Smokers

[walleye wisher]

I was wondering if anyone knows a good spot to get info on converting an old upright freezer into a smoker. Or can someone one explain how they did it? I would like to give it a try. Thanks in advance.

[Yukon Don]

We did it once to an old fridge. First of it needs to be all metal. Any plastic will melt. Second of all you need to remove any insulation in the walls. Some old ones have a fiberglass type insulation in the door and walls. Basically you need a metal shell. You'll need to have na adjustable vent and in our case we used a hotplate for heat. You'll have to put in adjustable metal racks unless the old one has some.

Good Luck

[walleye wisher]

Thanks for the help.

[Surface Tension]

Don't use the shelves that came with the fridge, they'll give off toxins. Find yourself some oven racks. For a heat source I like an electric element. I took it one step further and put a relay and thermostat in my smoker. Some sausage recipes require a very accurate temp control making the thermostat a must.

[jt24]

If you can find a really old fidge they seem to work the best. Like was stated earlier make sure to remove all the insulation and all the components from the fridge. I used a separate fire box and piped in the smoke to get a better cold smoke. I just cut a hole in the bottom of the fridge and installed a stove pipe and then made a fire box and installed a stove pipe on that and hooked the two together. The smoker sits alittle high but not real bad. I just put in a burner from one of those turkey fryers under a piece of flat iron and lay the wood or sawdust on that and that works real well. I use 2 digital meat thermometers, one for the meat and one for air temp. That way ya dont really have to open up the smoker to lose any heat or smoke to tell if your meat is cooked after your done smoking it. I have found that letting the smoker warm up in the winter before putting in your meat really helps. Hope this helps.

[smoked perch]

ww:
hey. check out this site. it's got some great info for you. look under the grills n smokers section.

http://www.barbecuen.com/ask.htm

good luck,
perch.

[Slugo]

Here is a lint that has a load of info. not sure if ther is a fridge conversion in there but I bet there is.

http://www.velvitoil.com/Resources.HTML

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IBOT #23