Cold smoke generator

[Mike@579]

New to Smoking Meat Forums.... question:
I have a fridge that I converted into a smoker. I am struggling finding the best source for heat. My goal is to keep temps at 140-180. What cold smoke generator could I use to make that happen? My fridge is roughly 12 cubic feet in size. I have looked into the Bradley smoke generator, smoke daddy magnum pig, Masterbuilt, or the smoke chief. My worry is that they may not reach those temps. If you have had any experience with that please share you thoughts.Thanks for your help!

 

[normanaj]

Why not make your own?

Much like many MES owners here who've done the "mailbox mod" you could do something similar but on a larger scale.This would have to be independent of whatever you're going to use to generate heat.

 

[Mike@579]

Why not make your own?

Much like many MES owners here who've done the "mailbox mod" you could do something similar but on a larger scale.

I thought of that. Just thought it would be easy to keep an even burn with a smoke generator.

 

[Murray]

A little more information might be helpful. Is it a old fridge with all metal interior? Why only 140-180F? Do you want to generate heat and smoke from the same heat source? Electric or gas fired heat source? What do you want to smoke in it?

 

[Mike@579]

A little more information might be helpful. Is it a old fridge with all metal interior? Why only 140-180F? Do you want to generate heat and smoke from the same heat source? Electric or gas fired heat source? What do you want to smoke in it?

This is an old fridge. Has what looks like a porcelain coating on the inside. I will mainly use it for fish and venison sausage. I had a electric hot plate for a heat source, but it would get too hot. I would hope that the snake and heat could come from the same source. Thank you.

 

[GaryHibbert]

This is an old fridge. Has what looks like a porcelain coating on the inside. I will mainly use it for fish and venison sausage. I had a electric hot plate for a heat source, but it would get too hot. I would hope that the snake and heat could come from the same source. Thank you.

Using an AMNPS in a mailbox mod won't generate that much heat.
I would think you can add a rheostat to cut down the heat your hot plate puts out, but don't take my word on that--I'm electrically challenged.
Gary

 

[Mike@579]

This is an old fridge. Has what looks like a porcelain coating on the inside. I will mainly use it for fish and venison sausage. I had a electric hot plate for a heat source, but it would get too hot. I would hope that the snake and heat could come from the same source. Thank you.

“Smoke and heat” come from the same source.

 

[tallbm]

New to Smoking Meat Forums.... question:
I have a fridge that I converted into a smoker. I am struggling finding the best source for heat. My goal is to keep temps at 140-180. What cold smoke generator could I use to make that happen? My fridge is roughly 12 cubic feet in size. I have looked into the Bradley smoke generator, smoke daddy magnum pig, Masterbuilt, or the smoke chief. My worry is that they may not reach those temps. If you have had any experience with that please share you thoughts.Thanks for your help!

Hi there and welcome!
I would suggest separating heat generation from smoke generation, it simply makes things easy in the long run for smoking stuff.

You can still use your hot plate but use it with this thing:

That unit has a thermometer u put in the fridge and the hate plate plugs into the unit. The unit will cut power on/off to the hot plate to hold your temp. It wont be super fast acting which may affect precision but with a little playing around you can sort it out and it should get the job done.

Next I would just build a mailbox mod + A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray to produce smoke so you can have smoke for up to 12 hrs carefree.
With a setup like this you can do true cold smoke, warm smokes, or even some hot smokes provided your hot plate can generate such temps. If you ever want to turn the fridge into a full blown smoker you can replace the hot plate and heating configuration anyway you like and it doesnt break smoke generation :)

I hope this helps :)

 

[Mike@579]

Hi there and welcome!
I would suggest separating heat generation from smoke generation, it simply makes things easy in the long run for smoking stuff.

You can still use your hot plate but use it with this thing:

That unit has a thermometer u put in the fridge and the hate plate plugs into the unit. The unit will cut power on/off to the hot plate to hold your temp. It wont be super fast acting which may affect precision but with a little playing around you can sort it out and it should get the job done.

Next I would just build a mailbox mod + A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray to produce smoke so you can have smoke for up to 12 hrs carefree.
With a setup like this you can do true cold smoke, warm smokes, or even some hot smokes provided your hot plate can generate such temps. If you ever want to turn the fridge into a full blown smoker you can replace the hot plate and heating configuration anyway you like and it doesnt break smoke generation :)

I hope this helps :)

Does the hot plate just serve as a heating element then? Or would I keep some chips burning in that as well? Thank you!

 

[tallbm]

Does the hot plate just serve as a heating element then? Or would I keep some chips burning in that as well? Thank you!

The hot plate would serve as a heating element.
The AMNPS would serve as smoke generation not adding any real heat.

So this way heat generation and smoke generation are independent of one another.
This means you can cold smoke with no heat. You can also smoke with low or as high heat as your hot plate is only heat.

If you ever wanted to go hardcore with generating heat you could wire in a more powerful heating element and ditch the hot plate.
Hell you could just make a dumb chord wired to a new more powerful heating element and let the same Inkbird control it as long as you didnt exceed the controller's wattage limits.

As you can see you get lots of options when you break the heat generation and smoke generation apart from one another with the added benefit that the AMNPS will produce smoke for upto 12hours unattended :)