Ideas to heat smoker for very cold days

[brandeeno]

I am looking for some creative ways to keep my smoke box temperature above freezing. I will be starting to smoke my pork belly for bacon this weekend, and I see forecasted temperatures of 25f. I think 40-50 degrees would be a good goal temperature to stay away from freezing. I will be using the A-MAZE-N pellet smoker, which I am unsure if it will create enough heat to battle a cold and windy day. Can anybody provide some specifics on how much heat their amazen pellet smoker added?

I have heard of using an incandescent light bulb, but I would rather an option that does not include electricity. One idea I had was a oil candle.... vegetable oil with a floating foil wick (i have many). It would burn just like a candle... but would this be enough heat? Any other ideas?

 

[donr]

Tiny charcoal/wood fire in a soup can with some holes in the sides/bottom.

Insulate the smoker.

Juice jugs full of hot tap water.

Covered pans of boiling water.

Water pan full of gravel heated up in your oven.

Light both ends of the AMNPS.

 

[brandeeno]

awesome! great ideas

 

[crankybuzzard]

 
Tiny charcoal/wood fire in a soup can with some holes in the sides/bottom.

Insulate the smoker.

Juice jugs full of hot tap water.

Covered pans of boiling water.

Water pan full of gravel heated up in your oven.

Light both ends of the AMNPS.

Those are good ideas!

Also, depending upon the color of your smoker, and the type, full sunshine heats mine up pretty well in the winter.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

What kind of smoker are you using???

In my vertical gas smoker which I use for cold smoking the Tube smoker will raise the temp 10-15 degrees depending on the ambient temp. The colder it is outside the less heat gain.

A welding blanket wrapped around the smoker helps retain heat. I will preheat my smoker to about 100.them shut it down cover it. When the temp gets lower than 40 I fire it up let the temp get up to 50-60 shut down.

 

[brandeeno]

I have a standard weber kettle grill and a weber gas grill.  I image one burner on the gas grill on low will put out too much heat.  I plan to use the kettle grill as it has less holes and I can have the smoke start on the lower rack with the belly on the upper rack. 

 

[brandeeno]

Turns out I never needed any extra heat. The pellets in AMNPS added a good 20-30+ degrees over the outside temperature, even when it was 25f outside.