Outside temp effect on smoker

[.Field2Table]

I’m looking at getting a vertical smoker, no need for a grill. I’ve read until my eyes are crossed and think I’ve narrowed it down to the CC XXL and Smoke Daddy. CCis a single wall 22 gage steel while SD I’d double wall 19 gage with no insulation. Does anyone have experience with with and how the outside temp impacts ability to hold temp or get up to temp? I live in TX and it does get a little warm here in the summer, worse when the area I cook in faces west.
So much good info on here, thanks for sharing all the tips and info.

 

[FFchampMT]

I live in TX and it does get a little warm here in the summer, worse when the area I cook in faces west.

The gauges you're considering are both pretty thin, doubled up 19 gauge is still less than 1/8" thick. 2 walls does provide some insulation though.
People with thick gauge or fractional inch thick smokers are really gunning for efficiency and a more even thermal regulation in much larger (think commercial or catering) applications.

I smoke in 110 degree weather and 0 degree weather and the big difference is fuel consumption, if your controller is good, and/or you watch with a separate thermometer, weather shouldn't be too big of an issue. If you monitor your cooks, and aren't smoking dozens of pounds daily, I think either choice would be fine.

 

[bigfurmn]

Toss a welding blanket over the barrel and your pellet consumption will go down.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Too Hot outside is not usually an issue unless you are trying to Cold Smoke Cheese. Insulation helps when tryng to smoke and the outside temp is Below Freezing, not and issue in most of Texas!
That Smoke Daddy is a Monster and pretty nice. I dont cater any longer but that would have been my choice...JJ

 

[Jersey Jimbo]

I smoke in Jersey and it is cold here in the 30-40 range. Before I got the insulated blanket for it my temps were all over the place. After I put it on what a difference, stayed within 10 degrees up and down, and burned a lot less pellets.

 

[sandyut]

I have a pellet grill in use year round. Here its up to 100 in summer and as low as zero in winter.

Lets start with cold weather - get a cold weather cover or welding blanket. Mine and I assume most will work in the cold without one, but pellet consumption goes way up.

Hot weather is a different animal for a pellet smoker. Most have a minimum auger setting. you tube or search the manual for your model to see if this is a thing. when I am cooking at over about 80 degrees in the sun and trying to maintain 180 degrees, I have to make an adjustment or it runs hot. I use the lower min setting all summer.

 

[bill1]

In most pellet machines (well, all, unless you mod them or count the electric igniter) the heat all comes from the wood. The temp is controlled by adding fuel more often and by running more air through the pellet crucible to burn that fuel quicker. As such, you have a several-minute response time that your control system has to deal with. If your outside temp variation is on a timescale of that heating response time (e.g. direct sunlight that goes in and out of a cloudbank) the controller is going to struggle keeping the temp constant. But for slow changes (e.g. early morning chill to mid-day heat) your controller shouldn't be affected by the external temp change. Yes, you'll burn more fuel when it's cold, but that's true whether your fuel is pellets, splits or utility electricity. Blankets and boxes that better insulate the cook chamber reduce your fuel use, but it's not dramatic because most of your heat loss is out your chimney/exhaust, not out the walls. This is because pellet machines use an externally powered fan to variably provide oxygen to your burn pot. Even at its slowest speed, it's moving air a lot faster than what natural convection and draft would cause, so the fraction of heat going out the stack relative to that going into the walls is greater than just about any other smoker technology.

The steel wall thickness has a negligible effect in reducing the heat out the walls...metals just have too much thermal conductivity. You need to use other materials, esp those with loosely-layered structures like blankets and cardboard for that sort of help. However, thicker walls take slighly longer to reach "operating temperature" upon start-up. However pellet grills heat up fast (compared to other technologies) so that's not a problem. Thicker walls also slightly reduce temperature variations, again from the "thermal mass" argument, but it's a small effect. Plus, thicker walls take longer to corrode/rust through so they last longer, although that sounds like a financial argument and I think money-wise you're always better going with a cheap unit that you just replace more often.

 

[mike243]

the double wall units use the air gap to help insulate the unit, any smoker will loose heat no matter what wall thickness, a double wall will loose less heat than any single wall no matter how thick