All Pros I Need Help with this Please!

[Xtreme metal]

I have a customer that brought me this smoker. He wants me to add the 3' tall by 4' wide cabinet on top of it. I will be cutting the exhaust down and turning it into the bottom left hand side of the cabinet. And adding an exhaust to the top right side. Do any of you have any suggestions on if this will work properly or not. Any Help will be greatly appreciated.

[Dirtytires]

Not sure I’m the expert here but I’ll throw out a few thoughts.

Is he looking for more cooking space or just a warmer box? I’m just not sure you will get enough heat to properly feed that size of a box and I would be concerned the temperature differences from the right of the cook chamber to the top of the added box could be in the 150-200 degree range and make it unusable anyway.

Assuming you are meaning to feed it by only the old “exhaust” (enter lower left side) and the two indications on the bottom of your drawing are for supports. It will completely mess up you main chamber airflow if you were going to use 3 inlets on the box. Air follows least resistance and you will loose heat on entire left of the cook chamber.

He definitely has some money in his pit and I’m thinking he has outgrown it. Might I suggest cutting the cook chamber horizontally and adding 6 inch vertical plates and dropping the top back on it. Basically turn the cook chamber into an octagon. The doors will need a little re-work but it would allow an entire rack to to be added across the entire cook chamber and minimal reworking of the design. Drawback is the firebox may need resized as well. He can increase the volume of his pit without messing up the airflow and characteristics of how it operates.

If he still wants to use that box, make a warmer over the firebox with a damper. Personally, I might just cut it for the steel to increase the cook chamber.

Maybe we need to take a step backwards. How is the pit working now? Are temps easy to maintain? What exactly is he looking for? If his pit runs “cold” or is unstable now, adding more space on it will make it worse. Let’s fix it all if needed.

[Xtreme metal]

Thank you Dirty Tires, He is wanting more cooking space. He says that he wants to do ribs in the cabinet because they dont have as much time on them. But yes i will only be feeding it through the original exhaust only. the pieces under the box are spacers so the doors on cabinet will open. he says it cooks great as it was. so i am not 100% sure that the cabinet will work without some trial and error.

[Big T]

I would have to agree with DT on this one, I think it'll cause more problems than it'll solve. I'm afraid that by routing the exhaust 180 degrees horizontally you'll slow the draft through the main chamber too much. The lack of airflow will totally change the performance of the main chamber and I'm not sure how the temperatures in the new cabinet would be. It would probably be a warming cabinet at best. I would hate for you to invest the time and money and end up with a pit that doesn't work very well, especially since the current design performs so well. Of course I could be totally wrong, wouldn't be the first time. Oh and I'm no expert either. lol

[Dirtytires]

Another option is to sell the pit as is. The picture shows it to be well built/maintained and if it operates well than an interested buyer shouldn’t be too hard to track down.

Frank would probably be willing to design a similar but bigger pit to your clients needs and growth expectations. You look like you are set up to build a new one from scratch and everyone wins.

I just don’t see that extra box getting and staying hot enough to cook in. Park it in full sunlight on a 100 degree day might work but I just don’t see a windy day in late September being usable. It’s just too big and too far away from the heat source.

If he wants ribs, why not add in a few shelf guides? You really only need 4 inches for ribs so adding one more Shelf should be possible, unless he already did that.

Sorry, I’m rambling....interesting problem. Please keep us in the loop so we can all learn.

[towtruck]

I'm with the others.....that design is going to throw everything off. I've never done this or made the calculation but what about adding that box over the fire box like a warming cabinet and putting in it's own opening into the fire box and it's own exhaust? I think that would still require fine tuning to get the temps right in each cook chamber......I'm just spit balling ideas but that is one that may work.......I do like the idea of making the cook chamber bigger but that means the fire box has to grow as well.

[hogaboomer]

You need to put that box all the way on the left end.

[Xtreme metal]

Thanks for the advice. I spoke with customer last night and he is dead set on having it where it is. I told him that i would place it where he wanted and if it did'nt perform correctly it was all on him. I will post pics of the complete project on Monday. I hope. lol. Then we will see if this will actually work. I have my dough's. But again thanks to you all for all you do on here. I am greatly appreciative of being allowed to be a part of this group. I will let you know how it goes. Thank you

[Dirtytires]

Sometimes the only way to get an answer is to try it.

Good luck and let us know.

[towtruck]

One thing I would do if the customer is set on it is to increase the size of the stack leaving the cook chamber into the new box. You will want more air flow going in there to even out the temps.....

[dacolson]

What about going center feed? Move the firebox under the CC in the center. Run it as a reverse flow with the baffle forcing heat/smoke left and right then up the through your new center cabinet/stack. Might not be enough space underneath.