Brinkmann Electric Smoker "mod" experiment for cold weather.

[dysenterygary]

Yesterday I got an electric smoker for a late Christmas present.  I did a test run last night by just putting the element and bottom of the new smoker on my old one.  It got up to 260 and stayed there in the 40 degree weather.  This morning I wanted to test it out in some pretty cold weather.  It is 5 degrees out and -18 with the wind chill.  It leveled out at 190-192, so I wanted to see if I could get it any higher by trying to insulate it more.  I have read about using a welders blanket, but I wanted to make sure that I'd get decent results since the blanket is half the cost of the smoker!  

All I did was wrap an ornately decorated towel around the smoker and held it together with a clip and a string around the bottom  The results were immediate!  It quickly jumped from 190 all the way up to 240.  I am very pleased with how it worked, and I'll be buying a welders blanket to use to insulate the smoker during really cold weather.  

I think the results with the blanket will be the same as smoking in 60 degree temps.  The towel I used for this experiment didn't even cover the entire thing, so I think using a proper fireproof blanket that wraps around the entire thing will have great results.  

IMG_20140127_080301[1].jpg

• dysenterygary
• Jan 27, 2014

Outside temp was 5.6 with a strong wind, and the smoker is sitting at 237.  

 

[little smokey]

The WInd is the killer even just cardboard will do the trick.  I had about the same results as you with my brinkmann by just putting a board in front of the smoker to block the wind and I was back up to 250 no problem.