Convection Cabinet Discussion

[Gracin]

So we had a customer in today to sign some papers and he half mentioned something about buying a new smoker. I wasn't the one helping, but I jokingly said after he bought it I'd be more than willing to cook on it. Then as it turns out he's cooked in several KCBS events, including the American Royal and he runs a food truck back where they're from. We were talking about smokers and that he loves his Cookshack 120, and that the pellet pooper is perfect for his daily catering cooks, plus that's the convection fan that's in it shaved quite a bit of time off his cooks.

So horrible horrible me, with my not even 6 month old #001 SmokerBuilder DP GF kit put together by the guys at HQ, well my brain gears started turning. A FEC120 retails for just shy of $6900, which is no small chunk of change, so I got to thinking what if a guy could essentially build an insulated DP GF cabinet and use a Pellet Pro hopper, as well as figuring out a way to add an effective convection fan. Surely this could be built for far less than the FEC price tag?

So where better than to discuss it than right here? The cabinet build itself is pretty straightforward, and the pellet pro install looks like a breeze. The only thing I'm not really sure about is where the optimal place to fit a convection fan would be, and a what fan to actually use.

So what do y'all think?

[Big T]

I believe that Frank or Tom has/had a GF that they turned into a pellet cooker so it is possible. I'm not sure about the convection fan but it could probably be made to work.

[Dirtytires]

My kitchen oven is convection and I was super excited when I got it. To be honest, sometimes it does cut cooking time but sometimes it just dries everything out. I don’t much use the setting anymore.

Love the induction cooktop tho!

The fan is located dead center on the back wall of the oven and, best I can tell, does absolutely nothing except circulate the air. It is set to turn off if the door is opened but otherwise runs non-stop. If I were looking for fans, I would try an appliance graveyard. I’ll bet you could have a dozen of them in exchange for a couple pounds of pulled pork.

[Gracin]

[/quote]

I believe that Frank or Tom has/had a GF that they turned into a pellet cooker so it is possible. I'm not sure about the convection fan but it could probably be made to work.

Yea when I picked up my DP from HQ Tom was showing me a decent sized pellet cabinet cooker. I don’t think it was as big as a DP, and it might not have been insulated. He seemed to talk pretty highly of it tho.

My kitchen oven is convection and I was super excited when I got it. To be honest, sometimes it does cut cooking time but sometimes it just dries everything out. I don’t much use the setting anymore.

Love the induction cooktop tho!

The fan is located dead center on the back wall of the oven and, best I can tell, does absolutely nothing except circulate the air. It is set to turn off if the door is opened but otherwise runs non-stop. If I were looking for fans, I would try an appliance graveyard. I’ll bet you could have a dozen of them in exchange for a couple pounds of pulled pork.

From what I can gather the convection fan in the smoke is meant to circulate the air in such a way that it prevents cold/hot spots making for a more even cook, and therefore more consistent and faster I guess. I like the ide of the door being wired to the fan so it would shut off whenever open and not blow hot air and smoke right into your face. It’s bad enough crying smokey tears, don’t need it pushed into my eyes as well. Another though is that you could theoretically shut the pooper unit off, maintain the fan and somewhat evac the smoke from the chamber. I think I seen some other brand convection smoker that could so that, and I think it was part of the process of using that particular smoker. Little Red Smokehouse maybe?

[Dirtytires]

Guess I’m confused...doesn’t the air move constantly in a smoker? (Vs an oven that only has a heating element) I see the benefit of adding it to a smoker but just not sure it outweighs the added complexity, cost and expense unless you are running your smoker 24/7 and every minute counts.

Definitely an interesting build tho.

[Pete Mazz]

Here's a RF simulation

[Gracin]

Guess I’m confused...doesn’t the air move constantly in a smoker? (Vs an oven that only has a heating element) I see the benefit of adding it to a smoker but just not sure it outweighs the added complexity, cost and expense unless you are running your smoker 24/7 and every minute counts.

Definitely an interesting build tho.

I think it's really more about removing any cold/hot spots within the CC. And after a little googling, I found an article that explains, in a basic enough way that I can understand, why a convection over cooks faster than a conventional. It follows that this would also apply to a smoker with a convection fan.

Here's the link to what I read.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-convection ... ook-faster

Here's a RF simulation

I'll have to watch this when I get home, work has youtube blocked and I ran through my full speed data on my phone so it's a drag. Just curious though, does this RF sim have a convection fan installed? If so that'd be interesting to see.

[Pete Mazz]

No convection, just an exhaust fan on the stack to simulate airflow.