Conversion from Charcoal to Electric

[goose482]

I currently own a Brinkmann stand up charcoal smoker. I am being forced to convert it to electric as I just moved to a condo. How should I go about it? I am not very interested in purchasing a Brinkmann electric converter as it costs about as much as i paid for the original smoker.

I have seen a few people on the web talk about using a 1000W hot plate to heat a cast iron pan full of wood chips. Are there any draw backs? Could the hot plate melt? Also, one of these posts recommended detaching the heat element from the base controls.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

best,
Goose482
novice smoker

 

[iruptacopula]

I am in the process of doing this right now. I will let you know how it turns out. I have the ECB but shouldn't be much different. I bought my burner at Walgreens for $10. I did remove the burner from the base and went to my local electric supply store and bought some wire that can with stand 400 degree heat so I could set the base outside the smoker. I was able to get it up to 210 degrees with one burner. But i was using a crappy ext. cord and it was a good ways from the outlet. I am going to run a dedicated outlet outside so I can plug it in directly and see if that helps. If not, I am going to add another burner. I will post some pics when finished so you can see what I did.

 

[morkdach]

what he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.
i use teflon wire on all my heating elements go for 1000 to 1500 watt element. i use a perferated pan that i put 5 to 6 brickets and my wood chips it works just fine