How to make a smokehouse from a refrigerator with your own hands

Smoking is an extremely convenient and quick way to prepare your favorite meat or fish dishes. This technology is very easy to use, and the resulting products are saturated with exquisite taste and aroma.

To produce smoked delicacies, you need a smokehouse - special equipment with which you can easily create real culinary masterpieces even at home. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to spend money on a new expensive device; it is enough to have an old refrigerator (preferably Soviet-style), which can be easily transformed into a smokehouse with your own hands.

Drawings and diagrams of refrigerator structures

Making a smokehouse from a refrigerator with your own hands is a fairly simple process, however, before moving directly to production, you should decide for yourself what type of device it will be, hot or cold smoking. This factor directly affects the further process of creating a cooking device.

The best option is cold smoking, which occurs at a temperature not exceeding 40°C. The advantage of this method is that the refrigerator does not need to be completely disassembled. In general, to make a smokehouse, you just need to drill a couple of holes for good smoke circulation.

In turn, hot smoking occurs at a temperature of 60-120°C. Therefore, the development of an appropriate apparatus will require slightly more complex and time-consuming manipulations. This is explained by the fact that the lining and seals under such conditions produce harmful substances that negatively affect the quality of smoked meats. Also, with this method, the use of galvanized gratings is prohibited, so you will have to subject your old unit to a total rework.

According to the design features, any smokehouse must be made using the following elements:

Frame. Actually, this is the refrigerator itself, of course, without the internal components.
Lattices (one or two pieces). Any plastic should be removed, however, if your model has grilles made of stainless steel, for example, then they can be used, but first they need to be burned to get rid of the paint.
Smoke exhaust.
Tray for collecting fat. An optional item, but it greatly simplifies the cooking process.
Heating source and sawdust, if necessary.

There are many examples of how to create a smokehouse from an old refrigerator. We will present some of them that are most popular among home cooks. You can find more detailed step-by-step instructions in the following sections of this article.

Homemade smoking cabinet. The most common method, which has the simplest scheme: smoking chamber, chimney, firebox.
Smokehouse from a two-chamber refrigerator. The manufacturing technology is almost similar to the previous single-chamber version. The only thing is that for complete and more comfortable handling of the internal space of the smokehouse, we recommend removing the partition between the chambers, leaving small edges of 5 cm. This is necessary in order to additionally put another grate without unnecessary installation.
Smokehouse with smoke generator. One of the most convenient samples, assembled together with an ejector and compressor. These components are located on the back or side of the body and are connected to the camera with a steel or PVC tube. Fastening is done using bolts and self-tapping screws.
Smokehouse using a fire extinguisher. The smoke producer is a “cartridge” heated by a fire. It can be made from an unused fire extinguisher in an iron case.

Main characteristics

The containers have a fairly large volume - up to 100 liters. One smoking cabinet can hold up to 20 kg of products!

The materials of the products are durable and reliable. They are rust-resistant and durable. If you buy a cold smoking cabinet, it will delight you with juicy snacks for many years. You can forget about eternal trips to supermarkets, wasting time and money on it.

The weight of the structures – from 7 kg – makes them easy to move.

The Hobbi Smoke cold-processing smoking cabinet is ideally compatible with smoke generators from the same company. The container can also be made of strong plywood and equipped with special rods with hooks.

If you buy a cold smoking cabinet together with a smoke generator, there is a discount.

The equipment can be used outdoors. The doors will be securely pressed with special locks. The cold smoking cabinet is easy to use. All you need to do is connect it to the smoke generator, place the food in the container, adjust the damper and start smoking. Delicacies are made from meat, fish, cheeses, and vegetables.

The smoking cabinet for cold smoking perfectly preserves and maintains the set temperature.

Thanks to the internal shelves, it is convenient to lay out products. You can separate one type of food from another by smoking them at the same time and thus save cooking time.

Our online store offers to buy smoking cabinets for smoking with delivery to any Russian region.

All details can be obtained from our consultants by phone. We will suggest the optimal model and provide professional advice.

We will deliver a cold smoking cabinet to any city in the Russian Federation. Our durable packaging is guaranteed to protect the goods from damage during transportation. Once you place your order in Moscow, you can receive it the very next day!

You may also be interested in smoke generators and cold smoked smokehouses made of stainless steel

What tools and materials will be needed

A set of tools, auxiliaries and materials is selected depending on the selected cooking technology (cold or hot method). Let's look at each option in more detail.

Cold smoking

Fire bricks and metal firebox cover.
The pipe is about 4 meters long, 10-15 cm in diameter.
A container where fat will be collected. Usually made from a piece of tin, stainless steel, or heat-resistant glass.
Grids and crossbars with hooks for displaying products. They are made from thick wire or thin reinforcement rods.
Hood (fan).

Hot smoking

Heating devices or devices (for example, an electric oven with various types of heating elements).
A special container with a thick bottom and a lid for heating wood.
Lattices and hooks for laying out and hanging edible ingredients.
Pipe for chimney.
Fasteners that will fix the door in the closed position.
Tray for collecting fat.

In both cases, you cannot do without a working tool. Here we will provide a small list, based on which you can prepare for the upcoming processing. So, to successfully complete the task, you may need: screwdrivers, an angle grinder, a pry bar, a drill, metal scissors, self-tapping screws, bolts, nuts, and, of course, garbage bags.

