Mr. Heater adjustment for smoker

[berfish]

I just finished up my old fridge conversion to smoker and I am tinkering with a way to heat it. I tried my mr. heater cooker on a hose ran through the bottom so the hose and valves are out the bottom and not melting. Anyway...it is too hot on the lowest setting. It got up to 300F in about 1.5 hours. Is there some way to tame it down by putting a valve or adjustable regulator in. Has anyone else used a Mr. Heater cooker for a smoker heat source. WOuld an electric source of some kind a better option? Like a hot plate or something? I am open to anything cheap and easy.

[Jim Almquist]

I know that my dad used a hotplate in a frig to smoke fish. It seemed to work pretty good. The fish tasted great.

[reinhard1]

even a double hotplate would be handy. both have seperate settings and you can use only one or two if you need more heat for some items. also if you can it would be a good idea to put a real small fan in there to circulate the air so you dont have hot spots. i ran a commercial grade smoker that had all the bells and whistles and i thought that small air flow played a big part in uniform temps. good luck.

[Walleyehooker]

Most of the old fridge smokers I have seen used hot plates. If you want to use gas find an single adjustable burner. They are pretty cheap and you may find one at northern tools or maybe a hardware store.

[thirdeye]

The problem with hotplates is that the newer ones have an automatic shutoff. The thermostat senses too much heat and shuts them down. If you can find an old one without safety features it should work fine.

My Big chief box smokers have an element like an electric stove, but it plugs right into the cord.

[berfish]

Thanks guys! Yeah my friend at work also thinks the hot plate is the way to go. I think I might try that route next. I thought of the hot plate route before I started but I didn't think it would get it hot enough. Now that I have done some more internet research I have found more people with the hot plate technique.

[Walleyehooker]

Cabelas has a heating element for smokers on their site for $40

[pikechaser]

You could hook an electric hot plate up to an Infinite Switch and it would regulate the heat fairly well. That is the kind of switch used on electric ranges. You could google 120v infinite switch, that will show you what Im talking about. I made one up & mounted it in a electrical junction box with wires going in & out of the box to the heater. You could probly get one locally from DEY distributing

[berfish]

THanks for the ideas. I have gone the route of the electric stove burner. I have an old Kelvinator range that I have taken the guts out to get the burner to work in my smoker. I basically took an old computer power cord with the female end cut off, exposing the wires. Then I put wire conectors on the ends of the white and black wires. Then i hooked them up to the adjustment knob....cant remember the correct term for the adjustment knob. Anyway it worked. Only problem is it only gets to 150 degrees in my smoker. Wouldn't even get my wood smoking. Kinda thinking I need to wire it for 220v. Any other tips are welcome. I will post with updates later....maybe even some pics.

[Finns]

Turn the tank valve part way off (don't open all the way). Less gas, less heat?

[HARDTIMES]

Well Thirdeye is right on the money on the auto off on hot plate. I have been i your shoe when i built mine and your right about stove element need it needs 220 volts to work right. I went with what walleyehooker said 40.00 at cabelas. I can get my up to 350 with that element.You can search auberins for a controler also it will hold your smoker at plus or minus 1 deg all day long and it plug and play.

[candiru]

Carefully pry off the plastic cap on the hi-med-lo-off valve on the Mr Heater. Underneath that you will find a slot for an allen-head wrench. That adjusts the output of the heater. I think backing it out will produce lower output. You will have to play around with it some to get it as low as possible while keeping the thermocouple working. Put the plastic cap back on and give it a try. On some (all?) of them you can just knock out the middle of the plastic cap and it makes adjustment a lot easier.

[berfish]

Thanks for the info guys. Hardtimes, I am not looking to spend quite that much on thermostat\controller. Have you found any other way to control the output of that 1500W element from Cabelas? Could you put a dimmer switch on it? Might try the mr heater adjustment too.

[HARDTIMES]

Get the 40.00 element and see what kind of temp you get first. Then if you have too maybe wire it to one of control switchs out of your range?