Electric smoker build

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tfire

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 13, 2017
18
10
Ft worth Texas
Hello all!

I've been lurking here for a while and decided to build my own electric smoker. I had some standing seam metal left over from my barn and used that for the exterior.

I used roxul insulation and durock cement board on the bottom 25".

I then used 3/4" plywood to finish out the interior.

I put a floor vent on the roof and cut some plywood for the doors to rest against.

I installed the doors, temp gauge, and a 1500watt heating element.

That's when my problems started. I'll have to measure the exact box dimensions but it's somewhere near 25"x35"x4'. The box heated up to 100 degrees within 10 mins. Then it got to 150degrees in about 2 hours...... Oops, somethings wrong.

So now I have some questions. The door is made out of 3/4" plywood, do I need to insulate that as well?

I didn't use any gasket material on the door yet either, could that contribute to my problems?

I'm going to add the "mailbox mod" as well. But right now the only intake is a 1" hole I drilled where the mailbox is going. Could that cause low heat?
Homemade mailbox.

Random question, should I move the roof vent to the back under the metal overhang?

I panicked and ordered another 1500 watt element thinking that will solve it. I can send it back if y'all think the other issues are causing the low heat. Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
Hi there and welcome!

Interesting.  I don't have any definite answers for you but the Masterbuilt Analog electric smoker has the following dimensions:

See Listing Here

40.15"H x 20"W x 21.69"D  producing 10.079 cubic feet of volume/space to heat up.  I believe they use a 1500 Watt element for that space and the max temp is 400F

You have roughly 24.305 cubic feet of volume/space to heat up with a single 1500 Watt element.  You have almost 2.5 times the amount of space to heat up with a single 1500 Watt element.

Now, I don't know that this is your issue but it may give some room for thought when comparing your element output to volume ration against a known product.

I hope this info helps in some way but again I don't know if this is the answer, it's just some food for thought :) 
 
I am not sure of how to go about this, But I am debating this route as well. Where did you get your elements from?  Can you call whoever the supplier is and see if they have a sizing calc? I know there are some threads here for that and Dave Omak  is one of many among this site to talk to. I remember him commenting about sizing. How are you going to control the element(s) ?  let us know how things go..
 
Tall, I'm not trying to get to 400 so maybe with 3000 watts I'll be able to get up to 250. Thanks for the comparison, it put it in perspective for sure!

Ab, I wish I had the funds to buy everything all at once but I went a little over budget. Eventually I'll buy the pid to control the temp and a maverick to read it. Right now though I bought this. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HDMDA2I/?tag=smokingmeatforums-20
Hopefully 2 of them will be sufficient. I'm trying to get around 250 for brisket and such.
 
Chuck, I just checked again and it is a 110v 1500 watt heating element. I had some extra emt and wire laying around so I'm going to run a couple dedicated plugs to the smoker tonight.
 
Chuck, I just checked again and it is a 110v 1500 watt heating element. I had some extra emt and wire laying around so I'm going to run a couple dedicated plugs to the smoker tonight.
Just to check the simplest things first, how far from the power source is your smoker and what gauge wire are you using in the chord and wiring?

I ran an extension chord about 15 feet to my MES thinking the chord was 14 gauge or better... After it was taking forever to get up to heat I saw that I was wrong and the chord I was using was too weak to support 1200 Watts.  I unplugged, gently rolled the smoker close enough to the outlet and plugged in with the MES chord and I was back in business.  A simple honest mistake.

I now have that chord separated from my 14/3 AWG (gauge) chords.  14 gauge wire is what the MES uses so I figured I would keep with it and use my 14 AWG chords.

Anyhow, this is a simple check and a simple fix if it is the issue :)
 
Thanks tall. I ran it on a 50 ft heavy duty extension cord. My fridge and deep freezer are on that same outlet as well. I just assumed if it was drawing to much amps it would flip the breaker. Either way, I'm going to run a dedicated circuit out there tonight(2 just in case I need another element,10ga wire with 2-single pole 20amp breakers). Hopefully that is the solution.
 
I ran a plug with #10 wire right to the smoker with the same result. I'm thinking I do need that other heating element. 2 hours and it held steady at 145-150 for an hour.

How important is fresh air intake size? Is there a formula for the size of the opening compared to the size of the smoke box and/or outlet?
 
Maybe a silly question, but why only insulate the lower 25 inches ? Heat rises and will be lost in the upper half, maybe more so than the lower half. You may very well be under powered at 1500 watts and 3000 may not cure your woes unless the upper half gets insulated, this should include the top as well. The choice of insulation/durarock may or may not work, but the only way I know to find out is trial and error.
 
I think I mistyped in my original post. The roxul insulation is all the way to the top and the ceiling. The durock cement board is only the bottom 25" because I was a little worried about using plywood right next to the heating element.

It is a ton of trial and error. I'm going to try the 2nd heating element when it gets here. If that doesn't work then I'll insulate the door and floor and use some high temp gasket material on the door. Or I may do all that anyway.
 
I got the mailbox added
I figured I'd also show y'all the temp controller as well.
Here is the vent.
And here's the inside fired up.

So it's been running for an hour and the temp is at 210. I opened the door for 30 seconds and it got down to 150 but jumped back up to 210 within 7 mins. I'm pretty happy with that but would like it to get up to around 225. Will a sand or water pan help the temp get just a little higher? And will it make it take longer to get up to temp?
 
