Home made smoker hotplate question

[melleram]

I got one of those comming today. Its going in the dishwasher smoker. Hopefully it gets me the temps I'm after. The other element I had wouldnt do it.

 

[ravenclan]

i have also seen this type of conveter at Academy Sports and Outdoors for $ 29.99.

i have this in my Brinkman charcoal smoker and love it during the winter i made a box out of plywood to put the smoker in to help with the heat and also to keep the cold wind off of the smoker ..still smoke my turkey for Thanksgiving and smoke a ham at Christmas time also still smoke inbetween those dates.

 

[morkdach]

this unit is only good up to 100° i have tried some like this and could not adjust to get higher temps. my 2 cents

 

[hounds51]

There is somethin about a wood smoker that makes it special. And when you do it yourself it can't be beat!!!!!

 

[dalton]

This is the heating element that I use. I had a dual element unit from Wally world before this. This unit works much better, I do use a temp controller with it and can control it to plus or minus one degree. If you need help on a controller let me know I can dig up some models that I have found before that are fairly cheap. Either way insulation is going to be a must to make this work well. I would also find a way to use some fire brick or sand to hold the temps in while you open the door

as i read this I realized that the fire brick as not just for fire proofing but also to hold heat and help with recovery....   thanks!

 

[quackerspaniel]

I am making one and I have 2 hot plates right now. A 1000W Hot Plate i bought here:

http://www.kmart.com/black-decker-s...144690001P&storeId=10151&i_cntr=1367261895902

I also have a 900W that I picked up at CVS.

I can't get my temp above 140 deg. I have the 1000W controlled with a PID controlled to a SSRelay. The SSRelay does not kick off the entire time. The hot plate does cycle on and off though. I see it just start to get red hot then it kicks off for a bit then kicks back on. I assume this is the thermostat inside the hot plate.

I am thinking about soldering the thermostat to be always on and just let the PID controller kick it on and off but I'm worried that I might melt the whole thing.

Is the hot plate the issue or am I loosing too much heat to the outside?

Here are some pics of my smoker.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/134566/plywood-smoker-with-pid-controller#post_918466

 

[hunter4528]

Came across this form while searching for info i too am in need of input on this subject, i just bought a dyna glo offset upright charcoal smoker and i want to be able to convert it into anything but charcoal so i dont have to keep checking the temps and fighting the coals. i bought a 1000w hotplate from walmart for 10$ tested it out last night and it got to bout 170 in the middle says my digital readout the temp coming out of the smoke vent on the top was also close to 170 the stock themo read 150 but all the reviews say it is off by 20 degrees to not use it. and i was check the outside temp of the box with a heat gun and tht was reading 150 ish. but the temp reach 170 then started to drop and i opened up the smoker to find the hotplate and shut off. i couldnt find anywhere in the book that says it has any safety shutoff temp but it turned back on after i had it shut off for a while. so im not sure if it was just tht it overheated or if it just reaches tht temp and shuts off. i was going to install it in the offset part but the heat was not reaching the main chamber evenly enough. i planned on doing a batch of deer sticks this saturday instead of fishing so i wanna have it good to go before then. below ill link the model if anyone has any input on the matter it would be a great help i also thought about maybe a small propane burner in the offest chamber but not sure yet.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dyna-Glo-47-in-Vertical-Off-Set-Charcoal-Smoker-DGO1176BDC-D/203944119