Help me pick a smoker!

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
WayFrae

WayFrae

Homebrew Enthusiast
HBT Supporter
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
Messages
1,300
Reaction score
225
Location
Lehi
I got one for Christmas. holds the temp well enough. Not a fan of the fact you need to replenish the wood chips every 30 minutes. There's something called the "amaze-n-pellet smoker" that I was told to look into as a possible replacement for the wood-chip adding mechanism.
 
As this doesn't appear to be a full pellet smoker, I would just be concerned about the ease of adding wood. By looking at it in the pictures it looks like it's easy access. I'd double-check that. You will beat yourself up if you have to remove your racks/meat every time you need to add wood (I had one that did that at one time... it smoked nice, but was a royal pain in the pork butt to use).
 
I have no experience with the smoker you linked.

I'm a big ceramic grill fan, though they are quite a bit above the $200 price range. Extremely versatile, I smoke bbq at 200* and bake pizza at 700*. I don't recommend those cheapo ceramic grills you'll see at homedepot.

On the opposite end of the price spectrum, you could DIY an electric smoker with some terracotta pots and a hot plate
https://www.google.com/search?q=ter...e&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=terracotta+pots+smoker
 
I have that exact smoker and I love it. I use it about 2-3 a month. Adding wood chips is easy. You just pull out the hopper that is on the side add the wood chips and put it back and turn it to drop the chips on the heating element. You can also get a cold smoker attachment that hooks up to that hole. I haven't used mine yet but it looks easy to use as well.

It holds temps very well. I don't think you can beat it for the money.
 
aangel said:
I got one for Christmas. holds the temp well enough. Not a fan of the fact you need to replenish the wood chips every 30 minutes. There's something called the "amaze-n-pellet smoker" that I was told to look into as a possible replacement for the wood-chip adding mechanism.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen one of these drop-in pellet devices before. Sounds pretty nice, especially if you want to smoke your own grain.
 
How big is the pan for holding wood? I have a cookshack smoker about that same size and there really isn't any need to add more wood to it during the cook if you use the right amount.

My cookshack was pricier...it was my coping mechanism after moving into a small apartment that wouldn't allow charcoal, but hopefully lasts me forever. Electric smoking is great for the convenience, though there are a lot of purists that look down their nose at it. Which I kind of agree with...BUT, sticking a pork butt in at 10pm the night before and waking up to have pulled pork ready for lunch without having to do anything is great. No checking temps, adding more wood, adjusting baffle, etc
 
aangel said:
I got one for Christmas. holds the temp well enough. Not a fan of the fact you need to replenish the wood chips every 30 minutes. There's something called the "amaze-n-pellet smoker" that I was told to look into as a possible replacement for the wood-chip adding mechanism.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I am going to get it. It looks like a good one. I am happy to put chips in as often as I need to since I don't want to pay for an automated smoker like the Bradley brand.
 
Can't go wrong with the smokey mountain by weber if you are willing to go charcoal. Stay away from the brinkman bullet style, you have to make a lot of modifications to make it work for you and even then its a pain in the !!!.... The 14.5 in from Weber might be too small so I wouldn't recommend limping in on something to meat a specific price point.

Electric is easier, but I prefer charcoal and will often go wood chunks instead of chips. I sort of learned my lesson from smoking. First year I just kind of went cheap but quickly I found myself buying the weber 22.5 the next year. I mean you can really go crazy and easily spend over 750. Now with brewing I purposefully avoided dipping my toe in the water. Like smoking meat I knew I like craft beer so I tried to buy equipment with the intention of sort of growing into it. With that being said I did just move away from the igloos and enter into the keggle arena.

Good luck, in reality anything will work but the question is how much time do you want to spend keeping a close eye on the temps, etc especially if you are doing a brisket and could be smoking for 8-12 hrs.
 
