Thank you Richierich, you can keep your hat on for now, you might catch a cold....
I will give an update on my experiences until now:
General:
A. I bought an extremely well insulated cooler ( $$$$$ ), but I am convinced you will get the same results with a normal, cheaper one ( less $$$$$ )
B. This is a SMALL smoker, very well suited for my needs, but don't expect to smoke for a party of 40 persons...
C. This is a " horizontal " smoker, this means I do not have much height. This means that there is very quickly a good concentration of smoke, despite the small ProQ CSM. This is not a bad thing, but I have 2 racks in the smoker, and the top rack gets more smoke than the bottom rack, despite the small height. Example: I smoked a piece of salmon for 18 hours on the top rack with a temperature of 16.5 C and 18.5 C, the salmon was over-smoked ( but good taste ) So I will have to adjust with putting it on the lower rack, and less smoke time. These are not bad things, I just need to learn the behaviour of the smoker better.
On the drawing below:
1. I could have made the big valve ( now 100 mm ) a bit smaller. This valve is meant to higher up the temperature inside, I only need it with outside temperature of -5 C or lower. With higher outside temperatures I keep it closed.
2. Filling the ProQ only half the height, gives me lower heat-development. I am going to need that in spring, when the outside temperatures will be higher. The ProQ itself works EXCELLENT, even with my " self-made dust ", but this week I will make something similar, smaller in volume but longer in length. I will post that later.
3. I am going to make an adjustable outlet as well ( 50 mm ). With that one I can lower the temperature inside, I will need this with temperatures outside between -5 C and +5 C , after that I expect the ProQ needs to exit the smoker.
All with all, this set-up works very well, but it needs some fine-tuning along the road.
I really don't regret starting this project.
Hoggy
" The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. " ( Frank Hebert )