AMNPS in mailbox with aquarium pump hybrid... need some ideas and input

[jonnysax]

Alright everyone, i have an ongoing project... http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/137584/jonnys-rusty-old-oven-build-lots-of-photos

and before i got on i need some help.  if you review my plans for the build its an old oven and there is limited room inside the oven with the element and a water pan, so i wanted to have the smoke producer below the oven.  my original idea involved a small electric burner and a cast iron pan with a mailbox style mod.  After reading a bunch of stuff I've found that the AMNPS is the best because you all scared me away from a smoke daddy style smoke generator.  But i do like the idea of injecting the smoke in with an aquarium pump.  Do you think i could do a small box with an AMNPS inside and run some smaller pipe up into the oven with an aquarium air pump to push the smoke in.  has anyone tried this?  will it work?

 

[rexster314]

Sounds like a neat idea, but sooner or later the smoke will gum up the pump, I believe
 

 

[jonnysax]

my idea was to do a venturi style pipe coming from the box.  that way it drew plenty of air in and let the AMNPS burn well

 

[dward51]

The AMNPS needs free air to burn properly.  If you have air from the aquarium pump blowing onto or across the pellets, it will be like fanning the flames so to speak. They will burn much much faster than normal.

On the other hand if you had a air inlet in the smoke exhaust from the mail box mod with the air injected at an angle away from the mail box that might work, but I really don't know if you need it.  Reason I say that is smoke will flow downward from a mailbox mod into a cook chamber and then upwards as long as the exhaust is considerably higher than the air inlet due to the chimney effect.

See this thread and a test I did on the down flow from a mailbox mod

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...-of-concept-testing-macgyver-special-w-photos

 

[jonnysax]

great experiment!  do you think pipe size will have any affect on smoke flow?

 

[dward51]

It probably would if you went too small.  And if you go too large on the exhaust, it will tend to let the heat and smoke out of the chamber faster.  I know extending the height of a smoker exhaust can help them draw better from the chimney effect but I did not try different pipe sizes in my experiment.

One plus about the pellet tray is it smokes for hours and hours on that initial load of pellets.  Simple thing to do is mount it low on the side of the smoke chamber, and once it's going, it should last.  I think I recall "up to 10 hours" is the consensus on the pellet tray when filled to capacity. 

Since the pellet tray only produces a slight amount of heat (did not cause any problem in my cardboard mailbox substitute in the test), you could try a cardboard box with PVC to direct the smoke to the existing air inlet on the smoker.  I would use heat resistant foil tape to seal it to the air inlet, but at least you would have an idea about how it performed before cutting any holes in the smoker.