Getting rid of the wood boxes in my Smoke Hollow 44" gasser!!

[wolfman1955]

I finally got my amnps in the mail yesterday

 and tried it in my Smoke Hollow!! It smoked Ok for about 30 min. then went out.

 I relit it and about 30 min. it went out again.

 I thought to myself, self you need to get this thing out in some fresh air so the propane don't burn up all the oxygen and put your AMNPS out. So I looked to my favorite forum {this one}  for the solution and sure enough there it was

 I made my first mod to the Smoke Hollow today.

 I put a mailbox under my smoker with a 4" connecting duct between it and the bottom of the smoker and a 2" hole in the door of the mailbox. Loaded 1 row of pellets for the trial run, lit it with a torch. let it burn for about 10 min. while the smoker heated up. Blew the flame out, put it in the mailbox shut the door and had TBS for the last 2 1/2 hours. I think I will just go to walmart tomarrow and buy some play sand and fill up my wood boxes for thermal mass. It was a really easy mod because the drain in the middle bottom of the smoker for the drip tray is a perfect fit for the 4" flue pipe i bought at Menards.

 

[wolfman1955]

I for got to give credit where credit is due

 Thank you to Pops6927 for his brilliant idea!!!

 

[pops6927]

Thank you so much!  The MailBox Mod has solved a lot of issues with smokers not able to supply enough oxygen along with the propane, so gad i could help others, that is what we are here for!  Again, thanks for the kudos and enjoy your great AMNPS!  Have you tried the Q-Matz yet?  I've got a mess of nuts cold smoking in my smokehouse as we speak and they are cheap and work great!  Also, the 6" or 12" pipe smoking unit works wonderful too!  Todd Johnson is a genius - he's the real one to thank!

 

[wolfman1955]

That is amazing you mentioned Q-MATZ!!!

  I just ordered all that I could afford yesterday. Told the wife about them and she said hell yes

get some of that cause I am tired of scrubbing racks all the time. Will see how they work out if good I am sure she will ok buying enough for the rest of my racks.

 

[wolfman1955]

A few pictures of my Mailbox Mod.

MODS 001.JPG

• wolfman1955
• Jan 5, 2014

 The Aluminium Box cost $17

MODS 002.JPG

• wolfman1955
• Jan 5, 2014

The Flue into the 4" drain pan opening. Think its called a termination fitting. $5

MODS 004.JPG

• wolfman1955
• Jan 5, 2014

The connection. Used furnace tape I already had to seal everything!

MODS 005.JPG

• wolfman1955
• Jan 5, 2014

Used a 4" saddle fitting out of the box because I already had it.

$22 bucks for the whole Mod, It works and made my investment into AMNPS work like designed!

 

[demosthenes9]

Nice mod

 

[txocelot]

I'm putting all the parts together for my new build, using this same smoker that arrives in a few days. 

I am planning all my mods as I put the smoker together, including a mailbox mod. I was planning on asking

the question as a new thread, but since you've done it, asking here first.

The center 4" inlet just screams to be used as you have, and I plan to, however I need to ask, how has

the smoke quality been effected for hot smoking, by having the smoke enter below the level of the burners? Generally

I am under the impression that the flame will burn out/off much of the smoke. How is it working? I am considering 

extending the piping up a bit into the chamber to get the smoke above the flame level to give it a bit of a

chance. Thoughts on your experience with this set up?

 

[wolfman1955]

I'm putting all the parts together for my new build, using this same smoker that arrives in a few days. 



I am planning all my mods as I put the smoker together, including a mailbox mod. I was planning on asking



the question as a new thread, but since you've done it, asking here first.





The center 4" inlet just screams to be used as you have, and I plan to, however I need to ask, how has



the smoke quality been effected for hot smoking, by having the smoke enter below the level of the burners? Generally



I am under the impression that the flame will burn out/off much of the smoke. How is it working? I am considering 



extending the piping up a bit into the chamber to get the smoke above the flame level to give it a bit of a



chance. Thoughts on your experience with this set up?

With the burnners going it does seem to make the smoke very hard to see comming out of the top stack. But the smoked flavor and bark on my food seems about the same. I just call the smoke comming out of the stack Ultra thin blue smoke. LOL

The only thing about extending above the burnners is you wouldnd want the extention to interfere with the water pan. Just remenber that all of the heat u put into that extention pipe with the burners will transfer back down the pipe to your mailbox.

If you want the smoke to enter above the burners then you would probably be better off attaching your mailbox to one of the side air inlet vents.

 

[txocelot]

Thanks for the confirmation on it thinning the visual element of the smoke, but not the flavor. 

I'm doing a cart build and coming in from the bottom just fits with a clean set up for me, so a 

small price to pay and over all the food gets the flavor. I'm a TBS path guy, so it won't disappoint 

me. And will definitely make a better distribution point for cold smoking.

Smoker arrives on Wed, so adding the bottom shelf from reclaimed oak tomorrow, and will be posting 

my build pics once the project is complete this coming weekend. You guys have really helped

with this whole project.

 

[wolfman1955]

I'm putting all the parts together for my new build, using this same smoker that arrives in a few days. 




I am planning all my mods as I put the smoker together, including a mailbox mod. I was planning on asking




the question as a new thread, but since you've done it, asking here first.







The center 4" inlet just screams to be used as you have, and I plan to, however I need to ask, how has




the smoke quality been effected for hot smoking, by having the smoke enter below the level of the burners? Generally




I am under the impression that the flame will burn out/off much of the smoke. How is it working? I am considering 




extending the piping up a bit into the chamber to get the smoke above the flame level to give it a bit of a




chance. Thoughts on your experience with this set up?

With the burnners going it does seem to make the smoke very hard to see comming out of the top stack. But the smoked flavor and bark on my food seems about the same. I just call the smoke comming out of the stack Ultra thin blue smoke. LOL


The only thing about extending above the burnners is you wouldnd want the extention to interfere with the water pan. Just remenber that all of the heat u put into that extention pipe with the burners will transfer back down the pipe to your mailbox.


If you want the smoke to enter above the burners then you would probably be better off attaching your mailbox to one of the side air inlet vents.

The last line in this post is incorrect!! You would have to put new holes in the side of your smoker to getabove the burnere because the existing vents enter at the same level as the burners.

 

[txocelot]

I caught that, no I accept the thinning of smoke while hot smoking. I'm waiting for the rain to pass, was supposed to be working on wood work shelves this morning, to go around the cart. A lot of this build is based around the cart itself, which was free. 

 

[wolfman1955]

Just wanted to let you know. The hole in the front of my mail box ended up being way to big. When the wind blew the pellets in my AMNPS would flare up, so i just put tape over half of it and everything is working great. The hole in mine was 2" cause that was the smallest hole saw I had. I would think a 1" or the equivalent would work great.

 

[infusion]

I know i am adding this to an older post; I am working on the mailbox mod for my smoke hollow PS4400 propane smoker. I can only find black galvanized mail boxes in my area. Would this mailbox be dangerous to the food I am smoking?

 

[smoker21]

I know i am adding this to an older post; I am working on the mailbox mod for my smoke hollow PS4400 propane smoker. I can only find black galvanized mail boxes in my area. Would this mailbox be dangerous to the food I am smoking?

Shouldn't be a problem because of the small amount of heat.  If you'd use the mailbox as a smoker box and put it directly on the fire, then you'd have problems with the Zinc fumes.  Also, the more you use it, the more it will coat the inside of the mail box.

All the best.

JD

 

[infusion]

Thank you! Great information.. I am excited for this mod and smoking up a storm!