Heat from a woodstove

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

mware1970

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2011
11
10
Hi, I have been thinking about building a hot smokehouse for a while and am looking for a little input so I don't cause any damage.

Here is my plan. I have a woodstove in my shed that I am going to use to boil down sap from my maples and wanted to harness the heat and smoke for ribs, sausages, chicken ect.

My thoughts are to leave the stove in the shed and build a raised, free standing 3'w x 4't x 2'6"d smokehouse with a sloped roof, about 3' from the stove. The house will be elevated so my stove pipe enters near the bottom and has a wire mesh "cage" with a pan to collect any ash that should happen to escape.

The side walls will be two layers of 3/4" thich pine tongue and groove boards making the thickness 1 1/2", the roof will be one layer of boards with cedar shingles applied.

I am planning on adjustable vents at the bottom and the top as well as an external thermometer.

I will also have a couple adjustable wooden shelves and a removable pole. 

The construction of the house is not a concern, my concern is that with the heat source being a wood stove I will be making it too hot and cooking the meat instead of smoking it. I have not found anything on the web showing a set up like I am suggesting and want to know if the reason why is because it won't work.

Thanks,

Mike
 
It certainly sounds like it would work to me. You would need a way to control the temp in the smokehouse, either by a damper on the piping coming from the stove or by controlling the fire in the stove. I'm not a builder & I'm sure someone who is more knowledgeable on this will be along to give you a better answer. Good luck with this! I see this is your first post, so welcome to SMF. You should swing on over to the roll call section & introduce yourself so we can all give you a proper SMF welcome!
 
Last edited:
The easiest way to control the heat is by moving the smokehouse farther away from the heat source. If i was doing this fabrication i would just try to harness the smoke.

 That would be for  cold smoking ( under 100 degrees) If you want to hot smoke then get an electric hot plate or gas burner to provide the heat.
 
The easiest way to control the heat is by moving the smokehouse farther away from the heat source. If i was doing this fabrication i would just try to harness the smoke.

 That would be for  cold smoking ( under 100 degrees) If you want to hot smoke then get an electric hot plate or gas burner to provide the heat.


x2
 
icon_cool.gif


Yea what he said. Eman that is.
 
Thanks for the advise! I am thinking I will build it attached to my shed (keeping in mind fire protection) to cut down heat loss, and give myself enough room at the bottom for an alternate heat source (hot plate or propane burner). 

I'll take some pictures and let you know how it turns out!

Mike
 
post how it turns out,i plan t start my build in the next few weeks, and also have a wood stove for my heat source, it's actually a 4 burner wood stove with an oven that has been in the family for well over 100 years.
 
I started the project today, after firing up the wood stove I used a meat thermometer to check the temp coming out of the pipe and it held around 160f. Got the shell of the smoke house started and will hopefully have it up and running real soon.

Any thoughts on easy piece of meat to start with? I want to run it for awhile empty and work on regulating the heat some first but would love to be cooking next weekend.
 
if you want it hotter, look on northerntool.com, they have a 120v fan that is built into an adapter that goes inline from the wood stove to the smoke box. hook it to a dimmer light switch to make it adjustable and it should help raise the heat up.
 
So with Thanksgiving, the kids basketball games and well,,,, life, I finally git my smoke house (or smoke shed because of the size) mounted on the front of my workshop. With the woodstove piped to it, fire board in place around the stove pie, three dampers installed, two oak racks and a thermometer from the shed to the smoker I decided to fire it up with some oak scraps I had in the shop.... IT WORKED GREAT! Temp easily climbed to 185 within probably 10 minutes of the 1x oak scrap, vents worked great, plenty of control over the heat with the stove and the cold air vent. This weekend I will properly season it while I seperate my wood, I've got a bunck of seasoned apple, maple, and oak for heat. Sundays menu will consist of some pork ribs with a yummy rub I found, chicken cordon bleu and some bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos....

I took some pictures but given that it was around 7:30pm and here in Maine it now gets dark at 4:30, they didn't do the smoke house justice. I'll post some this weekend for sure!

Thanks for all your advise and suggestions!
 
Sorry for the spelling errors, I was kind of excited when I posted earlier...
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky