Electric pellet smoker question - Noobie build(conversion?)

[BubblebuttMcGee]

Hey everyone,

TLDR: Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets?

Last year, I began my journey as a smoker with a Cuisinart Vertical 36" Smoker. I'm a poor graduate student and was able to get it for $50 on craigslist.
Currently, I am in an electronics class and was talking with my instructor about final projects. I got approval to build an electric pellet smoker for my final project. I want to have well made final product - I'm trying to learn how good pellet smokers operate and find the materials/tools to machine this.

My biggest question currently - Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets? Is it a combination of the two? Is the heating element only a source of ignition?

As much as I would like to go big, I'm poor. Fortunately the university will fund the electronics, motors, maybe the auger. If I decide to buy a propane tank, I would be relying on the machine shop to give me access to their shop and probably assist me with this. They might be willing to help, but they have their own responsibilities and I am not one of them. I think the most reasonable plan would be to modify the Cuisineart smoker. Weld a hopper onto the side, replace the propane burner with heating element/burn pot/fan.

I would really appreciate any answers or advice on the matter! Designs, suggestions, helpful forums I missed, or any general thoughts!

 

[JC in GB]

Hey everyone,

TLDR: Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets?

Last year, I began my journey as a smoker with a Cuisinart Vertical 36" Smoker. I'm a poor graduate student and was able to get it for $50 on craigslist.
Currently, I am in an electronics class and was talking with my instructor about final projects. I got approval to build an electric pellet smoker for my final project. I want to have well made final product - I'm trying to learn how good pellet smokers operate and find the materials/tools to machine this.

My biggest question currently - Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets? Is it a combination of the two? Is the heating element only a source of ignition?

As much as I would like to go big, I'm poor. Fortunately the university will fund the electronics, motors, maybe the auger. If I decide to buy a propane tank, I would be relying on the machine shop to give me access to their shop and probably assist me with this. They might be willing to help, but they have their own responsibilities and I am not one of them. I think the most reasonable plan would be to modify the Cuisineart smoker. Weld a hopper onto the side, replace the propane burner with heating element/burn pot/fan.

I would really appreciate any answers or advice on the matter! Designs, suggestions, helpful forums I missed, or any general thoughts!

A propane smoker is a much more complex control system than an electric or charcoal smoker. If this is a first time project, go with an electrical system as the controls are easier to understand and build.

In answer to your question. Burning any material inside the smoker will cause a temperature bump but, generally speaking, a pellet tube is designed to smolder and release smoke slowly, over time not to be used as a supplemental heater. So, unless you are actively blowing air onto the pellet tube, it won't get hot enough to make much difference. If you want to use pellets as a heat source, that is a different design.

I am a bit confused by your design as you seem to want to build a hybrid electric/pellet smoker.

Are you planning on using the electric heater as the combustion source for your smoke pellets for flavor, heat, or both?

JC

 

[tallbm]

Hey everyone,

TLDR: Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets?

Last year, I began my journey as a smoker with a Cuisinart Vertical 36" Smoker. I'm a poor graduate student and was able to get it for $50 on craigslist.
Currently, I am in an electronics class and was talking with my instructor about final projects. I got approval to build an electric pellet smoker for my final project. I want to have well made final product - I'm trying to learn how good pellet smokers operate and find the materials/tools to machine this.

My biggest question currently - Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets? Is it a combination of the two? Is the heating element only a source of ignition?

As much as I would like to go big, I'm poor. Fortunately the university will fund the electronics, motors, maybe the auger. If I decide to buy a propane tank, I would be relying on the machine shop to give me access to their shop and probably assist me with this. They might be willing to help, but they have their own responsibilities and I am not one of them. I think the most reasonable plan would be to modify the Cuisineart smoker. Weld a hopper onto the side, replace the propane burner with heating element/burn pot/fan.

I would really appreciate any answers or advice on the matter! Designs, suggestions, helpful forums I missed, or any general thoughts!

Hi there and welcome!

I'm a little confused like JC in GB .

Warning long post but I cover a ton of things in it :)

Here is my understanding of how the current pellet smokers work.

Generally a pellet smoker is electric only to drive the auger that feeds pellets to a burn pot as well as run a fan to blow air.
The pellets are ignited via flame and burn to provide heat.
The fan in those things drives up heat temp of burning pellets and I believe also increase feeding speed of the auger to keep fuel coming.

