Project Description
Instead of tending the fire yourself, a small control system can tend it for you, controlling the air flow to maintain a set temperature. You could enhance our design to warn you to add fuel during a very long smoke cycle.
Figure 1 shows the smoker we use. It’s a slight enhancement of the common horizontal design, hanging a separate firebox on the left of the main smoker. The separate firebox keeps the direct radiant heat from the coals away from the meat, letting the hot smoky air do the cooking. The placement of the firebox lower than the smoker causes the upwards convection flow of the heated air to draw air into the smoker and then up the flue. The air inlet and flue damper are manually adjustable to control airflow and therefore the rate of combustion, which determines the internal smoker temperature.
FIGURE 1: Horizontal smoker