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Force draft and induce draft fans

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 Has any body tried building a balanced draft system for there eggs. This would consist of a forced draft fan and a small little heat exchanger and induce draft fan and a new exhaust stack. If it worked you could use a lot less charcoal and longer controlled burns. By the way this is my first post and I picked my egg up yesterday I would say that I'm a little excited. Sorry that I let my inner nerd out on the first Post. 
New Orleans, Louisiana. 
XL bge, Napoleon Prestige  Pro 665 (gasser) sad that it won't be used much anymore. 

Comments

  • Eggdicted_Dawgfan
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    I do good to build a fire but it sounds interesting. Give it a go and post some pictures. Welcome to the forum. We are amongst some great folks and VERY knowledgable cooks. Enjoy!
    Snellville, GA


  • Toxarch
    Toxarch Posts: 1,900
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    Interesting idea using a heat exchanger. I'd like to see that done.
    Aledo, Texas
    Large BGE
    KJ Jr.

    Exodus 12:9 KJV
    Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

  • stichrunner
    stichrunner Posts: 103
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    I work in the oil industry and we heat the air that we use in our heaters that way. It cuts back on fuel gas a lot. Trying to build the heat exchanger would probably be a little difficult. When my fellas asked how the BGE worked I said there is a natural draft door on the bottom and a stack dampener on top.  

    New Orleans, Louisiana. 
    XL bge, Napoleon Prestige  Pro 665 (gasser) sad that it won't be used much anymore. 
  • swordsmn
    swordsmn Posts: 683
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    For my longer, controlled burns I use the PID loop based blower and meat/grate/dome probes  in my CyberQ wifi    or the other popular brand  flame boss 200.    Another big name I this is  stoker
    LBGE, AR.  Lives in N.E. ATL
  • Toxarch
    Toxarch Posts: 1,900
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    I'd be concerned using it for low and slow. Lack of need for more heat means less air being called for so less fire and the fire goes out.
    Aledo, Texas
    Large BGE
    KJ Jr.

    Exodus 12:9 KJV
    Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

  • SGH
    SGH Posts: 28,791
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    First, congradulatuons on the new egg and welcome aboard. 

     Has any body tried building a balanced draft system for there eggs. This would consist of a forced draft fan and a small little heat exchanger and induce draft fan and a new exhaust stack. 
    While this is an intriguing idea, it would kind of defeat the concept of a kamado style cooker. They are designed to run a tad on the positive side with natural aspiration. There are many reasons to use forced and induced draft in the boiler and fired heater arena. Increasing heat transfer and improved combustion come right to mind. However in a cooking environment their use is very limited. 
    Probably the most common use for forced draft on smokers is when running an extremely long cook chamber. Under this condition it's much easier to raise flue pressure above atmospheric pressure by application of a forced draft. The purpose of this is to negate hot and cold spots. Also to try and insure even flow across the length of a excessively long cooking chamber. On that note, induced draft is used for this very reason way more on smokers than is forced draft. It's usually controlled by stack/chimney height. 
    As far as induced draft, most folks in need of induced draft simply increase the height and/or diameter of the stack. Increasing the height is the usual method as a longer narrower exhaust is easier to tune than a shorter and wider exhaust. This is considerably cheaper and more practical than installing and up keeping some sort of ID fan. Especially on stationary pits that do not get moved around. 
    The limited size of the egg would cause nightmares trying to run both forced and induced draft at the same time. The extremely small volume of the cook chamber simply does not contain the necessary air volume or dead air space to warrant either.
    Im not bashing your idea, quite the contrary. I actually enjoy tinkering with  and modifying smokers. However I feel by trying to incorporate forced and induced draft to the egg it would turn it into an eye sore that was cumbersome and took up a lot of space. In my opinion the egg is simply to small and does not contain the necessary dead air space volume to warrant a true continuous forced and/or assisted induced draft. However if you decide to do it, I would love to see it my friend. 
    For clarification, I'm not talking about Gurus, Stokers, Aubers , etc etc that cycle on and off and function mainly as a thermostat for lack of a better word. I'm talking strictly about fan assisted, constant forced and/or induced draft where the goal is to manipulate draft by either raising or lowering flue pressure above or below atmospheric pressure.  

    Location- Just "this side" of Biloxi, Ms.

    Status- Standing by.

    The greatest barrier against all wisdom, the stronghold against knowledge itself, is the single thought, in ones mind, that they already have it all figured out. 

  • Legume
    Legume Posts: 14,617
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    That's pretty much what I had typed up before I saw SGH post.
  • stichrunner
    stichrunner Posts: 103
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    Thanks for the info yall. It was something that popped in my head when i seen the guru. 
    New Orleans, Louisiana. 
    XL bge, Napoleon Prestige  Pro 665 (gasser) sad that it won't be used much anymore. 
  • SGH
    SGH Posts: 28,791
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    Thanks for the info yall. It was something that popped in my head when i seen the guru. 
    I have tinkered with the very idea that you mentioned. But I have only done it on reasonably large offset smokers. Induced draft, and the modification thereof, is a very common way to fine tune a pit. But with that said, even on real large pits, only induced draft is needed. It's not common at all to run both forced and induced draft at the same time unless you are trying to move a tremendous volume of air or flue gas. On that note, you see very few true forced draft set ups on smokers. Induced draft by way of chimney modification works extremely well and is considerably cheaper. This is the route that most take for economical reasons and ease of use. 

    Location- Just "this side" of Biloxi, Ms.

    Status- Standing by.

    The greatest barrier against all wisdom, the stronghold against knowledge itself, is the single thought, in ones mind, that they already have it all figured out.