I need your help

As a new guy looking to getting into smoking - what kind / style of smoker would you all recommend? It's just two of us and on occasion maybe 4-6. Looking to purchase but if you can convince me, I could build as well. Looking to spend around 200ish?
Just looking for some assistance on what's good and works well and what to stay away from.

Propane, nat gas, charcoal, wood, or electric fired?

How much will it be used?

I don't smoke much (maybe 3-4 times a year); but when I do, I get by with my modified charcoal fired "water smoker" (which was $35). I drilled out the firepan to allow air in, and put an adjustable vent on the lid, which really helped control the burn rate.

Charcoal lasts 6+ hours if it's not windy out. If I need longer cooking time, I finish in the kitchen oven.

The best out there is the "Big Green Egg" - essentially an insulated version of what I have. They're pricey though.

How often? Like anything - more so in the summer 2xs a month or more.
As to initial source, open for ideas. Probably not natural gas.
The egg looks cool but a little to much for what I need.

I'd build an ugly drum smoker (UDS), or look into a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. If you have tools and the know how, you can find some good build threads over on thesmokering.org that will walk you through making a UDS. Should be able to do that for under 200 bucks.

There are different sizes of Green Eggs.

$200 gets you a nice rig. My UDS build (without the cost of the blown angle grinder) is right at $80 but that includes the barrel for $10.

It depends on what kind of smoking you intend to do. If your intending to essentially cold smoke cured meats like sausage and jerky, then you'd typically use a different smoker than you would for BBQ like brisket and ribs.

For low and slow cooking, 230*f, BBQ, then I think a UDS can't be beat for the price. If you want to cold smoke at less than 170*F then I think an electric smoker like the "Big Chief" might be in your ballpark. I don't know of many other options in the $200 range. You can also build a cold smoker fairly cheaply.

Weber One Touch Gold!!!!


the 22 1/2" can smoke as well as grill. Indirect smoking is easy with the Weber, and its about 125 bucks

Build a UDS. They are the best for the money. The only thing even close to their cost that is comparable is a WSM but they are about twice as expensive as a UDS, and that is the cheap WSM.

dataz722 said:

Build a UDS. They are the best for the money. The only thing even close to their cost that is comparable is a WSM but they are about twice as expensive as a UDS, and that is the cheap WSM.

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A guy on CL near my has a UDS for sale for 130. I'm am more then able to make one but sourcing a barrel would be the hardest part. He says it was used previous as a edible food container. I don't know of anything that is edible that comes in a 55 gal drum.
And Dataz722, someone posted that you have a few accessories that makes building one easier? If so, what do ya have?

For the $$, look into the Brinkman units Home Depot and Lowes carry. Its $40 or so, has a water pan and a charcoal pan and will do a 25 lb turkey in about 12 hrs with a 10lb of Kingsford. Mine is 8 yrs old and is on its 2nd pan, but otherwise in good shape. It gets used Many times a year and lives outside in the weather.
I have the skills and tools, but would be very hard pressed to be able to make one for that price that works as well.

churdbird said:

A guy on CL near my has a UDS for sale for 130. I'm am more then able to make one but sourcing a barrel would be the hardest part. He says it was used previous as a edible food container. I don't know of anything that is edible that comes in a 55 gal drum.
And Dataz722, someone posted that you have a few accessories that makes building one easier? If so, what do ya have?

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Just make sure that he has completely burned out the liner. There are actually tons of food products that come in drums but they all have a liner.

I do have some kits that I have put together. The are pretty much everything except the drum, a 22.5 cooking grate, and a thermometer.

Do you market these kits on a website somewhere?
Well went to HD and Menards looking just to see what they had. Nothing.. That I would spend money on anyway.
The Ugly Drum may just be for me!
Where is a good place to find a remote thermometer?

Here's the thread where Data talks about the kits. He's not a vendor here, and I don't think he has anything setup to market them, because he just made these kits to help people get a UDS made simply. If he still has some kits, I think it's a very good deal.

I bought a UDS kit from Dataz722 for a UDS. I may be sending Data some business here shortly. The neighbors want me to build them a few. I LOVE the UDS. I found a barrel in an industrial area that was refurbished, liner burnt out, and cleaned up. I have made some awsome bbq/smoked meat (country ribs and awsome hot wings to be specific). The BGE is cool but super hevey and expensve. Go with the UDS and do good research on how to build one. IMHO. Good luck.

churdbird said:

Do you market these kits on a website somewhere?
Well went to HD and Menards looking just to see what they had. Nothing.. That I would spend money on anyway.
The Ugly Drum may just be for me!
Where is a good place to find a remote thermometer?

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I don't really market them at all on here. I was building a few for me and a couple friends and realized I could save a ton of money by buy in bulk so I figured I could throw some kits together to help people out and save them some cash at the same time.


Personally, I do not like the remote thermos. I have tried 3 different ET-73's and had problems with all of them. People on bbq forums seem to love them though so maybe I have just had really bad luck. I have not tried the new ET-732 though which is supposed to be much improved.

If you want to give it a shot though personally I would support http://www.shop.5-0bbq.com/. They are just a small vendor that has really good customer service and I always like to support the small vendors when I can.

If you are looking for a smoker in your price range that is true, tried and tested and is even used successfully by competition Quers look no further than the Weber Smoky Mountain 18.5". It will regulate and hold temperatures with the best of them and help you produce a fine product. It's a no brainer.

for the money, and ease of use, it's hard to be a propane smoker
http://reviews.basspro.com/2010/52170/the-great-outdoors-smoky-mountain-series-propane-gas-smoker-reviews/reviews.htm

You can't use the propane for compititions, so if you think you want to do that go for something else, but for something that you can set and forget it's hard to beat. A lot of the large briskets I do go for 15+ hours. I will start them in the evening so I can add wood for the smoke (after the meat reaches somewhere around 135-145 degrees you really don't take on much more smoke flavor), then at bedtime, I will load it up one more time, and head off to bed knowing that the temps will hold without a problem until the morning.

Going with the Weber Smokey Mountain. Thanks for all of your input.
Now where's the best place to buy one?

For the money, here's the one I'm looking at. Propane grill and charcoal smoker in one.
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_242959_-1?N=77985508

churdbird said:

Going with the Weber Smokey Mountain. Thanks for all of your input.
Now where's the best place to buy one?

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You are making a very wise choice. We have used insulated smokers (Spicewine) and stick burners (Lang). In a competition we will attend in our hometown in August we will cook the contest with only WSM's to show our neighbors how inexpensively you can turn out competition quality Que with a simple Weber Smokey Mountain.

Spicewine Insulated Cooker



Lang Stick Burner

churdbird said:

Going with the Weber Smokey Mountain. Thanks for all of your input.
Now where's the best place to buy one?

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Try the Virtual Bullet website for best current pricing, and anything else you want to know about the WSM.

You can pick them up locally at HD or Ace Hardware, but if you search for a bit you ought to be able to find one on the web for ~ $299 delivered...as long as you're willing to wait a week.

WSM is a great choice by the way...you can put a ton of meat in these things.