Working up something for a 250 gallon smoker


 
J

JeffK-FL

New member
I'm a bit hesitant to go with a stoker on this but I may find a way to get around my concern.
Doing long overnight cooks I worry that the stoker will keep increasing until the fire burns down too far to keep lit. Right now if the fire goes cold I know I need to throw some more fuel into it.
If the fire burns down too far it can cause problems with restart and excessive smoking.
I'm hoping that I can get an alarm when the blower hits a high level, or something like that.

Thoughts?

Due to the size I was thinking about this blower.

https://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-Round-3FRG5?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/1TDN8_AS01?$smthumb$

Though it may be overkill.

And then I may ask for design help for a roto damper to fit it.
 
Top flow of 57CFM, that's really high. Using engineering air flow conversions, it shows pushing that amount of air through a 2" Diameter circular duct it would be a flow equivalent to about 30MPH air flow... That's a lot of air!

Have you used the pit without a controller enough to get an understanding of the air flow required to hold temps? If so, how big is the vent opening on the fire box and how much air is moving out of you exhaust stack during manual cooks?

As for a Roto Damper, I have the RD25 put together already, it is a larger version of the RD3 that fits a 25CFM blower. The body is about 5" diameter, so the valve opening is quite large, and the blower can push a lot of air. I could also make up something more custom if you like.
 
JeffK said:
I'm a bit hesitant to go with a stoker on this but I may find a way to geek around my concern.
Doing long overnight cooks I worry that the stoker will keep increasing until the fire burns down too far to keep lit. Right now if the fire goes cold I know I need to throw some more fuel into it.
If the fire burns down too far it can cause problems with restart and excessive smoking.
I'm hoping that I can get an alarm when the blower hits a high level, or something like that.

Thoughts?

Due to the size I was thinking about this blower.

https://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-Round-3FRG5?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/1TDN8_AS01?$smthumb$

Though it may be overkill.

And then I may ask for design help for a roto damper to fit it.
Click to expand...

I run a 28cfm on a UDS with a max of 30%, which is about 8.7cfm. I did a little calculating and come up with a blower around 39.5 to 45cfm for a 250 gallon smoker. Delta makes blowers around that size and they would be easier to attach to a rotodamper. You can buy them used on eBay, for a lot cheaper. My eBay blower has been going strong on my heatermeter since linkmeter version
 
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I got the blower john is using (Delta BFB1012HH) for $8 delivered through Ebay. (used but perfect condition) I have no experience with a large pits like 250Gal but this fan really blows, I think it should do the job. At any rate, it can be had for cheap enough, so worth a try. Get one cheap from ebay and rig it up and test if it can get your pit where it needs to be, if the flow is enough I can hook you up with a RD25 to put around it...

Also make sure you are using a larger power supply for the HM than the stock 1A unit, I'd go at least a couple amps if you plan on running such a huge blower.
 
RalphTrimble said:
Top flow of 57CFM, that's really high. Using engineering air flow conversions, it shows pushing that amount of air through a 2" Diameter circular duct it would be a flow equivalent to about 30MPH air flow... That's a lot of air!

Have you used the pit without a controller enough to get an understanding of the air flow required to hold temps? If so, how big is the vent opening on the fire box and how much air is moving out of you exhaust stack during manual cooks?

As for a Roto Damper, I have the RD25 put together already, it is a larger version of the RD3 that fits a 25CFM blower. The body is about 5" diameter, so the valve opening is quite large, and the blower can push a lot of air. I could also make up something more custom if you like.
Click to expand...

I have not run this new smoker yet, heck the paint isn't dry yet. I was just getting a jump on it. I picked that blower more for construction than anything else. I saw it was kinda big CFM wise. But it is a big unit that will be out in the weather and towed down the road.

My smaller 120 gallon smoker normally runs with 3 of the 6 3" round damper holes just barley cracked. So I assume this will be similar. I should get a test fire this weekend.

You can see the smaller one on my trailer smoking away. The damper is nearly closed.

20150927_163653%20Small.jpg
 
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RalphTrimble said:
I got the blower john is using (Delta BFB1012HH) for $8 delivered through Ebay. (used but perfect condition) I have no experience with a large pits like 250Gal but this fan really blows, I think it should do the job. At any rate, it can be had for cheap enough, so worth a try. Get one cheap from ebay and rig it up and test if it can get your pit where it needs to be, if the flow is enough I can hook you up with a RD25 to put around it...

Also make sure you are using a larger power supply for the HM than the stock 1A unit, I'd go at least a couple amps if you plan on running such a huge blower.
Click to expand...

I'm running off of a deep cycle battery, power is not a problem.
 
JeffK said:
I have not run this new smoker yet, heck the paint isn't dry yet. I was just getting a jump on it. I picked that blower more for construction than anything else. I saw it was kinda big CFM wise. But it is a big unit that will be out in the weather and towed down the road.

My smaller 120 gallon smoker normally runs with 3 of the 6 3" round damper holes just barley cracked. So I assume this will be similar. I should get a test fire this weekend.

You can see the smaller one on my trailer smoking away. The damper is nearly closed.

20150927_163653%20Small.jpg
Click to expand...

The problem is not so much the car of the blower you picked out, it's that the blower weighs over 4 pounds, and you would need a bigger servo to get it to move reliable. I don't think any mg90 would last long moving that much weight.

Oh, and you can drive that over to my house and I will be happy to test drive it for you for a couple of years or so....... Looks nice
 
You certainly aren't going to move that blower with a mini servo... I was looking at that blower trying to see where the air comes in and it seems the teardrop shaped panel may move to reveal an opening for air input? If so, a servo damper could be put there to cut off the air flow rather than trying to move that massive fan.

However, IHMO you should just work with a more typical blower like John uses, and make your rig detachable so you just pull it off and place it in a box with your HM or whatever before you haul the rig down the road rather than worrying about it being road worthy...
 
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