About to buy a smoker...which one?

[Invincible047]

I'm finally about ready to buy my smoker. I am going to be focused on doing venison snack sticks and this has me leaning toward and electric smoker that is capable of lower starting Temps. I have heard pellet smokers are very nice but not sure I want to go that route. I do want to be able to do such things like brisket and ribs as well. Would I be fine with the electric still? Or pellet is just fine to do snack sticks and all others.

 

[sandyut]

welcome! not sure on snack sticks - never made them. as far as everything else, lot to consider. WSM is a great place to start and learn your way. thats where my smoking started. I now mostly use a Rec Teq RT-700 pellet grill which I love. Never used a stick burner but many hear swear by them.

Best advice is to try sorting out what features and options you think you will want and need. then look at all kinds and brands of smokers and try to sort out which has what you for roughly what you want to pay. costs vary by a huge amount.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Both Sportsman's Warehouse and Smoking Tex have the analog 1400 model on sale for $649.99
Temp range is 100°-250°.

 

[chopsaw]

I have several options , and they all get used equally depending on what I'm doing . MES 30 is dedicated for sausage , hams , bacon and the likes . Does do good on pork butt .

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

I have several options , and they all get used equally depending on what I'm doing . MES 30 is dedicated for sausage , hams , bacon and the likes . Does do good on pork butt .

Yep! The older MES 30's are perfect for sausage.
But, if I was in the market for a new electric and $ isn't an issue then the Smokin Tex 1400 at the above price would be at the top of my list.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

welcome! not sure on snack sticks - never made them. as far as everything else, lot to consider. WSM is a great place to start and learn your way. thats where my smoking started. I now mostly use a Rec Teq RT-700 pellet grill which I love. Never used a stick burner but many hear swear by them.

Best advice is to try sorting out what features and options you think you will want and need. then look at all kinds and brands of smokers and try to sort out which has what you for roughly what you want to pay. costs vary by a huge amount.

My WSM humming along this morning. Holding temp perfect with BBQ Guru and bury that chuck of wood working great! Thin blue smoke for 5 hours now without touching anything! You can find these on craigslist sometimes. They last forever.

 

[Bearcarver]

I used MES 40 units for 12 years, and never ran into anything I couldn't do in one of them.
About Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse (Digital)
Masterbuilt Smokers (Bear's Thoughts & Findings)
MES Generation Number Recognition Pictures & Pics (Digital Units)


Bear

 

[chopsaw]

But, if I was in the market for a new electric and $ isn't an issue then the Smokin Tex 1400 at the above price would be at the top of my list.

I'm not in the market and it's tempting . Already have an Auber to plug it into .

 

[smokerjim]

I have a mes 30 and a pitboss pellet smoker/grill, I'm much happier with the mes 30 , but maybe look into the mes 40 for a little more room if your going that route,

 

[Invincible047]

I have a mes 30 and a pitboss pellet smoker/grill, I'm much happier with the mes 30 , but maybe look into the mes 40 for a little more room if your going that route,

These were kind of the two I was debating on honestly. Pitboss pellet vs a mes system. What makes you enjoy the mes more and the pitboss less?

 

[uncle eddie]

I was in the same boat 2 weeks ago and I decided to get my 3rd MES 40. I did look at Smokin Tex, CookShak and similar, but their shelves were too small for my liking in the price range I was looking at.

I make snack sticks regularly and have had good luck at low temps with my prior, and new, MES 40.

FWIW - I ran 4 temp probes on my new MES40 to see the range in temps between the 4 shelves when I was making a batch of sticks. The top was 3F warmer than the bottom 3 - which were all within 2F of each other. The max range between all of them was 5F. Becuase of this, I only make sticks on the bottom 3 shelves...if I make too many and need the top shelf too, I will rotate the sticks ... which is super easy to do.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

I'm not in the market and it's tempting . Already have an Auber to plug it into .

