Alto Shaam Smoker

[tom987]

So have was looking at building a fridge/freezer smoker and was calling around looking for such when I came across a working Alto Shaam two door holding cabinet. The guy told me he has been unable to move it for some time because it is missing is the racks. He said it is a $6000 dollar unit new but is willing to let it go for $200. It is located in a warehouse and was unable to get me pics at this time. I was looking at building a tall vertical smoker in order to make snack sticks but also capable of hitting close to 300* for other smokes.

From what I can research (I don’t have an exact model number) these are capable of reaching 200* so I would have to add an additional heating element to reach higher temps. It appears these are high end units and are known for keeping a very uniform temperature throughout.

My holdup is that in order to build a tall vertical smoker I would need to remove the partition between the two cabinets. But from what I have read these are heated from three sides...are these side the left, back, and right? So maybe removing that section wouldn’t be a huge problem.

Would adding a “mailbox” like mod or a smoke daddy be tough to do given the coils that wrap the body? I would also need to put in a chimney and the electronics appear to be on the top.

Does anyone out there have working knowledge about how these are put together?

I think this route could be much easier than removing and then reinsulating a fridge unit. Plus the ability to have very accurate and uniform 200* and down temps would be awesome.

Any thoughts?

 

[SmokinAl]

Gosh for $200 how could you go wrong!
Al

 

[tom987]

I know, I know. You do make me think I’m a dummy for not jumping on this opportunity. I’m just concerned on how to properly vent it without tearing it apart or messing up the heating elements. It appears to be a sweet deal but the wife would kill me if I spend $200 on something I end up not using and then have to find somewhere to store it.

I was hoping for someone with an understanding of how these work or someone who had used one in the past.

The goal would be to install a 1500 or so watt heating element controlled by a pid but still be able to use the internal existing heat to help maintain an even, consistent temperature. Would anyone see an issue with heating one of these up to 300*.

I might have to be the guinea pig.

 

[weev]

We use to have these and there is a wire heating element that wraps all the way around it and in between the top and bottom the only way to cut holes would be in the doors on the backside or maybe if you were to take the side off maybe able to move the heating element wire but you still have the wires in the middle
also if one of the wires goes out they are almost 900$ per cabinet to fix
They do make a unit that is called a cook and hold and they get hotter than 200 so maybe it was that unit

 

[nanuk]

get it a mod a complete heating system and forget about the integrated unit.

for that price, you cannot go wrong!