water heater smoker

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rcullison

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 23, 2010
53
11
michigan
ive recently been given an 80 gallon commercial water heater. im wondering if its worth the work to turn it into a vertical water smoker
 
Thats just one of the questions ive got on my list. Im hoping to find out more about the internal part of the tank soon. ive been told they have a ceramic lining in em.
 
water heaters have a fiberglass liner in them and that is a PAIN to get out of them. sometimes the bottom of the heater has about 6" or so of lime buildup and you need to account for that. i cut open one recently and had to chain one end to a pole and hook a truck to the other end and jerk it apart with the truck. there are usually multiple heat exchanger tubes on commercial heaters so you have to cut them also and remove them..... in other words your prolly better off to scrap the waterheater tank and try to get something else. that's what i did.
 
I would say that they don't make good smokers cause if you strip all the insulation away you should find that the tank isn't very big. Someone else had that same idea a few monthes ago and they found out the same thing.
 
The tank size was a concern too. Ive already built my smoker using a 55 gal. drum so i wont gain enuff space to make the effort worth it. thanks again
 
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