Best Heat Source for a Walk In Freezer to Smokehouse conversion

[Paul Kennedy]

I'm possibly going to buy a used walk in freezer box to convert to a smoke house and need some advice. The box is 5x6.5x7.5. I've built several smokers from old proofing/warming cabinets using Smoke Daddy inc. Pellet Pro system and it works great, but I don't think it will handle the volume of the freezer box. I hot smoke my bacon so the heat source will need to maintain a 170˚ temp for 5-6 hours. The photo is the two smokers side by side. The vertical on is operational the other is the work in progress.

A little back story. Two years a go I went commercial with my bacon hobby. Year one we did around 2,500lbs this past year we are close to 6,000lbs and growing. I have a proofing cabinet smoker that holds 120 pounds and it runs several days per week. I started another build the would hold about 250lbs, but I'm worried the two will not be large enough for the coming year.

I've looked around on the SMF forums and found a few posts that talk about building a large hot smokehouse, but they don't finish out the conversation. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[daveomak]

electric forced air.

 

[bigfurmn]

Give respect where it is given to you. MOST people here are honest, honorable and respectful people. Obviously some arent.

 

[Paul Kennedy]

Give respect where it is given to you. MOST people here are honest, honorable and respectful people. Obviously some arent.

Bigfurmn, I agree. I'm not trying to be dishonest, dishonorable or disrespectful. All I'm saying I figured out how to dry cure bacon using a vacuum tumbler without injecting the pork belly since I asked for help/advice when I first thought about it.

 

[DougE]

People who do this for a business and just want information on how to do this or that should limit themselves to using the search function if they are unwilling to share anything they know.

 

[bigfurmn]

If you aren’t willing to help the people here who help you/me, we don’t need you.