I have a
masterbuilt xl propane and it works great. Excellent for the price, I've cooked large and small portions of meat, overnight smokes, always plenty of room. I do cold smokes, jerky, high temp smokes (pizzas) and works very well for everything and large yields of food. I only had one bad experience with the chip pan sitting too low caused the flame to burn and leave a lot of soot. I've fixed that and no problems since. I don't soak my wood anymore and I've only used chips so far, and an
AMNPS. For long smokes I usually fill up the
AMNPS with pellets and dont need to mess with it for 8 hours at a time (plus you can cold smoke with it, if you haven't get one and try smoking cheese!). The maverick is GREAT! I live on the 2nd floor and would run up and down 500 times to check temps, now I can set alarms and know what my temp is 100% of the time.
Pros:
- Great value
- Great to learn on, easy to use
- Adjustable racks
- A lot of cooking space
- Great design for the most part
- A few simple / cheap mods and it works amazingly
- Easy to clean
Cons:
- Inaccurate door thermometer gauge ( use maverick )
- Original paint chips easily ( keep seasoned with oil, use cover, or repaint with high temp grill paint )
- Replace water pan ( too small ) I use a full shallow hotel pan
- Chip pan needs to be foiled every use or replaced. ( many use a 12" skillet and set it on top of the original chip pan, or on top of a grill wok) Original pan sits too low on burner / chips catch on fire and doesn't burn clean.
- No smokestack. Adding a chimney to the top helps air circulation ( easy to do and only costs about $13+s&h, check the link below and you'll find details )
- with low temps sometimes my flame would blow out ( made a wind shield to go around the bottom, no problems since )
It's really a great smoker. There's a page here all about modifications people have done to this smoker that can be super helpful. Good luck and happy smoking!
