Electric smokers
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Hello. I have been smoking a couple years using the Big Green Egg. Although it does well it is cumbersome to keep temperatures below 180 so I have been researching electric smokers. Although I would love a pk 100 it is not in the budget. I have been looking at the char broil and master built digital electric smokers but see a lot of people say the temperature is off and other issues. Just looking for some thoughts from the community about a good electric smoker under $500.00 and what they like and don’t like. Thank you
Stats77
I use my Primo XL Oval as an electric smoker. I bought a $10 electric hot plate from Walmart and a temperature controller from Auberins. It works great! I bought the higher end controller so that I can step up the temperature based on time, best investment that I made.TomKat
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TomKat1962 any pics of that set up? I’m curious!
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TomKat1962 any pics of that set up? I’m curious!
Jonathon
g)Jonathon,
These are the components I used; unfortunately my Primo is at my beach house.
On the electric burner you need to open it up and bypass the temperature rheostat and high temperature cut out switch or the burner will cycle on and off and won’t maintain temperature. I simply put the burner in the charcoal area and run the cord through the air inlet.
Auberins offer several versions of the PID controller the one I used is WS-1211GPH. It is a true PID controller so your temperature wont over shoot. I pre-heat my grill for at least 30 minutes to allow the ceramic to heat up and temperature to stabilize.
I also made an adapter and utilize a Smoke Daddy smoke generator. You can put a pan on top of the burner filled with wood chips, but I found that I have much better control of the amount of smoke introduced into the meats with the Smoke Daddy (Great product).Good Luck!
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A question for the house or the retired railroader. I have a Smokin Tex electric 1400. My low temp is somewhere all over the map. Little or very little temp. control. Looking for a good controller and we read about the PID on this forum. My question to you please. Which PID controller should I be investigating. From their web site the price range ± $200 and many to choose from.
All ideas, suggestion, and inputs are appreciated.
Best regards
TommyOde -Tom said in Electric smokers:
A question for the house or the retired railroader. I have a Smokin Tex electric 1400. My low temp is somewhere all over the map. Little or very little temp. control. Looking for a good controller and we read about the PID on this forum. My question to you please. Which PID controller should I be investigating. From their web site the price range ± $200 and many to choose from.
All ideas, suggestion, and inputs are appreciated.
Best regards
TommySorry for the delay. The controller I have is from Auber Instruments. The model number is WSD-1510GPH and I love it. It keeps my temps rock solid. If I were to buy one today I most likely would go for the WIFI unit model WSD-1500H-W. Jere are the links for both units, hopefully they don’t get deleted.WSD-1500GPH and WSD-1500H-W. I have a write up on how I modified my Masterbuilt for the controller but it was originally taken down by admin. Hopefully it will stay this time Masterbuilt mod. Hopefully this helps. If you need any more info just PM me.
John Belvedere
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Something for all owners to think about is rebuilding/modifying your broken Masterbuilt smokers with new controls such as the Inkbird digital controller or another similar product and if we who own one all work together and share our information we should be able to not only fix, but make it am better smoker. I think they also need a convection fan to make the temperature more constant threw out the smoker.
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Hi guys, I’m new to this forum, so therefore I don’t know the rules and regulations. I don’t want to upset the Lords of Discipline. Am allowed to leave a e-mail address on this forum.
Thanks
TommyOde -Tom If you want you can do that, you can also direct message people using the chat button at the top right of the screen next to the profile button.
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I was just on the Auber website looking at the PID controllers and saw that they also had Circulation Fan Kit for Electric Smokers and it only cost $89.00. I think a good pid controller if your smokers temp is drifting all over the place and the circulation fan would greatly improve performance.
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I was just on the Auber website looking at the PID controllers and saw that they also had Circulation Fan Kit for Electric Smokers and it only cost $89.00. I think a good pid controller if your smokers temp is drifting all over the place and the circulation fan would greatly improve performance.
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akdave I didn’t order my fans from Auber but I did build them on my own in a similar design. It made a big difference, especially when my smoker is fully loaded.