The wood is both the fuel for the heat as well as the source of smoke.
The problem is that smoke happens at lower temps and fire burns away smoke, so smoke production suffers. So the higher the heat the lesser the amount of smoke. The lower the heat the greater the amount of smoke, so temperature and cooking time suffer.


A straight electric smoker works as follows.

The heating element provides the heat for cooking.
There is a chip tray/pellet tray that is located on top or slightly above the heating element that uses the heat from the heating element to smolder the wood chips/pellets.
The heating element generally works in temp waves because it is doing 2 things. Providing heat to cook and providing heat to smolder wood for smoke.
The problem is that if it runs too high for too long the wood may ignite. So it spikes up in temp and then drops in temp and gives you an average temp overall in an attempt to keep wood from igniting.

Best Design?
The best design would be one where heat generation and smoke generate are separated from one another.

Now, Masterbuilt has dabbled in providing a separate heating element for the wood chips/pellets to separate heat for cooking and smoke generation but this model doesn't to seem to be widely available and I'm not sure how well it works. Plus it's more expensive to produce and for consumers to buy

Bradley has a wood puck feeder that feeds wood automatically but still uses the single heating element to smolder it.


If you can want to do a "Best of" design I would encourage you to separate cooking heat generation from smoke generation.

How Us Electric Guys Solve Separate Cooking Heat and Smoke Generation:

Myself and many electric smoker users will separate heat generation for cooking from smoke generation.
We do this buy using the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray or tube that we fill will pellets. We ignite the pellets in 1 end (or 2 ends for double smoke) of the tray or tube and let them burn for 10 minutes then blow them out. A full tray will produce 12 hours of perfect smoke. The Tubes produce 3-4 hours of smoke.

We have great results this way because can can manage cooking temps separate from smoke generation. We have full control of either one or both together.

Suggested Idea from Me:
If you design your auger to feed pellets into a perforated tray like the A-Maze-N Pellet smoker tray for the amount of time they want smoke.
Lets say 30min (1/4 row of tray) to 12 hours (full tray).
THEN you have a way to ignite the pellets on one end and blow out the flame, that would be amazing!

Then you use a heating element to supply a steady amount of heat to cook (no heat temp swings like current electric smokers).
You would have exactly what us electric guys with the AMNPS and electric smokers do.
Yours would just be a fancy version of supplying the pellets up front and handling the ignition and smoldering of the pellets. You could control fan speed if you like to simply ensure there is a light bit of oxygen flow to the pellets so they keep smoldering but do not turn into a flame.

Sounds like a hell of a project but that would tackle it.

Recap:
Does it make sense why we are a little confused about what you describe and ask about when it comes to electric pellet smokers and heat generation? Pellet smokers don't exactly work the way I think your questions were aligned.

You now can know how pellet smokers and pure electric element smokers work.

You now have some food for thought on how you can make the best smoker based on what many of us do today to separate heat for cooking vs smoke generation.

Let me know if this long ass post helps :)

 

[JC in GB]

Hi there and welcome!

I'm a little confused like JC in GB .

Warning long post but I cover a ton of things in it :)

Here is my understanding of how the current pellet smokers work.

Generally a pellet smoker is electric only to drive the auger that feeds pellets to a burn pot as well as run a fan to blow air.
The pellets are ignited via flame and burn to provide heat.
The fan in those things drives up heat temp of burning pellets and I believe also increase feeding speed of the auger to keep fuel coming.

The wood is both the fuel for the heat as well as the source of smoke.
The problem is that smoke happens at lower temps and fire burns away smoke, so smoke production suffers. So the higher the heat the lesser the amount of smoke. The lower the heat the greater the amount of smoke, so temperature and cooking time suffer.


A straight electric smoker works as follows.

The heating element provides the heat for cooking.
There is a chip tray/pellet tray that is located on top or slightly above the heating element that uses the heat from the heating element to smolder the wood chips/pellets.
The heating element generally works in temp waves because it is doing 2 things. Providing heat to cook and providing heat to smolder wood for smoke.
The problem is that if it runs too high for too long the wood may ignite. So it spikes up in temp and then drops in temp and gives you an average temp overall in an attempt to keep wood from igniting.

