Making a charcoal/electric smoker

[liamog]

I've got a plan to make my cheap offset both an electric AND charcoal smoker. I'm curious as to whether this is a good choice for heating element.  It's going to be inserted into a metal box containing lava rock, with one of those fancy smoking tubes put above it for the flavor.  I plan on calling it my lazy mode.  Andy advice would be greatly appreciated.


This is the smoker, if interested.

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• liamog
• Feb 3, 2014

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello Liam.  I would be interested in seeing your plan.  My opinion is that element is too small ( could be wrong, have been before ).  I would not limit my smoker to 225 if I could help it.  What if you want to cook at higher temps?  As per my PM I would consider propane.  Cheaper to run.  Just food for thought.  Good luck.

Danny

 

[liamog]

Propane looks like a solid way to do things.  My last smoker was electric, and it had an always at 250F mode, and that was it.  With an element like this, I could go lower, and if I wanted it higher, toss some charcoal or wood onto the lava rock to boost the interior temperature.  But low and slow is the way I'm wanting to cook on this.  Lots of research to be done still.  Will be using it as just a charcoal smoker at first, the electric bit will come later.