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I got the mailbox added
I figured I'd also show y'all the temp controller as well.
Here is the vent.
And here's the inside fired up.

So it's been running for an hour and the temp is at 210. I opened the door for 30 seconds and it got down to 150 but jumped back up to 210 within 7 mins. I'm pretty happy with that but would like it to get up to around 225. Will a sand or water pan help the temp get just a little higher? And will it make it take longer to get up to temp?
Nice!

I don't have a direct answer to your question but with such a smoker an air circulation fan might be a great fit.

However, I've been researching convection ovens, fans, etc. over the past few days because I'm trying to figure out if/how I can circulate air in my MES to get temps as even as possible all around.

I've found quite a bit of info over the past few days (from knowing nothing) but I haven't found an answer for how much CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) needs to be handled for a cooking oven or a smoker.  If you get a 24 CFM fan you will (in theory) circulate all the air in your smoker in 1 minute, so every minute you would in theory get full circulation of air and temps.  Now there are variables of how the air flows and breaks, etc. but I'm guessing something is better than nothing.

My thoughts are that you could maybe go with an oven fan motor and fan blade that would go way over your 24 cubic feet size and use a Variable Fan Controller (a turn knob switch) so you can turn it down if needed.  I was able to find the following for about $34 total dollars and it is what I ordered to tinker around with:

Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PU15R34/?tag=smokingmeatforums-20


Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Genuine...448709?hash=item237d718bc5:g:YIEAAOSwoydWmA50


Anyhow, maybe something like this will be useful :)
 
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Whats the benefit of the fan? Even heat I guess? How does it effect the vent? Will it keep the smoke in the chamber to long? I've just never heard of using a fan to circulate the air. I'll need to read up on that.

I just shut off the smoker and it was at 250! To bad it took 3 1/2 hours.
30 minutes and it got to 170.
It got to 200 in 50 mins.
And 2 1/2 hours to reach 240.

Now I just need to smoke something!!! Maybe a whole chicken tomorrow.
 
Whats the benefit of the fan? Even heat I guess? How does it effect the vent? Will it keep the smoke in the chamber to long? I've just never heard of using a fan to circulate the air. I'll need to read up on that.

I just shut off the smoker and it was at 250! To bad it took 3 1/2 hours.
30 minutes and it got to 170.
It got to 200 in 50 mins.
And 2 1/2 hours to reach 240.

Now I just need to smoke something!!! Maybe a whole chicken tomorrow.
Convection ovens work by circulating the hot/heated air in the oven through the use of the fan.  The air circulating means the temperatures will be more even all around the oven.  Same idea would apply for a fan in a smoker.

Just a heads up on doing a chicken.  The flavor should be fine on the meat but the skin will come out rubbery/leathery in texture unless it is cooked for some time (I'm claiming an hour and a half or more) at 325F or higher.  I'm still fighting this battle with my electric smoker, see here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/257996/the-acceptable-chicken-skin-quest-mes-chicken-smoking

I'm thinking ribs might be a more pleasing first smoke or do chicken without the skin on.  I've been doing boneless skinless chicken breasts (after brineing over night) and they come out AMAZING!!!  Country style pork ribs are always super cheap and I don't think you need to foil them or baby them, just set them, pop in a probe, and pull when Internal Temp (IT) hits 195-205F depending on how soft or firm you like them.  

Picking a winning first smoke will help you feel a sense of accomplishment rather than any disappointment from the nature of chicken skin at your less than 325F smoking temps :)
 
Well your into it now. I think you said you were running the elements on two different breakers. Not knowing your circuits, chances are good you are on opposite side of the 220v line, meaning you have 220v from the hot side of one element to the hot side of the other element. That being said and if it is so, you could go 220v and the possibilites open up greatly as far as element wattage.
 
Just remember, if they are equal elements rated at 120, one can series them at 240.

ONLY if they are equal in resistance.

But a 120 rated element alone, w 240 impressed, will burn open like in seconds.

Otherwise . Mosparky is saying if you have 220 available, you may have advantage. 

But depends on a few things that need to be understood properly before you make changes.   Marc
 
I'm pretty happy with the two elements right now as is. The temp is getting up to 250 now in about 1 hour and 45 mins. I did nothing different so maybe the meat is helping keep the temps up?

I put a rack of spare ribs and a whole chicken on at 5 pm. We shall see how it turns out! I'm not to worried about the skin on the chicken yet Tall. I just want something to eat tonight so that my wife doesn't lose her cool with me for spending so much time on something without any benefit. I think I'll throw the chicken on the grill for a little bit at the very end to help the skin.

I've got thin blue smoke and I actually just turned down the heat a little because it was at 265 right at the two hour mark of the smoker being on. Thanks for all the help so far guys! I'll post some pics when it's all done.
 
Sounds like you are on your way to success!

I look forward to seeing the pics later.  Also let us know what wood you are smoking with.

Also, are you using the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) inside that mailbox? or some other type of smoker generator
 
I'm using the amnps 5x8. The heat is harder to regulate than I originally thought. It got up to 275 and I cranked it down some more. Hopefully this meat turns out good and the wife agrees to the pid lol.

It is cooking to fast. IT on the ribs and chicken are already at 145 in 1 1/2 hours. Maybe my smoker temp gauge is off.
 
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