I also have a Cookshack smoker and it is a great quality product. If you want an electric, there is a strong customer base for Smokin-it smokers which are very similar style to Cookshack, but cheaper. I would recommend Cookshack, but if too pricey than look at the Smokin-it.
 
That digital control makes all the difference! I have the cheaper model and it's very hard to control the temps. Not bad for meat but it gets way too hot for fish. If you turn the heat down it's not hot enough to generate smoke. Kinda sucks.
 
I have the Gen 2 model of the Masterbuilt 30 that has the control panel up front and love it. I also bought the cold smoker attachment. I don't ever have to refill with chips because you can put enough in the cold smoker to last a while. I consider it more of a smoker generator than a cold smoker attachment. I also own a Weber Smokey Mountain and they are different beasts. If you want true simplicity get the Masterbuilt. If you want one of the easiest if not the easiest to use charcoal smokers look into the Smokey Mountain.
 
Check out Ugly Drum Smokers builds if you're handy or their commercial equivalents if you are not. I heard about them on some thread around here and started looking into them. They get rave reviews by all accounts. I going to build one sometime soon.
 
I have a friend who has that exact model and he couldn't be happier with it. I have had lots of meat smoked from it and all was excellent. I can't wait until spring and then I will have saved up to buy one. Good luck!!
 
Just got the masterbuilt for x-mas defiantly a learning curve but once it got seasoned it stands up to my webber smokey mountain with temp controller have fun
 
I've been eyeballing the "pit Barrel Cooker" I understand they have unbelievable customer service made in the USA , And the owner is veteran. Currently I have a crapy 1/2 brinkman 1/2 kettle jerry rig job that smokes the heck out of anything. But the pit barrel smoker comes in at around $269 free shipping. My next buy.
 
We purchase the 40" from Sam's Club over 3 years ago.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/electric-smoker/prod7080346.ip

Added the cold smoke, and absolutely love it..
(Cabela's has it on sale right now..)

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Masterbuilt-Electric-Cold-Smoker/1622658.uts?productVariantId=3524452&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=45-26792457-2&WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=03708053&rid=20

The difference between 30" and 40" makes a huge difference..
I could do without the window, we actually let it get smoked over.. :)
Beside the meat, smoked Cheese is fantastic!!
 
I got a Traeger big Texas smoker grill this year and will never think about using another grill ever again, it's that impressive!
 
+1 for the WSM. I can go low for sausage, bacon, or jerky or mid for BBQ or high for brisket and chicken.
 
Monkey-BB said:
I've been eyeballing the "pit Barrel Cooker" ....
Click to expand...

After I read your post I spent a while on their site reading and watching videos. Pretty nice. You could build one for much cheaper, but for $300 it may well be worth it for the powder coat finish! I'm still looking at what it would cost to build one, but I am guessing I would end up with $200 in it if I built it :eek:
 
Staestc said:
After I read your post I spent a while on their site reading and watching videos. Pretty nice. You could build one for much cheaper, but for $300 it may well be worth it for the powder coat finish! I'm still looking at what it would cost to build one, but I am guessing I would end up with $200 in it if I built it :eek:
Click to expand...

Hey buddy--

I'm really happy with my pit barrel cooker--
They are worth every penny and the owner Noah (an American Veteran) slaps his cell phone number on every barrel!
He will answer every call--
Well spent money in my book--
The thing cooks amazing too---
Good luck whatever road you take!!!
 

Similar threads

D
🔥 Smoking cured sausage to IT 152F within 4h without rendering fat (?)
Replies
7
Views
630
beren
beren
betarhoalphadelta
New grill to augment others---gasser or Blackstone griddle?
Replies
18
Views
410
hottpeper13
H
E
Help what should I do ?
Replies
2
Views
437
day_trippr
day_trippr
H
Masterbuilt Gravity Smoker/Grill
Replies
10
Views
1K
hottpeper13
H
delcosansgluten
Rauchbier
Replies
14
Views
2K
passedpawn
passedpawn

Latest posts

Back
Top