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Smoke Scrubber For Traeger?

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    Smoke Scrubber For Traeger?

    Hi everyone, I live "in town" and am always concerned that my Traeger smoke might annoy my neighbors. I myself have had to shut all my windows and doors at times, during the summer, due to smoke from someone's bbq (not sure whose).

    So I'm wondering if anyone has tried or heard of making a smoke filter of some kind.

    Now, I know some people's firs tot instinct is to offer the neighbors some bbq but I am trying to figure out what's feasible.

    It crossed my mind that it would be easy enough to rig up a hood and use my small shop vac to suck up the smoke, I could even run it through one of those vortex buckets. Problems are that first of all it is way more suction than is needed, plus it would probably burn up the motor to leave it on for so long. Though I do have hepa bags for it which might help.

    I'm going to get a new Traeger, the silverton 620, which has the downdrafting vents and no smokestack.

    I want to just throw this open to your experience, knowledge, and brainstorming.

    Thanks !!!


    #2
    I wouldn't sweat it, around here the houses are 4 feet apart....my wife loves this area, I wanna blow it up....
    I smoke almost every weekend and not once has anyone complained out loud to me about the smoke.
    Plenty of comments about the aroma of what I'm smoking!
    Now they may be cursing me under they're breath but that don't count.

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to the pit ZZ.
      Personally I don’t give a rip about what my neighbors think. If they don’t like it close your windows or move. 😁😂
      I on the other hand try to search out where the beautiful smells are coming from. Might just find a new friend and fellow bbq’er.

      Comment


        #4
        I wondered if a water mister near the stack would knock a lot of the smoke down? On my pellet smoker the smoke comes out of the stack, the lid, and the grease drip chute, so I'd have to bathe my whole cooker in the mist. Maybe just one of these pointed toward your least favorite neighbors house.

        Click image for larger version

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          #5
          Actually, my neighbours come an conduct a 'Wellness Check' on me, when they don't smell Hickory smoke fer several days...They jus wanna make sure I'm still alive, an kickin.

          Comment


          • Troutman
            Troutman commented
            Editing a comment
            I know right ?

          #6
          Welcome to the pit. I have a Traeger Timberline 850. The vent is a long narrow opening which would be difficult to capture the smoke. Of course, it could be done but you also have to deal with the heat. It would melt a vacuum. As you said, the sucking power would be too much. It would remove the smoke from the unit thus defeating the purpose of a smoker. For me, there would be only 1 neighbor that would get a burr up his dookie hole and complain. The other neighbors love the smell when I smoke or grill.

          Comment


            #7
            Make jerky or send some plates of pulled pork or whatever to bribe the neighbors every few months. Gives you an excuse to do bigger cooks than you normally would, and keeps the neighbors sweet

            Comment


              #8
              Hyla makes a "water bong" type scrubber. Might ring something like that up to a hood. I personally wouldn't worryabout it though.

              Comment


              • Troutman
                Troutman commented
                Editing a comment
                I'd be interested in knowing about anything called a "water bong"

              #9
              I find this mildly amusing. We talk so much about the lack of a true smoke profile from pellet grills and here we're worried about too much smoke from one. Very interesting.

              Comment


                #10
                I used to work in a wastewater treatment plant where we also ran an incinerator, so I'm a bit familiar with odor problems.

                I honestly doubt a shop vac or cyclone separator can effectively remove smoke smell, unless you get a system that's able to remove gases as well as extremely small particulates. Smoke particles that are visible are around 10 microns or larger, but smoke is also composed of much smaller particles invisible to the eye as well as gases. They all can have an odor and the gases and really small particulates are tough to remove.

                A water scrubber is probably going to be more effective than a vac or cyclone. Another possibility is simple dilution and redirection of the smoke leaving your cooker. You want to drive the smoke upward and dilute it -- that might work well enough to minimize the odor near ground level where people's noses are. That's the reason why power plants that burn coal have these hugely tall smokestacks.

                Use a large shop fan blowing clean air and direct the flow upwards at the smoke from the cooker. The airflow from the fan will dilute the smoke and the force of the airflow will drive the smoke higher up. Both things will reduce the chance of odor issues nearer ground level. Be careful the airflow from the fan isn't creating suction near the smokestack, however, because that will change the airflow through the cooker.