I got my fans from old convection ovens and installed one on top of my smoker and one down at the level of my water pan for sponges figuring that the moving air would help evaporate the water and increase humidity. Seems to help decrease cooking time and definitely keeps temperature more constant.
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I got my fans from old convection ovens and installed one on top of my smoker and one down at the level of my water pan for sponges figuring that the moving air would help evaporate the water and increase humidity. Seems to help decrease cooking time and definitely keeps temperature more constant.
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I got my fans from old convection ovens and installed one on top of my smoker and one down at the level of my water pan for sponges figuring that the moving air would help evaporate the water and increase humidity. Seems to help decrease cooking time and definitely keeps temperature more constant.
akdave I also run two convection oven fans but both are on the bottom of the smoker. If I had to build a new one I think I would build a down draft system. Although since adding the convection fans, fireplace fans and water trays with sponges my cook times are unbelievably consistent.
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akdave I also run two convection oven fans but both are on the bottom of the smoker. If I had to build a new one I think I would build a down draft system. Although since adding the convection fans, fireplace fans and water trays with sponges my cook times are unbelievably consistent.
hotkarl
I think the only time I will ever have to worry about temperature variations is when I do snack sticks and the long strands almost touch the bottom of my smoker and and doing the hot water bath sure makes quick work of finishing off snack sticks -
Ode -Tom lol yeah, we try to keep things really lose and don’t worry too much about rules. As we get bigger that might change but as far as Austin and I are concerned as long as everyone is behaving nicely and sharing information or asking honest questions we rarely ever step in. I am going to do a post in a few days about external links, in the meantime, if you post something and it gets removed don’t worry about it. It is not like we keep a list of who has done that or have any plans on banning anyone for such activity!
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@tmeiners82 how is the campchef doing for you? Mainly smoking at low temps for sausages? I still havent pulled the trigger yet on something new but i really like all the features on the xxl. Also how does the low smoke work? Or do u just run or at the temps? Does it put smoke out?thanks
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@tmeiners82 how is the campchef doing for you? Mainly smoking at low temps for sausages? I still havent pulled the trigger yet on something new but i really like all the features on the xxl. Also how does the low smoke work? Or do u just run or at the temps? Does it put smoke out?thanks
Stats77
I’ve used it twice so far smoking sticks both times. It held temps nicely and recovered well after I opened the door, was in the low to mid 20s both times. Plenty of smoke while cooking never used the low smoke setting.
It did flame out a hand full of times but was there to restart it, so I wouldn’t trust it to do long unattended cooks yet. I’ve called Camp Chef and they say it’s due to a “pellet bridge” where there is a gap of pellets in the auger and the flame goes out. I plan on doing some summer sausage next weekend, I’m going to drain the pellets I have in there and try a different variety to see if that fixes the flame outs. I’m not sure if other XXLs are having an issue the review’s seem good. I hope I answered your questions I will let you know how the summer sausage goes. -
@tmeiners82 how is the campchef doing for you? Mainly smoking at low temps for sausages? I still havent pulled the trigger yet on something new but i really like all the features on the xxl. Also how does the low smoke work? Or do u just run or at the temps? Does it put smoke out?thanks
Stats77
I switched out the pellets today and ran it for 2hrs with nothing in it. 1hr at 150 and 1hr on low smoke with no issues. The low smoke setting ran at 154 degrees, would probably be at lower temp if the smoker was full of meat. I plan on doing 25lbs of summer sausage this weekend, hopefully no more flame outs! -
@tmeiners82 how is the campchef doing for you? Mainly smoking at low temps for sausages? I still havent pulled the trigger yet on something new but i really like all the features on the xxl. Also how does the low smoke work? Or do u just run or at the temps? Does it put smoke out?thanks
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@tmeiners82 awesome thanks for the update! Let me know how it works for a long smoke. I’m pretty new to the idea of pellet grills. When I do pork shoulder or brisket I only add smoke for the first three or four hours. Doesn’t sound like you can manage the smoke for long cooks. Would think it would be to much for a 12 hour cook.
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Stats77 “low smoke” Yeah, I’d say you are gonna get some nice smoke flavor from that thing!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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