just refuse to go there and backs in. If that is the case I either will get an inline fan or get new windows where I can vent out the top of it. Let me know your residual smoke.

I got mine also cheap, but not cheapest.

Mr Walleye · February 28, 2009, 06:03:51 PM

IKnowWood & Aces&eights

Here is a link to my original setup in my garage using a range hood. At first I had some smoke in the garage (not much) until I realized that a range hood with a standard fan (not a drum style blower) actually only sucks air from the very centre. So I added a piece of 4" PVC pipe and that just sits on top of the BS over the vent. It worked very well but tended to draw too much air through the unit causing it to cool down. My solution was to notch the 4" pipe at the bottom to allow it to draw room air as well. I have found that I tend to have the vent slightly more closed now due to the assisted draw on it but I have no problem maintaining temps.

Here is the link & photos....

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=4142.0

Mike

IKnowWood · February 28, 2009, 06:11:36 PM

Mike

I remember your posts on it and one time I tried to replicate it. My hood is a drum style fan. It does not work so good. When I added the extra pipes it still did not work as good. So you recommend not using the drum?

Smoked · February 28, 2009, 06:15:34 PM

Quote from: Tenpoint5 on February 27, 2009, 09:47:33 AM
Monch,

I have my Bradley sitting on its own rolling tool cabinet. I either open the big garage door and roll it over close to it or when the wind and snow is howling here in Iowa I just crack open the walk-in door with the smoker by it. My wife kinda likes the smell of hickory in the garage. When it goes away she asks when I'm gonna be smoking again. So its a matter of weather or not you want your garage to have that distinctive smell to it.

To answer you question using the Bradley in your garage isn't any different than what you would do with a gas grill IMHO

Like Tenpoint5, I also have mine on a rolling tool cabinet-- it's very stable, and the drawers are perfect for storing my bisquette inventory, racks, and misc (Maverick temp unit, etc)... Worked great so far for me. When it's raining, I just keep the unit under the overhang of the garage and all is good!

Ed