General Electric Smoker Build

[dholt365]

This smoker has been an ongoing trial and error for a few years. I think I have finally got it figured out. Added the masterbuilt cold smoker attachment this weekend (I used traeger pellets and it smoked heavily for 3 hours). I used to use a cast iron skillet with wood chips, which worked great for smoke, but produced too much heat inside the smoker to really regulate the temperature. For a drip pan I use store bought oven liners ($3) for two. The burners are IMUSA 1750 watt dual countertop burners mounted from the underside. I built a PID controller to regulate the temperature. I can honestly say I have the controller tuned more like a thermostat because I don't like it constantly turning the burners off and on. I can maintain a +/- of about 3 degrees with a hysteresis setting of 2.

I can fit about 72 pounds of deer sausage!

 

[GaryHibbert]

It looks like a nice job.
Being extremely electrically challenged, I didn't understand a lot of what you did. But it looks good.
What kind of temperatures can you achieve with those two burners?? And what do think is the highest safe temp your smoker can take??
Gary

 

[dholt365]

It looks like a nice job.
Being extremely electrically challenged, I didn't understand a lot of what you did. But it looks good.
What kind of temperatures can you achieve with those two burners?? And what do think is the highest safe temp your smoker can take??
Gary

So basically the PID controller runs like a sophisticated thermostat, the burners plug into the PID, once the desired temperature is met the PID turns off the burners. I have got the smoker well above 300 degrees with those burners. it has a good 2.5-3 inches of insulation being a refrigerator. I don't know the melting point of steel, but the entire inside of the smoker is metal so it is basically like a big oven that has the ability to smoke.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Braz]

How do the pellets work in that cold smoker attachment? I have only used chips in mine but that takes quite a bit of tending and adding chips. Did you have to add a supplemental screen to the chip tower to keep the pellets from falling through?

 

[dholt365]

How do the pellets work in that cold smoker attachment? I have only used chips in mine but that takes quite a bit of tending and adding chips. Did you have to add a supplemental screen to the chip tower to keep the pellets from falling through?

I got very heavy smoke for at least 3 hours from it. I didn't have any trouble with the pellets falling through the grates. i found several videos on youtube of people using pellets instead of wood. I also feel like using pellets is a "cleaner" smoke than wood chips.

 

[Mark Krenn]

I actually have a Masterbuilt that I installed a PID on. Works awesome. I also have that smoker attachment and haven't tried pellets yet, but, sure will now! My big smoker is 240v with an 1800w oven element. I couldn't find any elements above 1000w for 120v. 1750w would run close to 15 amps. Guessing you needed separate circuits to run them? Happy smoking man!