Electric Smoker Build Questions

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Hey everyone,

Well my dorm fridge smoker is slowly dying on me, and isn't the greatest when doing batches of snack sticks so I have decided to build my own smoker.

The great news is a local business owner is getting rid of a commercial freezer that no longer works. That will be the base of the new smoker.


The exterior dimensions are as follows: 52"w x 32"d x 82"t. I am going to pick it up today, but you can tell from the photo below it will be shorter inside by a fair amount.



My question to the group, does anyone have any experience with this size of a build? and if so, do you think a 1500w heater will be sufficient to heat it up? I don't have access to 240V (readily) so I will be forced into 1500w 120V. I could double that to 3000w, but it will also mean tying into an additional circuit, which would not be easy at my house...


Propane could be an option, but I really really really don't want to go propane... I enjoy the precision of electric over propane personally...

 

[Stay Sharp]

Looks like my latest built but after playing around with electric I went propane since aside from sausages I do brisket and port butt and rib and I dont care for electric for 50 pounds of brisket, pork and chickens smoked at the same time.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Looks like my latest built but after playing around with electric I went propane since aside from sausages I do brisket and port butt and rib and I dont care for electric for 50 pounds of brisket, pork and chickens smoked at the same time.

I may be forced into that honestly. I think I will try just a milk house heater in there to see if it is able to get it hot enough. If it does, then I'll buy the actual heating element. At the end of the day I would imagine a lot of it rides on the R value of the insulation.

 

[Stay Sharp]

If you are like me in a northern climate and do the bulk of your making after hunting season in the dead of winter, Insulation is key as is a powerful enough heating source. Propane is cheap. This is how I addressed it.

Meat smoker build along

My last homemade smoker lasted 15 years. It was a converted chest freezer I tipped on its side and it worked great for hot smoking but eventually rusted through because of the heat and moisture and salt inherent to the smoking process. Being that I like to build things, I began building a new...

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