How to make a cold smoked smokehouse from an old refrigerator with your own hands

As a rule, lovers of homemade delicacies when it comes to making a smokehouse from an old refrigerator give preference to cold smoking. This is explained by the fact that when creating a homemade device of this type, fewer technical operations and additional devices will be required than when assembling a hot cooking apparatus. The reconstruction process is extremely simple:

The first step is to decide on the location of the future smokehouse. If the terrain allows, it is best to install it on a slope.
Next, you need to carry out a number of preparatory procedures: get rid of all non-metallic elements inside the structure, including plastic shelves and insulation (optional, but desirable) on the door. The holes that appear as a result of removal should be sealed using adhesive tape, tape or wooden plugs. It is also advisable to wash the walls of the box.
Make an exhaust hole with a diameter of 10 cm in the ceiling of the chamber and insert a chimney of the appropriate size into it.
Using a drill and metal scissors, cut a smoke supply hole at the bottom of the housing.
Attach a special hook to the door that will serve as a locking element. Also screw in the holders for the grids, or use the existing grooves if the shelves are made of galvanized wire.
Then build a small stove at the bottom of the smoker using fire bricks. If there is no slope, create it yourself: dig a hole for the firebox and a trench for the pipe. Or build an arbitrary stand, the main thing is that the smoking device is located above the smoke generator. In this case, a natural draft is formed, and the smoke will rise faster into the cabinet.
Place a drip pan at the bottom of the refrigerator to catch drippings (a wide frying pan or Dutch oven will also work). At the same time, make sure that it does not interfere with the flow of smoke into the chamber.

Small tricks

If there are few products to smoke, you can put them all on the bottom shelf of the smoking chamber, and place a reflector (for example, a piece of tin) on the top shelf. This way you will save a significant part of the sawdust.

During smoking, the chamber must be tightly closed

A wire with a thermocouple can be inserted into the back pocket, protected by a shield. This will allow you to control the temperature inside the smoker. You can replace the entire back panel with heat-resistant glass, so you can monitor the process.

If you are making a smokehouse according to the first principle, with an electric stove that does not fit on the bottom due to the sloping back wall of the refrigerator, turn it upside down.

Installing a stove with a sloping refrigerator wall

Thus, it is very simple to make your own smokehouse at your summer cottage. There is no need to buy expensive components for this. It is enough to use improvised means and old equipment. Photos, videos and drawings will help you understand in detail the structure of such a smokehouse.

There is nothing better than delicacies prepared with your own hands at your own dacha. At any time of the year, according to any recipes. This is a wonderful reason to spend a winter day outdoors. In the meantime, the next smoked masterpiece is being prepared, there is time to go skiing or take a walk on the virgin snow.

Do-it-yourself smokehouse from the refrigerator: video

Smokehouse from an old refrigerator: photo

How to make an electrostatic smoker from a refrigerator

As a rule, the dish must be kept in cold smoked smokehouses for at least a couple of days in order to fully absorb the smoky aroma. However, this phenomenon negatively affects the performance of the unit and can lead to drying out of smoked products. But there is a way out - the use of some kind of constant voltage source of 10-20 kV.

We present you a step-by-step algorithm on how to do this:

Place a 5x5 mm metal mesh over the hole through which smoke enters the installation.
Connect the positive electrode (anode) of the electronic source to it. Passing through the mesh, the smoke is electrified with a positive charge.
In turn, the grids and hooks are connected to the negative electrode (cathode). Based on this, the products placed on them receive a negative charge.
As a result of the manipulations performed, a potential difference arises, and smoke begins to be attracted to the products. Thanks to this, the smoking process will noticeably speed up, and the finished dishes will remain rich and juicy.

In order for the above-described system to work correctly, you need to make sure that the delicacies and the mesh do not come into contact with each other and the walls of the case.

Preparation

For proper functioning, you need to do the following manipulations:

remove all plastic components from the refrigerator so that only the metal base remains, as well as the relay and compressor;
seal the holes with electrical tape or adhesive tape;
if possible, a fan is also installed at the top of the refrigerator in order to draw smoke upward;
cut a hole for the pipe in the upper part;
Holes are made in the side walls for further fastening of the gratings for products.

How to make a hot smoked smokehouse from a refrigerator with your own hands

There are two ways to make a hot smoked smokehouse from the refrigerator:

Using electricity.
Using a firebox.

Let's take a closer look at the production process.

The first step is to get rid of everything unnecessary inside the future smoking chamber. Only a metal casing is required, so all plastic parts must be removed, lining and other insulating materials removed.
Next, the fasteners for the grilles, hooks and door locking mechanism are installed.
After processing, it is necessary to achieve the tightness of the structure by sealing the resulting holes with improvised means (adhesive tape, electrical tape, etc.).
Cut a hole on top for the hood and the pipe that discharges smoke to the street. Then install these devices.
To prevent the cooking process from being delayed several times, the smoke outlet should not be large, just a thin stream of smoke is enough.
Place a tray on the lower tier that will collect accumulated fat.
Install an electric oven at the bottom of the housing; drill an additional hole to exit the power cord.

An alternative option is to install a firebox. To do this, lay a pipe (at least 10 cm in diameter and about 1.5 m long) from the bottom wall of the housing at a horizontal angle and bury it in the ground to cool the smoke. The end of the chimney should lead to a firebox located below the level of the homemade unit.
The role of the smoke generator in this case will be played by a prepared container with wood chips (or a steel sheet with a thickness of at least 5 mm), which should be installed on top of the stove.

To prevent wood chips from catching fire, make sure that the appliance door is always securely closed and no air flow is allowed inside.

Before starting the main work

Preparatory work can be carried out even before taking the refrigerator to the dacha, because, by and large, all you need from it is the body. All mechanisms, tubes, gaskets and other non-steel parts can be removed in the apartment. And it will be easier to drag, and it will be much easier to throw out garbage in the city.

After all the excess has been removed, it is necessary to seal all the resulting holes with tape or tape so that the DIY smokehouse from the refrigerator does not release too much smoke through them.

But you can cut a hole for the pipe and guides for the gratings on site.