Wyoming Native with fridge question??

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cojohutch

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 29, 2008
1
10
Lyman, WY
My name is Cody Hutchinson, I live in Southwest Wyoming, Lyman to be exact. I grew up hunting, fishing, and eating jerky and summer sausage.
My dad got me going on making jerky when I was young using the little chief smoker. I have used it ever since. As I have gained in experience my desire to go bigger has increased.

I recently acquired a GE Combination Fridge/Freezer, metal, ancient. It is an upright. I have begun the process of converting it into my new smoker.

The question that I have is this: I about baught a burner the other day that had a temp adjustment on it, but it was in the form of a plastic nob on the burner itself. Can this mechanism hold up to the heat of 200 or so for my smoker? I want my burner to sit in the bottom of the fridge.

If this will not work, I am in need of advice to find and purchase an electric burner with a temp. variable nob that I put on the outside that would heat a fridge to a consistent 200 or so. I have looked at Cabelas converter, but it does not have the adjustment for temp. Is there one that fits my needs? Or, do I just need to buy the one from Cabelas? Is one enough (1500 burner) to heat my fridge consistently?

Thanks for your help in advance. I was so excited to find this forum for smoking. Like I said my experience is limited to jerky, but have ambitions to get crazy with all the other finger lickin good stuff you can do with smoking. I would like to make this fridge be my ticket to that place.
 
Welcome to SMF! Good fridge to use there. And no..the hotplate unit will not last. It will work, but will puke eventually.

Some of the wattburner guys here have used some neat units to do what you want..I'm sure they'll be along soon. I'm a charcoal/wood guy. Enjoy!
 
Welcome to the forum Cody! Glad to have you here.
I'm a wood burner, but I bet someone will be along that can help you with your smoker.
 
I have an old ge fridge converted to a smoker. I used the oven controls and burner from an old range out of a motor home and mounted the stove right on the side of the fridge works good.
 
Hey, Cody, welcome aboard!

A bit of advice if this has not yet found you. Do not use the fridge racks for temps above 200F. Generally, racks of this type amd in this age category, for cold applications, were soldered with lead solder. Could get nasty at some point. So, either keep the temps real low or look for some old oven racks you can adapt.

My preferemce...take no chances and dump the fridge racks for oven racks.

Cheers!
 
welcome dude...........hopefully mossymo will be alone soon...........he's done this conversion..........several others have also


but welcome
 
Welcome , Interesting problem you have there. I look forward to the answers I know are sure to come soon.
 
Wow... no kiddin'. Well, I guess at your age you would know ;{)
biggrin.gif
 
cojohutch
I have a propane powered fridge conversion smoker that I got the side burner from a retired propane bbq grill; the side burner has a plastic adjustment knob mounted to the burner and I keep the entire assembly inside my smoker without any problems.

I'm sure it depends on the type of plastic and if it is designed for a heated enviroment as a side burner adjustment knob off a bbq would be.....
 
Just funning with ya, Rich!

Most "old" fridges' racks should not be used for food cooking. They were meant to store cold food and heating them up can release a bunch of bad things!

And Rich! Keep that learning curve in high gear!

Cheers!
 
cody i converted a fridge into a smoker i got a thermostat from mcmaster carr for around $70.00 and i went to the dump and robbed the burner assy from an old stove installed into fridge wired in the thermostat it works great for fish sausage and bacon ham cheese jerky i use my gosm for doing ribs and poultry and such here is the thermostat order number if you have any more questions i will try and help you out

huey

www.mcmastercarr.com
item number 1760k77 $56.40

other supplys you can get at
www.alliedkencosales.com
 
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