# Smoke Hollow Smoker



## scooterjam (Jan 15, 2015)

Hey friends,

I am rather new to this whole smoking thing.....I actually started a year ago.....guess I'm not that new, however.....does anyone else have an old Smoke Hollow smoker.   Mine is just an upright box with racks in it....no damper.... and a thermometer on the front that died years ago.    I have been into the whole Sausage thing.....Making Keilbasa, Italian Sausage, Hotdogs, Pepperoni etc.  My question for you is this, if you use one of these, do you have issues getting the temperature down to 140 degrees?  I have to run mine with the door open, and it never fails, wind or dog or wife (not in that order...lol) the door gets closed and the temps shoot up.  The end result is sausage that looks and tastes really good....but you have to have teeth like that JAWS guy from the old James Bond movies.   I'm soaking the casings 24 hours ahead of time, and allowing the meat to sit overnight in the fridge.  But not getting the juicy melt in your mouth results that I'm looking for.    I really don't want to buy a new smoker, although I've seen many good ones out there that interest me.  There is no damper on mine to open, like some of my recipes have called for either.  How about this, could I take the element out of the box, and put a hot plate in there or do you think the results would be the same.  My son, the Chef, is telling me he thinks A:  I'm grinding the meat too fine, and B: I'm cooking it rather than truly smoking it.    On pay day next week, I plan on picking up one of those tube pellet smokers, I've watched numerous video's and think it looks fantastic.  So, that being said, comments? suggestions? all around nice-a-ties?   Have a great day friends, and happy smoking!!!   ~ Scooter


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## red dog (Jan 19, 2015)

Hey Scooter. I assume your smoker is electric from the sound of things. The first thing I would do is cut a hole in the top and try to rig some kind of damper on the thing. Can you post some pics of your smoker?


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## beaman69 (Jan 19, 2015)

I've been using a smoke hollow es for the last 8yrs or so myself. I've found that when trying to go low and slow(around 220) I've had some issues with getting the wood chips to ignite well enough to get good smoke. I usually would crank it up in the beginning and then cut the temp back after the smoke gets rolling. Unfortunately I've never tried smoking anything much lower than 220* with a fair amount of experience I'm not really sure how you could get these kind of low temps with a smoke hollow smoker.I think you would almost need to create an insulation barrier between your heating element and the cabinet. Just above the chip tray. The material that's used to build the cabinet seems pretty good. Maybe time for a new smoker, use the old one to modify the new. At least that's what I would probably try, I can pick one up for around $130 here in Indiana.


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## rc4u (Jun 6, 2015)

well i am new to having my own smoke hollow 44" as in just yesterday..but i have smoked with freinds many years and use my grill....on the bottom of my freinds it does have two trays and instead of using two burners we would put a little charcoal in one with wood chunks and no gas on and on the other burner on low after temp hold just with pellets and then could temps down good...and mine does not have holes in the wood tray and i really think it is good to have holes so the oxy can get to the chips so i am drilling holes in mine tonite as yesterday when seasoning mine i discovered it needs them...jeff


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