PLEASE HELP WITH MY BUILD

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big dago

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2017
11
10
Wanting to build an electric smoker. i have a 1 inch insulated warming box. on the inside her 1s the measurements.

56" tall

46" wide

24" deep

its all stainless and like i said its 1" thick. looking to build a electric smoker out of it. I need ideas on heat i have a cold smoke generator that i built that works AWESOME..

I'm thinking about getting a 2 burner, 1500w electric hot plate

i can get them on EBay under 30 bucks 

any ideas???

my only other option is setting up a propane burner in there. but I'm worried about gas getting in the flavor of the meat..

any and all help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks 
 
its a 1500w (110v) electric hot plate, i have seen a few YouTube videos with people using this and they like it BUT my box is fairly bigger.

as far as the 300 degree range, i will probably never get it that high, but i figure if it will do 300 ,,then 180 to 250 will be easy..
 
I would try putting a 100 watt light bulb in it,and see how much heat it will make.IMHO

You may want to update your profile,with your location it helps answering question

Richie
 
Browse the forums, There is a sizing on a post from awhile ago, for burner sizing to cabinet size. Your geography / weather will play a part into your plans, for cold smoking no problem but for hot there's a couple questions. Are you installing your smoke gen. right to unit or piping it in?
 
 
100 w light bulb??? 

is that a joke?
No it is not if you had any sense in what you are begging help for 

100 watts in the Cooking Chamber = how much heat 

then multiply it by xxxx

And now don't bother replying
 
bigdago - That's an awful lot of cubic footage, with an awful large amount of surface are exposed to wind, cold, etc.

Ballpark 10x the volume of an MES30.

And they have about 700 - 1500w heaters, and don't really get hotter than 280.

Seems to me you may have to go w propane.

LOTS of info on the forum.  

Start readin.        Marc
 
 
No it is not if you had any sense in what you are begging help for 

100 watts in the Cooking Chamber = how much heat 

then multiply it by xxxx

And now don't bother replying
look Tropics I was asking for help not for someone to be an a** if you cant help without being a total jerk then don't help.
 
 
 
No it is not if you had any sense in what you are begging help for 

100 watts in the Cooking Chamber = how much heat 

then multiply it by xxxx

And now don't bother replying
look Tropics I was asking for help not for someone to be an a** if you cant help without being a total jerk then don't help.
At least I was trying to help! You would get an idea of how well that box heats up.

Richie
 
Big Dago -  Tropics was not being sarcastic.

What he has in mind is some method to estimate how much heat is needed using data from the temp raise inputting 100 w.

Somehow dynamically extrapolating from that to estimate total heat needed for that enclosure.

I don't know how to do that.

Any way, much better than "hot plate" is specifically this link, or similar.

Note that the through wall sleeve is about right for your 1" wall.

So all electric stuff is isolated from creosote, grease, etc.

If I was doing your build, I would think about two of these and position them  in right bottom and left bottom.

Your heat will be more evenly distributed, AND you will NEED at least that wattage.

Just a SWAG.

And even two probably not enough.

And still will never be hot enough for like Chicken.

That's plain just a HUGE enclosure,

Will need WAY more power input than any "family size" smoker. 

Of course, you would then need two circuits and cords.

You have just plain tooo big of a cabinet for one 120 ckt available wattage.

Again, do your searching and see what others have done w big enclosures.

And, I would Google commercial smokers that size range, and get some idea of wattage they have.

And notice many have circulating fans to help distribute heat evenly.

End result, if you really need that big, you're gonna pay.

Marc

 
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And, don't forget - When you load this thing with a couple hundred pounds + of cold meat, gonna take way longer to heat up, so not only taking too long to cook, but  even approaching food safety issues.

Are you cooking for an Army base?  or just got a great deal on this cabinet ?

And - Did you check into if the insulation is ok for the higher temp of hot smoking?

Probably is, but I would check.

Sorry, I don't want to shoot you down.

I would just hate seeing you throw time and $ into, and then be dissapointed.  Marc
 
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Custom Smoker builds unlike store bought smokers sometimes need to be dialed in for what you are trying to accomplish, also adding to the fun of your build. As long as you know and understand what the end product is that you are shooting for, sometimes you need to adjust the methods to your madness a little.
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 post some pics up if you can, that also is a big help for more input. 
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