Best Design?
The best design would be one where heat generation and smoke generate are separated from one another.

Now, Masterbuilt has dabbled in providing a separate heating element for the wood chips/pellets to separate heat for cooking and smoke generation but this model doesn't to seem to be widely available and I'm not sure how well it works. Plus it's more expensive to produce and for consumers to buy

Bradley has a wood puck feeder that feeds wood automatically but still uses the single heating element to smolder it.


If you can want to do a "Best of" design I would encourage you to separate cooking heat generation from smoke generation.

How Us Electric Guys Solve Separate Cooking Heat and Smoke Generation:

Myself and many electric smoker users will separate heat generation for cooking from smoke generation.
We do this buy using the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray or tube that we fill will pellets. We ignite the pellets in 1 end (or 2 ends for double smoke) of the tray or tube and let them burn for 10 minutes then blow them out. A full tray will produce 12 hours of perfect smoke. The Tubes produce 3-4 hours of smoke.

We have great results this way because can can manage cooking temps separate from smoke generation. We have full control of either one or both together.

Suggested Idea from Me:
If you design your auger to feed pellets into a perforated tray like the A-Maze-N Pellet smoker tray for the amount of time they want smoke.
Lets say 30min (1/4 row of tray) to 12 hours (full tray).
THEN you have a way to ignite the pellets on one end and blow out the flame, that would be amazing!

Then you use a heating element to supply a steady amount of heat to cook (no heat temp swings like current electric smokers).
You would have exactly what us electric guys with the AMNPS and electric smokers do.
Yours would just be a fancy version of supplying the pellets up front and handling the ignition and smoldering of the pellets. You could control fan speed if you like to simply ensure there is a light bit of oxygen flow to the pellets so they keep smoldering but do not turn into a flame.

Sounds like a hell of a project but that would tackle it.

Recap:
Does it make sense why we are a little confused about what you describe and ask about when it comes to electric pellet smokers and heat generation? Pellet smokers don't exactly work the way I think your questions were aligned.

You now can know how pellet smokers and pure electric element smokers work.

You now have some food for thought on how you can make the best smoker based on what many of us do today to separate heat for cooking vs smoke generation.

Let me know if this long ass post helps :)

A very apt description. Thanks.

JC

 

[tallbm]

A very apt description. Thanks.

JC

Thanks! It was a long post, glad some of it made sense :D

 

[anatollocobs]

Hey everyone,

TLDR: Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets?

Last year, I began my journey as a smoker with a Cuisinart Vertical 36" Smoker. I'm a poor graduate student and was able to get it for $50 on craigslist.
Currently, I am in an electronics class and was talking with my instructor about final projects. I got approval to build an electric pellet smoker for my final project. I want to have well made final product - I'm trying to learn how good pellet smokers operate and find the materials/tools to machine this.

My biggest question currently - Is the temperature regulated by the heating element or by a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets? Is it a combination of the two? Is the heating element only a source of ignition? Besides this I am thinking of using https://edubirdie.com/essay-grader to get help with the essay grader, it should help me a lot with the writing for the diploma work, because this is the work I have to do at the end of the year, besides this I wanted to find out if anyone has used it, because I am a bit afraid of its results, I wouldn't want to be failed in the exam because I forgot a source that didn't show me correctly.

As much as I would like to go big, I'm poor. Fortunately the university will fund the electronics, motors, maybe the auger. If I decide to buy a propane tank, I would be relying on the machine shop to give me access to their shop and probably assist me with this. They might be willing to help, but they have their own responsibilities and I am not one of them. I think the most reasonable plan would be to modify the Cuisineart smoker. Weld a hopper onto the side, replace the propane burner with heating element/burn pot/fan.

I would really appreciate any answers or advice on the matter! Designs, suggestions, helpful forums I missed, or any general thoughts!

Hey there, may be a little late, but:

Congratulations on your upcoming project to build an electric pellet smoker! It sounds like an exciting endeavor, and I'm glad to help answer your questions.
In most pellet smokers, the temperature regulation is typically achieved through a combination of the heating element and a fan that controls the oxygen supply to the pellets. The heating element provides the necessary heat for combustion, while the fan controls the airflow, which affects the intensity of the fire.
Good luck with your project, and I hope it turns out to be a fantastic electric pellet smoker! If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask.