refrigerator smokers

[straydog]

just wondering if anyone has ever made a smoker out of a fridge. Do you have to gut it out? What to use for heat? Im thinking a gas burner. And What about vents? Thinking about building one for a little more volume than the charchole brinkman that I use now. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[luckyc]

First you have to find one that is lined with steel(or strip out all the plastic), then we pulled the gasket from the door, pulled the compressor out and the drilled many, many 1/8 inch holes in the interior bottom. We used a hot plate underneath where we pulled the compressor out. (But you could rig a gas burner under there too). Then we would put our soaked wood chips inside on the bottom, used some stainless wire "S" hooks we made to put thru the eyes of the Crappies and hung them from the shelves in the frig. About the time the head was going to seperate from the bodies, they were done. With the gasket removed from the door, it allowed just enough oxygen inside for the wood to smolder and the excess smoke would escape out the top of the door insuring a good hard smoking of the fish. We did this when we were kids and I remember my dad making a batch of fish every couple weeks, his brothers would show up every couple weeks for smoked crappies and a beer. Oh the memories.

[Moose-Hunter]

Hi straydog...

Sorry, I don't have any help for ya. But I'll be watching this thread closely. I've got an electric Brinkman and, like you, would like more volume. I've heard of folks building smokers from old, glass front beverage coolers. But I'm not sure of the construction... I'll nose around and see what I come up with...

Good luck on your project...

[Whopper Stopper]

Make sure if it is an old style refrigerator that latches shut that you keep a chain and lock on it. They are a death trap for little kids.