Electric smoker air intake

[andyjn22]

I absolutely know nothing about this I built an electric smoker from fridge and hot plate I have an exhaust pipe but do I need an intake I understand it could cause moisture issues but what about smoke exchange is that a problem will mostly be smoking at 180 making summer sausage any input appreciated
Thanks

 

[forluvofsmoke]

You definitely need and an air intake (down low) for air flow or stale, bitter smoke will linger in the smoke chamber and ruin your food.

Eric

 

[crankybuzzard]

Air flow through the smoker also makes for better heat dispersion in the smoker as well.  Depending upon your smoke source, it may not combust if you don't have enough oxygen.

 

[andyjn22]

It's electric no need for combustion air

 

[forluvofsmoke]

You need air through the smoke chamber no matter what. If your smoke source is internal, it needs air for the wood to smolder, and you need air flow even for cold smoking or you get stale smoke. For hot smoking you need air flow for any of the previously mentioned reasons, plus, thermal convection for cooking.

Eric

 

[andyjn22]

Awesome should be an easy modification I made my exhaust out the bottom for a convection effect I will switch that to intake and exhaust out top how much smoke do I need to flow through can I choke it way down

 

[forluvofsmoke]

I wouldn't worry much about choking it down. Most smokers don't create enough draft. A fridge will be  little better than a shorter barrel or bullet smoker smoker, but it should be fine with a 2" or 2-1/2" intake on bottom. If you're going to use chips for smoke you only need a handful at a time, and even with your larger volume that should last for a couple of hours or more. For long smokes use chips and medium sized chunks. The chunks will outlast the chips on duration of smoke. Chips start smoking faster but don't last as long...chunks pick up smoke slow and last much longer. A few small to medium chunks will produce sufficient smoke and last for 6-8 hours or more.

I guess I didn't ask...do you have a smoke source or generator in mind yet? External or internal? External is easier to manage,  but requires  more work and hardware to get it up and running. Smoke houses for cold smoking are designed with external smoke source...that method has been around for centuries...'cuz it works works well and produces a nice sweet smoke. If you go with external smoke source you can cold smoke with little or no heat as needed, or, hot smoke...same smoke source.

Eric

 

[dward51]

Another thing you may encounter is hot plates will have a thermal limiter in them.  This is to keep them from getting too hot, but it can be a problem when you try to use them to heat a large volume of air like in a smoker.  It keeps cutting off before you get the temp you desire.  You can either remove the element and use it direct, or bypass the limiter, but you need some knowledge of AC wiring circuits to do either (and AC can kill if not wired properly, so be warned).   If yours is heating like you want, I would not mess with it or try to bypass the limiter.  I only offer this as a FYI in case you hit a problem with the smoker not running hot enough.

 

[andyjn22]

Thanks for all the help seems to heat well I plans on just having a chip pan on hot plate will that work for me mostly plan on making summer sausage

 

[dward51]

The chip pan is where I ran into issues on my early trial runs where I used a hot plate.  It would get the chips smoking, but the thermal limited kicked in and kept shutting the element down often enough that the chips did not keep smoldering.   But try it, as you may not have that issue with your plate.  Mine was a $12 model from Walmart.

 

[andyjn22]

I plan on using sawdust with trial runs I have gotten great smoke. Havnt actually smoked with it yet sounds like I need to make a few modifications

 

[801driver]

Might be too late to think about it but it might be something to consider rather than a hot plate.  I made a smoke generator out of an old electric stove element and the controller knob ckt, enclosed in a box with an air inlet lower on one side and smoke exit on the upper opposite side. 

On 110V it gets hot enough to provide quite a bit of variable heat, hot enough to smolder wood chunks placed on it to feed into a smoker.  Not sure what smolder temp is, but I would suspect it would heat a well insulated refrigerator.with the door closed easily after a little bit of warm up time..

I realize it is much smaller, but my Smoke-it #2 electric smoker with a well sealed door has a 3/8 in hole at the bottom for an air inlet and a one inch exit hole at the top to give you a comparison to consider.  It is very heat and smoke efficient while producing great smokes..

I do not know about refrigerator plastic parts and door seals at 180.  I would suspect there are opinions and additional info in these forums and articles here to address that.

Good luck to you.  Let us know how it works out.