Need Some Help please advise

Ok I'm building a new house that has an outdoor kitchen. This isn't a total open air outdoor kitchen, it's under roof with walls surrounding all but one open end leading out to a sitting area, fireplace then to the back yard. Think of a square box with one end out of it. The kitchen is positioned against the house furthest from the open area.

Currently I'm a pit smoker but love the idea of the pellet smokers. I was going to put a regular natural gas grill with ventahood in the kitchen for hamburgers and hot dogs that would be rarely used but I'm now considering a Memphis built in. My questions are:

Is the heating controls good enough to work with a ventahood constantly trying to pull air through the smoker? Does this even matter on a pellet smoker?

Is their any adverse reaction to the cooking on a pellet smoker with the ventahood, meat drying out, overheat etc. I really wanted a pit but with the ventahood it would constantly be pulling air through the smoker and I would be fighting an overheat situation constantly.

Would a ventahood be able to handle most of the smoke exhaust from the pellet smoker in smoke mode? Remember I'm semi enclosed so a lot of excess smoke would cause issues.

Thanks in advance.

I think that if I understand your question you are talking about cooking with the hood up...That really never works with t a pellet grill....A properly spec'd hood about 36 inches above the mephis exhaust should work fine and not affect anything but the air quality in you area.

I am giginv this advice based on your description...Have a air guy spec the right over head exhaust and it should be good to go

Big Poppa said:

I think that if I understand your question you are talking about cooking with the hood up...That really never works with t a pellet grill....A properly spec'd hood about 36 inches above the mephis exhaust should work fine and not affect anything but the air quality in you area.

I am giginv this advice based on your description...Have a air guy spec the right over head exhaust and it should be good to go

Click to expand...

No I'm talking about smoking with the lid closed. Is there any issue with a ventahood trying to pull air through the smoker, heating it up? I don't know the pellet smokers to well, so air being pulled through might not even be an issue. In a smoke pit a ventahood will pull air through the smoker lighting up the fuel making it heat up, may not be the same dynamics with a pellet smoker.
Can a well placed ventahood handle the smoke from a pellet grill? I don't want a smoked out area in the outdoor kitchen since I'm boxed in on 3 sides. I have never seen one cooking so I'm not sure how much smoke to expect in the smoke setting. Any other issue with my situation using a ventahood?

I'm no expert but it's my opinion that pellet cookers provide a light smoke flavoring due, at least in part, to the fan blowing smoke out of the pit. It you were to install a ventahood that pulls the smoke out of the pit, at the same time the fan is blowing it out, the already light smoke flavor profile would diminish even further. Further than that, in some units the fan is variable speed to adjust for heat, if your ventahood pulls at a constant pressure, it might interfere with the Memphis's ability to achieve and hold temps. IMO.

That's exactly my question, will a vent a hood mess up the performance both flavor wise or heat performance wise. If vent a hood draw air through the Memphis or is it sealed and a fan blows air out? If it's just blowing air out, I think it might be ok but I don't know so I'm asking for opines!

As long as the hood is just over the unit, and you are able to use the unit with the lid closed as it was designed you should be fine.
Just like running one in a commercial kitchen or test kitchen under a hood. No worse than a wind blowing around the outside of the unit.

It will just pull the exhaust out of the air around the cooker. There isnt really a "draw" in those units to mess up, it is already forcing air through it.

I would have to agree with HoDeDo. The worst maybe a baffle above the Memphis. The Memphis discharges the smoke along the top edge of the unit. The VentaHoods are good units and do move a lot of air. Which you need to keep the smoke out of your area.

I can't speak for Memphis but would say the positive pressure inside the pellet cookers should not be an issue for your vent hood.
The MAK Uses a 100+ CFM Fan to induct air, the vent hood would not effect it unless you sealed it to the exhaust ports
I think you have a good plan and one we will be recommending for our 3 Star built in customers.
Show us pics when you're done!

MAK DADDY said:

I can't speak for Memphis but would say the positive pressure inside the pellet cookers should not be an issue for your vent hood.
The MAK Uses a 100+ CFM Fan to induct air, the vent hood would not effect it unless you sealed it to the exhaust ports
I think you have a good plan and one we will be recommending for our 3 Star built in customers.
Show us pics when you're done!

Click to expand...

Will do and I can't wait...Until I found this forum I had all but given up on having a grill I would actually use in the outdoor kitchen since a pit had no chance of working with air being sucked through the unit via the vent a hood. I'm going to give it a whirl and will post pics here in a few months when she's done.