Smokehouse configuration

[Salty1]

Hello everyone. I’m in the planning stage of building a small wooden smoke house. I’m looking for the size to be 3’ wide x 2’ deep x 4’ tall. My idea has the cooking chamber heated with an electric element for hot smoking. For smoke, I have a amnps. I’d like to set the amnps in a box under the smoke chamber (about a foot and a half tall) with holes in the bottom of the smoke box to allow the smoke to waft up and out through a stack in the roof. Is this a feasible design? I hear a lot about not getting good smoke draft when the smoke box is mounted on the exterior for cold smoking. Am I on the right track here or should I be looking at a different design? Love this forum and look forward to hearing from more experienced smokers. Thanks

 

[daveomak]

Sounds OK to me... It drafts just fine as long as the smoker body is above ambient temperature... A cold smoker will create a "cold dam"... blocking warm air from rising... If you put cold meat in the smoker body, it will cool it off to the point the "now" cold air will reverse the air flow through the smoker and out the smoke generator box.... Been there... Seen it.... couldn't believe what I saw.... turned the heat on in my MES 30 and the smoke started flowing out the exhaust....

 

[GaryHibbert]

Like Dave said, when it's cold out, I usually turn up the heat in my MES 30 to the minimum setting--just enough to get the smoke drafting, but not enough to raise the smoker temp too high for cold smoking.
Gary

 

[Salty1]

Thanks for the info guys. I’ll only be cold smoking a little and I’m down south so temperatures don’t get super cold here. What type of heating element should I look for? I need to get up close to 300 for chicken so that’s probably the high end on heat.

 

[daveomak]

I use my kitchen oven or propane BBQ for finishing a lot of stuff I put in the smoker.. Easier, faster, and that's what they are designed to do... High temp cooking..