so how are you attaching your blower to the smoker

[anthony.palumbo]

looking for interesting ideas to connect the blower to the smoker

 

[G Graff]

I made one similar to this one.

http://pitmasteriq.com/

Cat water bowl, pipe nipple with nuts and washers, dish washer hose and some bolts and butterfly nuts.

 

[DylanNC]

I used a piece of 3/4 copper pipe hammered square on the end and attached to a 3/4 pipe close screwed into my UDS. This setup works pretty good for me.

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[anthony.palumbo]

nice ideas...i am doing one like the pitmasteriq

 

[Dan Francis]

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For fun I rigged this up to use heatermeter on my Performer. Cigar box with a couple holes then cut in half and held together with a rubber band. Used once so far and worked great. Blows air into Performer through burner tube so no holes or mods at all to Performer. Installs and removes in seconds. Will hold 225 degrees with top and bottom vents closed and fan set to 5 percent max. I ran it that way for two hours then dialed in 350 degrees ( also opened top vents 1/4 ) to cook some pork chops and it climbed right up and held beautifully. I was using one charcoal tray off to the side and minion with 5 lit coals. Worked better than I imagined.

 

[RalphTrimble]

I did something a little different than most...
I wanted to control air flow as much as possible in the low end smoker I have right now, so I built and air distribution system out of copper tubing that I call the "air burner" (due to looking kinda like a gas burner). The rest of the vent holes on the smoker are closed off with aluminum tape so the majority of the air is fed to the fire from the HeaterMeter fan through the air burner. This works incredibly well, my temperature is ROCK SOLID since I installed this.

3/4" copper is your friend...

 

[Phillip P]

Wow. This looks great. how does the air enter into the air burner from below?

 

[RalphTrimble]

Wow. This looks great. how does the air enter into the air burner from below?

Note the standard HeaterMeter fan attached to the copper tube which comes out through the bottom (left side of picture above). I couldn't find 3/4" flexible copper tube for sale by the foot (only $75 spools), so I used this flexible line that would typically be used in a hot water heater installation (I cut off the the ends which had garden hose style connectors on them). I then hammered the open end of the tube square (inserted electricians pliers into the tube and hammered it flat) so it would fit into the blower, it was a little loose so I added a couple wraps of electrical tape. The other end goes into the center copper T that feeds the "air burner", it was a little loose too, I just worked it over the end of a crescent wrench until it fit tight enough to solder into the T. Copper is soft enough to be worked and shaped easily with hand tools which is why I chose this metal for this project, however, it is a little expensive. You could use another type of tubing/pipe, whatever you can fashion together to fit though your smoker.
Here's a pic of the burn plate removed from the bottom, you can see the square taped over end that goes into the HM blower....

Since I took this picture I have taped off the majority of the third vent hole leaving just enough room for the copper tube to fit through, reducing the natural air flow even further and giving the HM more control over the fire...
Best part about it, beside the solid temperature control, just a tiny piece of paper under one corner hit with a blowtorch for 30 seconds is enough to get the fire going!

 

[Phillip P]

What is the diameter on the pipe for the air-burner?

 

[RalphTrimble]

What is the diameter on the pipe for the air-burner?

3/4" copper is the closest to the size of the fan and therefore easiest to hammer square to fit. I used 3/4" for the rest as well, but it shouldn't cause any harm to use smaller or larger tube for the "air-burner" part. If you can buy flexible 3/4" copper by the foot near you that would be the easiest route, just bend a couple U's and solder to the T's from the center pipe, the way I made mine required a lot of soldering (which is easy enough, but I did run out of solder!) I made a square shape because for some reason 45 degree fittings cost 5X as much as the right angles, and 3/4" flexible wasn't availabe per/ft, but you could make any shape/size you want/that fits your smoker. I used one 45 degree fitting on the bottom because it helped me get the flexible tube pointing in the proper direction without putting a sharp bend in it...

 

[Josh D]

Weber 22.5" kettle with cajun bandit mod. Fan is attached to Walmart small catbow with paperclip threaded through small drill holes on the bow and the fan housing. The assembly is then secured onto the smoker with 3" toggle bolt from Home Depot. Bagged when not in used . The setup held pretty stable with fluctuation of 3 degrees on calm day for 6.5 hours at 230. Not sure if the fan can withstand high temp smoking (275), I need to try to find out. Also wind may be an issue for lack of sealing. Default PID settings, max fan speed was 60%. For improvement, it may need some sort of deflector to prevent small amount of ash finding its way into the bowl during cook.

 

[Phillip P]

Ralph,

Just wanted to let your know that you were a true inspiration. I went to the home despot today and sat on the floor for an hour in front of the copper fittings section trying to figure out something similar for my 22" weber kettle with a smokenator. The associates kept coming by and asking me if I was okay and were perplexed when every so often I would take a piece over to the BBQ aisle, remove all the grates from the floor model and start fitting things in. I believe I have found a variation on your theme with the flex-tube serving as the air burner through the existing bottom damper holes. I didn't want to drill more holes in the war-horse and wanted it to be de-mountable as my WSM is on order and the kettle will soon return to it's rightful place as a grill. (not that it hasn't done a terribly fine job as a smoker) I will post pics after it is done.

PS- I bought more solder.

 

[Phillip P]

Do you have any issues with ash getting on the meat?

 

[RalphTrimble]

I haven't had any issues with ash, although I do have a water smoker so there is (usually) the the water pan between the fire and the food. However, I think having all the smaller holes in the "air-burner" reduces the flow of air in any one point and so it doesn't blow ash around as much as an open blower....
Glad you were inspired, mine has worked out great for me....
Have a great holiday

 

[Lee Slezak]

What are people using for BGE's?

 

[Bryan Mayland]

I cut a piece of sheet metal then formed a little tunnel and attached it to another flat rectangle with a hole cut in it




I also used a cardboard mockup for about 2 years cut from a piece of cereal box for the main part and a corregated part for the rectangle which worked fine until the humidity made it start to fall apart.

 

[Tom Kole]

What are people using for BGE's?

Or you can buy an auber fan with mount. It's a bit more expensive, but their mount is fantastic.

 

[M Miller]

Well, I haven't mounted it yet but I'm using the dog-bowl method on a Smokey Joe setup.

Actually printing this off right now.

Setup is for a servo and the standard fan. I know that this isn't supported in the HM4 electronics package yet.

 

[Bob Ivey]

Let us know how this device works and what it will cost once perfected. And people say that Q is not a technical endeavor.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

Wow way to show us all up. And I was just coming to post how boss my damper is with the new metal plate attachment. A conduit punch made a hole then I cut tabs to fit and smothered the whole thing in JB Weld.