Refrigerator build for cold smoking using an a-maze-n generator

[jax13]

Hi guys, looking for some advice here as I am about to build my first cold smoker and wanted the thoughts of those who may have tried what I am planning!

I have a fully working fridge that would be ideal to use as a smoker cabinet and I have bought an amns dust maze on Amazon which should be with me next week to make the smoke for me.

I was thinking about adding an adjustable exhaust vent to the top of the fridge to allow a little breathing but I was wondering about running the smoker with the fridge running.

My train of thought here is that if I can keep the ambient temp in my smoker to 4 Celsius or thereabouts I can do year round cold smoking but more importantly, I could do whole brisket, chickens, fish or cheeses over longer periods without the worry of the food spoiling but I wondered if the colder temperature or the air circulation from the fan & motor would affect the performance.

Over to you guys!

Thanks

 

[pops6927]

Thank you for joining the SMF forums!  Welcome!

There would have to be both an entrance and exit of fresh air to facilitate a good draft to keep the AMNS smoldering properly for it to work; preferably entrance from the bottom of the unit and exit near the top of the unit.  Without the fresh air, the burning would stop and what did burn you would be recycling the smoke, making it stale and acrid.

I converted a mini-fridge to a cold smoker previously and it works quite well!   http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/96435/old-mini-fridge-into-an-a-maze-n-cold-smoker  I removed the fan and cooling (which had quit working) unit, put in a intake and output port.

This thread addresses some of the concerns leaving the unit plugged in.

 

[JckDanls 07]

As Pops said.. you will need fresh air to keep the smoker burning... with that I'm thinking the fridge part of it won't keep up as you are running fresh warm air through it continuously... You could experiment with it and cut your vents for fresh air and see if the refrigeration part will keep up (keeping it cold).. If not, just don't plug it in...

 

[mneeley490]

Wouldn't running the refrigeration bring down the temperature to where the AMNS would have trouble staying lit?

 

[jax13]

Wouldn't running the refrigeration bring down the temperature to where the AMNS would have trouble staying lit?

This was my query, I was hoping someone else had had the idea and tried it out to see if it worked!

If this is the case, I think I might try and find another fridge as I'm loathed to destroy one that works properly still.

Plan b is now shaping up like this... If I were to freeze the salad drawer in the bottom of th fridge, say half full of water to give one massive ice block then use the smoker tray on the bottom shelf, I'd still have enough height left in an under counter fridge to hang things from the top shelf or use both shelves for blocks of cheese, chilli's etc.

Does the volume of ice have the same effect as running the fridge? I really want to keep the temp as low as possible.

Plan c is also running through my head, what if I fabricated a small steel box to house the amns then piped the output from it into the fridge (like the 2 cardboard box system) and then vented the top of the fridge for a chimney? This might work better as I could then potentially have the fridge running.

What do we think folks? Plan b or plan c?

 

[stovebolt]

  Go to the search box and type in "mail box mod" and see if any of the information is helpful.

Chuck

 

[smokeaddict]

Mate,
I don't know how far you got with your project, I built a plywood smoker and added refrigerator copper coils, using an amazen pellet smoker. No problem at all with it staying lit, works really well for cold smoking. I don't use it for hot smoking, nbecause I don't know what effect heating up the coils would do to the refrigerant inside the coils.

 

[blue smokey]

Stick a smoke daddy into the side of your fridge.