Range hood over smoker?

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

oscar

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Dec 25, 2012
99
112
Central New York
I built a pavillion for my smoker during the latter stages of covid, because lumber prices were only double the norm, and I'm smart with money like that. It's time to put a ceiling in it, and I'm thinking of putting a range hood over the stack, for those days when the wind doesn't do what it's supposed to. They make them for over kitchen islands, so the distance can be whatever I want. I want to remove the smoke out the gable end, but not effect the natural draw of the smoker. Anyone have any thoughts on an appropriate distance, or experience with this? Thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JLeonard
No idea but I'm curious to what responses you get.

Ryan
 
They only advice I can give is that if the design of island hoods for kitchens.... most specs say 24” preferred 27” max. This height is based on the draw the hood can create....
 
Could you show us a picture of the roof or the gable end of the shelter.

Without seeing it , you might just need to add some nice looking Gable end vents.

But like I said just wondering out load without seeing .

David

because you did not want to change the draw, so just getting ride of the build up of smoke in the roof area ?
 
Currently, the smoke goes up into trusses and generally leaves out the east end. Once a ceiling's installed, it may just waft around overhead, held in by the fact that the boxed headers hang down ten inches. I found an old range hood in the barn, (junk follows me home often) and I'm experimenting with heighth over the stack. I'll try to get some pics. Never posted pics here. Old dog, new trick time.
 
Oscar,
I had a similar problem, plus I wanted to get the exhaust up and over my neighbor's roofline and bedroom windows. A $15 aluminum dryer vent hose does the trick.
IMG_1763.jpg

I'm thinking of getting rid of the small 6x10 steel gazebo and building something larger where all my cookers would fit fairly permanently in a U-shape arrangement. In which case I'd build an ~6x6 exhaust manifold along the top inside roofline having a single exhaust similar to this but with numerous flex feeder sections like this down to each cooker.

Because they're noisy, most kitchen exhaust hoods don't come with a very powerful fan. If you're not going to use dedicated ducting like I do, you'll probably need to place your hood down low, as close to your exhaust as you can get it and still be able to open lids, etc. Otherwise just a little breeze and the smoke will get in your eyes instead of up the hood.
 
I gave something like that a thought, but we go to some trouble to get the stack size just right. I figured adding a piece to it would effect temps and draw. Not so?
 
I put these 2 vent fans in to help with smoke and heat. They are 12x12 and I got them on Amazon. They work great and they are speed controlled which I like.
 

Attachments

  • 1E438245-7C0D-4E0B-95A9-9B9A769E45D8.jpeg
    1E438245-7C0D-4E0B-95A9-9B9A769E45D8.jpeg
    144.8 KB · Views: 107
  • A188CAEB-F3B2-442F-ADEF-7DB84430D243.jpeg
    A188CAEB-F3B2-442F-ADEF-7DB84430D243.jpeg
    216.2 KB · Views: 100
  • 745EE4BB-70E0-44AC-9C83-647000D4F819.jpeg
    745EE4BB-70E0-44AC-9C83-647000D4F819.jpeg
    108.5 KB · Views: 108
  • 49672307-972A-4279-A727-1B9FBCF9FA5B.png
    49672307-972A-4279-A727-1B9FBCF9FA5B.png
    378 KB · Views: 110
Cool shed. I would vent out the end like you are, but I've got to get the smoke piped through the ceiling first. Yes, it's a home made patio size rf stick burner.
 
I put these 2 vent fans in to help with smoke and heat
That's the type he needs . Something designed to move air from a large area . Residential range hood most likely won't get it done . You need the " push " on the exhaust side .
I have one in my workshop that came out of a commercial bathroom . Vents a 30 x 30 area no problem . Low pressure on the intake , high pressure on the exhaust side .
 
  • Like
Reactions: TH-n-PA and TNJAKE
Chopsaw, do you recall a brand name? Sounds like what I need.
Mines a commercial direct drive squirrel cage I got out of a remodel I did years ago . It's designed for air flow as opposed to a fan designed for static pressure .

I'm not an expert on this , just know the basics behind it . A fan spec'd for air flow will move air in an open area from that area to another .
A fan designed to over come static pressure is used to force air through tighter spaces like duct work .
I would think you need an air flow fan .
 
  • Like
Reactions: sawhorseray
I gave something like that a thought, but we go to some trouble to get the stack size just right. I figured adding a piece to it would effect temps and draw. Not so?
Yes, extending the stack vertically does increase the draft. You can compensate by throttling down the cross-sectional area or reducing your fire box intake but if you're real happy where you are, you may not want to start twirling knobs.
But keep in mind any exhaust fan is essentially doing the same thing, particularly if you're working/pumping hard to suck away smoke. In theory, the top of a normal stack in an open space is taken as a zero pressure point so what you're doing with a fan is putting negative pressure, or vacuum, at that same vertical point to suck the smoke someplace else. That new negative pressure point would have corresponded to a point further down the stack before (with peak negative pressure being at your intake) so you've essentially lengthened the stack even though its physical length appears unchanged.
Yes, that's a pellet machine in the picture with the dryer hose and yes they all use forced air to get the fire going. But you'll notice a string of switches under my hopper to throttle that forced air down to natural draft in 7 steps.
And for minimal upset to your present draft, you'll want such variability in a fan-based exhaust. Run the fans low, and let your pavilion smoke up, to most closely mimic the open-air design of your smoker. Then when you want to go inside, run the fans for a minute to clear out the smoke, knowing you're temporarily increasing the draft from its design value.
By the Bernoulli effect, something similar happens when a breeze goes horizontally past an open stack. (The added convection of the wind also increases the heat flow out the walls of the smoker.) But we get to know our machines pretty well even if we don't recognize all the physics at play, and we just get the job done. In other words, there's a little knob-twirling going on in life whether we like it or not. We go with the flow, pun intended.
 
Thanks guys. Chopsaw, I gave your idea a whirl with a greenhouse fan in the gabled end and just just a passive tube above the smoker. Using Bill's idea of letting the pavillion smoke up, running it for a few minutes, and shutting it off, it seemed to work. Nothing's finalized, and no meat was harmed, but I think we'll start a fire and experiment again tomorrow. And yes, it's a stick burner, design lifted from Gary s a few years ago.
 
greenhouse fan in the gabled end and just just a passive tube above the smoker.
Mine looks like this . I just have it hanging in the open in my workshop .
The original design is above a solid ceiling , with vents in the ceiling . No duct work .
The fan draws air from the public space into the plenum above . I have mine ducted on the exhaust side so the air goes out of the house .
1661688839724.jpeg
If you hang a fan in the gable end , like shown in post 10 , add a ceiling and install a couple air transfer vents ( cold air return grills ) I think you'll be good to go . Just let it run so the draft gets going . The fan you have would probably work too , I just don't know the specs of it .
Thanks for the update , keep us posted .
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky