Will smoke damage my house

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drunkenmeatfist

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
May 28, 2017
486
187
I currently have the Masterbuilt portable sitting on a desk in my garage. When it is time to use it I open the door and have the smoker at the opening. I have the SV18 on its way so I plan on changing things up. I want to use my garage to park my car again. The logical place to put the smoker is on the back porch. However, my back porch is small and the smoker would likely be pushed pretty close to an outside wall. Would the smoke leave a stain on the walls?
 
 
I currently have the Masterbuilt portable sitting on a desk in my garage. When it is time to use it I open the door and have the smoker at the opening. I have the SV18 on its way so I plan on changing things up. I want to use my garage to park my car again. The logical place to put the smoker is on the back porch. However, my back porch is small and the smoker would likely be pushed pretty close to an outside wall. Would the smoke leave a stain on the walls?
Eventually, yes.  The smoke can pick up fat and moisture from the meat being smoked.  The hot exhaust will condense on the first cold surface it touches, leaving behind the smoke particulates and the meat residue. 
 
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Eventually, yes.  The smoke can pick up fat and moisture from the meat being smoked.  The hot exhaust will condense on the first cold surface it touches, leaving behind the smoke particulates and the meat residue. 
Well dang. I guess I will try to figure out a way to keep it in the garage along with my car. Anyone know of a rolling cart that might add some height and portability to the SV18?
 
Mine is right next to the house . No stains. I have white soffit material on the ceiling .
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll still grab a moving dolly so I can easily move the smoker back into the garage on those really windy Texas days. But now I feel better about using it on the back porch. Have to figure out how to maximize the small space I have out there. 
 
Gentleman, I absolutely respect everyone's experience.  Here's mine. 

I don't have a SV.  All my equipment, my WSM, Weber Kettle, and gas grill are in the middle of my backyard patio due to the discoloration by the exhaust from my gas grill on my light grey stucco back wall.  The house has since been painted so I don't have before pictures of the discolored wall.

When my wife bought the gas grill many years ago, the instructions said to keep the grill at least a foot away from a wall to prevent a fire hazard.  I kept the cold grill against the back wall, then would move it about a foot away from the wall when I used it.  The grill is on wheels.  After I was done grilling and chip pan smoking, I pushed it back against the wall.  Over the course of 8 years or so, the back wall definitely took on a discoloration.  

When I resurrected my Weber Kettle Performer from the side of the house to start smoking, I moved everything away from the wall, later adding the WSM.  My wife REALLY doesn't like everything in the middle of our patio because that's what you see out our kitchen table window, but she loves the food and has learned to live with it.    

One more thing.  The environmental freakoids out here in California have legally mandated that ALL wall and house paints have to be water based, not oil based.  Power washing a wall just strips away the paint.   

The WSM and Kettle are covered because the weather dudes yesterday said we are expecting rain today and snow in the mountains.  There's not a cloud in the sky this morning.  High today is supposed to be 68F.  Six days from now the high is supposed to be 103F.  Lets hope they are just as wrong about the temp as they are about the rain.    


Below is where the gas grill USED to be. 

 
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I have both electric and charcoal smokers.  I have found that the smoke/heat source has a lot to do with the amount of residue that is potentially deposited.  I run electric with pellets in a pellet tray.  There is much less smoke than compared to charcoal.  I have seen no evidence of depositing smoke residue from burning pellets in a tray.  However, 10 years of charcoal and wood chunk use in my WSM has left visible residue on the fan blades in my outdoor covered porch area.  I have a 10 x 30' covered porch with a ceiling that is about 10' at the eaves and then slopes upward to about 14' at the house wall (it's a shed roof basically).  The underside of the roof is painted plywood and not exposed rafters.  I have 2 outdoor Hunter fans which have plastic like blades.  Years of smoke collecting under that slope with the fans whipping through the smoke have left a slight residue on the leading edges.  Every so often I have to drag out the big ladder and hit them with simple green to cut the smoke residue off.  In retrospect, I love the porch and the way the ceiling is designed, but if I did it over, there would be some sort of vent at the interior peak to vent smoke up and out.  A vent would also work with the stack effect for summer heat pulling it up and and out probably make the whole porch a little cooler in the July heat in the South. All this being said, there is nothing like a covered porch with a high ceiling for a smoking deck!  Weather is no longer a consideration and I have smoked in the snow, ice, and torrential rains.

My point to all of the above ramblings is electric & pellets is not going to product as much smoke to leave a residue, but charcoal and wood chunks as you have smoke from both the heat source (the charcoal) and the flavor wood source (the chunks).  I would think the Smoke Vault will fall closer to the pellet end of my spectrum as the primary heat source is gas, but it will probably product a little more smoke than pellets.

I don't know what sort of siding you have, but if it's vinyl or stucco, I would either move the smoker away from the wall in use or add supplemental protection.  Vinyl is not going to stand up to heat well (think grease fire, it happens to pretty much everyone at some point), and stucco will be more prone to having residue cling to it. You might consider a panel of sheet metal on 1 or 2" standoff's to protect the wall directly behind and slight above the smoker. You could also paint that panel to match the house color (which would also make the panel last longer in the weather).  Might be overkill, but evaluate your smoking area and it might be an option.
 
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I have both electric and charcoal smokers.  I have found that the smoke/heat source has a lot to do with the amount of residue that is potentially deposited.  I run electric with pellets in a pellet tray.  There is much less smoke than compared to charcoal.  I have seen no evidence of depositing smoke residue from burning pellets in a tray.  However, 10 years of charcoal and wood chunk use in my WSM has left visible residue on the fan blades in my outdoor covered porch area.  I have a 10 x 30' covered porch with a ceiling that is about 10' at the eaves and then slopes upward to about 14' at the house wall (it's a shed roof basically).  The underside of the roof is painted plywood and not exposed rafters.  I have 2 outdoor Hunter fans which have plastic like blades.  Years of smoke collecting under that slope with the fans whipping through the smoke have left a slight residue on the leading edges.  Every so often I have to drag out the big ladder and hit them with simple green to cut the smoke residue off.  In retrospect, I love the porch and the way the ceiling is designed, but if I did it over, there would be some sort of vent at the interior peak to vent smoke up and out.  A vent would also work with the stack effect for summer heat pulling it up and and out probably make the whole porch a little cooler in the July heat in the South. All this being said, there is nothing like a covered porch with a high ceiling for a smoking deck!  Weather is no longer a consideration and I have smoked in the snow, ice, and torrential rains.

My point to all of the above ramblings is electric & pellets is not going to product as much smoke to leave a residue, but charcoal and wood chunks as you have smoke from both the heat source (the charcoal) and the flavor wood source (the chunks).  I would think the Smoke Vault will fall closer to the pellet end of my spectrum as the primary heat source is gas, but it will probably product a little more smoke than pellets.

I don't know what sort of siding you have, but if it's vinyl or stucco, I would either move the smoker away from the wall in use or add supplemental protection.  Vinyl is not going to stand up to heat well (think grease fire, it happens to pretty much everyone at some point), and stucco will be more prone to having residue cling to it. You might consider a panel of sheet metal on 1 or 2" standoff's to protect the wall directly behind and slight above the smoker. You could also paint that panel to match the house color (which would also make the panel last longer in the weather).  Might be overkill, but evaluate your smoking area and it might be an option.
Great Post !!!

All makes Good Sense!!
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Bear
 
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