My fridge build

[Il Bowhunter 82]

I have been working on this since last week pretty steadily. I removed all guts and have replaced all the plastic pieces with steel. My PID just arrived yesterday and I am still waiting on the element, ssr, and thermocouple. I really hope to have this thing fired up and seasoning by sunday afternoon. I will update with some more pics as I progress.

[rbranstner]

What brand/kind of PID did you end up going with?

[Il Bowhunter 82]

A cheap one off of ebay. Myplin or something like that. They all work about the same, they use the same calculations so it should be ok.

[nickelmore]

Nice, what are you using for gasket material around the door?

[Il Bowhunter 82]

5/8 stove rope, I was going to put it on last weekend but it needs to go over the screws that hold the inside to the outside. Since I didn't have the element yet and need to install it, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to need to remove the inside liner before I spent $25 dollars on gasket material for nothing.

Wait, I could put it on the door, around the top of my metal that holes the inside door pan to the outside door skin. oh well, looks like I have something to do tonight.

[Il Bowhunter 82]

Heres the smoke generator I made for it. 3"X3" tubing, 1" black pipe and some expanded metal grate for the chips and she's a smoking.

[mulepackin]

What kind of heat source are you going with?

[Il Bowhunter 82]

1500 watt Brinkman replacement. This thing has a ton of insulation in it so it should maintain heat pretty well.

[rbranstner]

What did you go with for your air intake and exhaust? I am also building a fridge smoker and I still have not decided what I want to do about the exhaust and air intakes.

[Il Bowhunter 82]

I won't have an intake since there is no combustion going on inside the unit other than the air being moved in from the smoke generator. I went with a 3" exhaust. I went to menards and bought a 3' piece of 3" gas appliance vent and a rain cap. I am going to install a 3" blast gate so I can tone it down a notch if it vent too quickly.

[merrell]

Not sure, but with no air intake, you might pull too much air thru your smoke generator, making it deplete / burn up too quick.

[mulepackin]

I used a Brinkmann in my freezer conversion, it's been going strong for going on 5 years now. I've always thought I should have a spare on hand in case it craps out in the middle of a smoke, even though my Ace hardware has them readily avail. One caveat on the vent, I went with a 4 inch on mine (had a 6on my previous build) thinking it would help hold heat better, which it does. The down side of it though, is that if I am doing something with a lot of moisture that need removed, jerky for example, it takes forever to get it out. In retrospect I wish I would have gone with a 6 and a better damper system, instead of just the pie pan damper. Then I would have the best of both.

[Slanted88]

Aight get after it! Uhh...Needz a better pic of that smoke gen! Dis Ol' Cat Daddy put his readin glasses on...thought I was blind!...Nooo...I ain't jacked into the Nattys!

[rbranstner]

Yea I'm not sure about the no air intake idea.

[mulepackin]

I don't have an intake as such on mine, and haven't found it to be a problem so far (going on five years). I think I have enough leaks, and with what gets drawn in from my smoke generator and its leaks I don't see a problem. No stale smoke, fairly even temps throughout, overall reasonably good air movement. However, if your smoker is real tight, I can see some potential problems.