                Comment


                  #11
                  Yeah, I see where this is going - zzdocxx has probably seen some of these articles about some of the loony lawsuits like that one in Australia a year or two ago, where folks sued neighbors for letting smoke from a grill waft across the property line. Or in California where a jogger complained that folks should only be grilling veggies, and they were running through a neighborhood they didn't even live in.

                  First - if this happens to you - its a sure fire sign you live in the wrong neighborhood, and need to move somewhere better! Try Alabama or Texas.

                  Second - the smoke profile from pellet cookers is soooooo light compared to about any other smoker out there, that I seriously doubt it will be an issue, ever. It's much lighter than the smoke from a charcoal or wood smoker.

                  Third - if you were to try a scrubber, it cannot be attached directly to the smoker, as that would cause suction and increase airflow, screwing up smoker operation, maybe increasing the temperature of the fire, and all sorts of things. You need to think more like a vented hood over your stove in the house, where its catching most of the smoke, but is not directly attached. And to be honest, I think your neighbors will complain more about the sound of a shop vac running for 18 hours than they will smelling a light aroma of smoke and cooking meat.

                  Just my 2 or 3 cents - take it for what its worth!

                  Jim
                  Last edited by jfmorris; June 30, 2020, 09:06 AM.

                  Comment


                  • jfmorris
                    jfmorris commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Mr. Bones - exactly! I had to run 2 shop vac's overnight when I was putting a new liner in the pool about 5 years ago, to suck the vinyl liner down to the poolcrete and walls, and worried about the noise I was producing, but no one came knocking...

                  • Mr. Bones
                    Mr. Bones commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Haha, they probly knocked til it likedta breaked yer door down, Brother, an ya jus couldn't hear em, over th dang dang shop vacs lol!

                  • klflowers
                    klflowers commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Or TN - sometimes in the summer all you can smell is sweet Q smoke.

                  #12
                  I simply wouldn't worry unless someone complained. Life has too many actual problems to make one up and then worry about how to fix it.

                  Comment


                    #13
                    Just shove a smoked chicken leg in their complaining mouths and that will take care of it

                    Comment


                      #14
                      I have lived a lot of places and never had anyone complain, and I have generated lots of smoke at times. I wouldn't worry about it. Lay a shotgun on the deck next to the smoker...

                      Comment


                        #15
                        Originally posted by IowaGirl View Post
                        I used to work in a wastewater treatment plant where we also ran an incinerator, so I'm a bit familiar with odor problems.

                        I honestly doubt a shop vac or cyclone separator can effectively remove smoke smell, unless you get a system that's able to remove gases as well as extremely small particulates. Smoke particles that are visible are around 10 microns or larger, but smoke is also composed of much smaller particles invisible to the eye as well as gases. They all can have an odor and the gases and really small particulates are tough to remove.

                        A water scrubber is probably going to be more effective than a vac or cyclone. Another possibility is simple dilution and redirection of the smoke leaving your cooker. You want to drive the smoke upward and dilute it -- that might work well enough to minimize the odor near ground level where people's noses are. That's the reason why power plants that burn coal have these hugely tall smokestacks.

                        Use a large shop fan blowing clean air and direct the flow upwards at the smoke from the cooker. The airflow from the fan will dilute the smoke and the force of the airflow will drive the smoke higher up. Both things will reduce the chance of odor issues nearer ground level. Be careful the airflow from the fan isn't creating suction near the smokestack, however, because that will change the airflow through the cooker.
                        Genius idea, I've got a new floor fan and I think I'll give it a try.

                        On another note, I totally get it about not wanting to draft air through the smoker grill, I had been think more of a hood type smoke catcher .

                        But I like this idea of blowing it straight up the best. Probably I'll point it into the wind off the ocean, and up over a bit toward the neighbors to the downhill side.

                        You guys are awesome.

                        Hoping to pick up a new Silverton 620 this weekend, just a matter of logistics. I hope setting up the wifire doesn't take all day.

                        Comment

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