Yeah, it's very tempting at that price. Heck, Sportsman's even emailed me a 10% discount code.
The only thing that stopped me is that Mrs. SHS would skin me alive knowing that I want a WSM 22 too.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

The top was 3F warmer than the bottom 3 - which were all within 2F of each other.

Those are some pretty consistent temps.

 

[smokerjim]

These were kind of the two I was debating on honestly. Pitboss pellet vs a mes system. What makes you enjoy the mes more and the pitboss less?

Much better smoke flavor with mes , able to smoke at lower temps with mes, not sure what pitboss your looking at but I have the 1000t2, all in all the mes just makes much better smoked meats in my opinion. Just get yourself a amnps tray and look into a mailbox mod and you'll have continuous smoke for 10-12 hours, with that said the pitboss runs good but can't run a lower temps (under 185-190) and I just dont get the smoke profile I like even with using the smoke tube.

 

[uncle eddie]

me pre

Those temp checks were all low temp (150F - 180F) when I was making sticks. I have not checked it above that range.

 

[tallbm]

I'm finally about ready to buy my smoker. I am going to be focused on doing venison snack sticks and this has me leaning toward and electric smoker that is capable of lower starting Temps. I have heard pellet smokers are very nice but not sure I want to go that route. I do want to be able to do such things like brisket and ribs as well. Would I be fine with the electric still? Or pellet is just fine to do snack sticks and all others.

Hi there and welcome!

Your focus is on venison snack sticks (sausage basically).
With your focus, the pellet smoker gets ruled out because it can't do the lower temps needed for sausage/sticks. The proper process is to start at like 100F degrees and bump up the temp until you hit a smoker temp of 165F. You do this to keep the fat from melting out. The pellet grills cannot do this with a low temp of like 180F or so.

Next, you want to do ribs and briskets. Well the Masterbuilt Electric Smoker 40 inch (Digital not analogue and known as an MES40) would be the size you want unless you want to cut your rib racks and briskets in half and go for the much smaller 30 inch MES30.

I am an MES40 owner and it sounds to me like that is the smoker for you.


Now lets talk a little wisdom here and an alternate approach you may want to consider :)

The best MES40 you can get is a used one for free or for like $40/$50. Check Facebook and Craigslist and such.
You then do a simple rewire (cut ends off 4 wires, splice to make 2 wires) and you buy a $150 PID Controller to use with the smoker.
The PID controller will hold your smoker temp dead on constantly or within 1-2 degrees. No temp swings, which is super important to avoid with sausage!!!

The way this works is after the MES smoker rewire you plug it into the PID.
You plug the PID controller into the wall for power.
You drop the PID thermometer into the smoker so it can measure temp.
You turn on the PID and and enter your temp.
The PID will feed power on/off to the MES smoker until it reaches the set temp and will hold it there. Done.

This takes any ol used MES and makes it 50x better than anything Masterbuilt makes period.
It's like turning a golf cart into a Ferrari.

I've thrown a lot at you here so ask any questions you have but in short, rewire or not, I think the MES 40 is your best bet. Academy is going to have your best deals right now with the holiday sales coming up if you want brand new. The fewer the "bells and whistle" the better... yes I said the fewer. Most of the features are not actually useful even though they seem like the bees knees :)

 

[JckDanls 07]

And then also with the PID controller (The right one)... you can program it to bump temps up every hour on it's own... so it truly is a set and forget smoker after this mod ...

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Those temp checks were all low temp (150F - 180F) when I was making sticks. I have not checked it above that range.

Okay. I've never checked the temp delta between rack positions in my smoker at any temp.
I tend think you wouldn't have a huge difference maybe 10° or thereabouts at the most.

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

I'm finally about ready to buy my smoker. I am going to be focused on doing venison snack sticks and this has me leaning toward and electric smoker that is capable of lower starting Temps. I have heard pellet smokers are very nice but not sure I want to go that route. I do want to be able to do such things like brisket and ribs as well. Would I be fine with the electric still? Or pellet is just fine to do snack sticks and all others.

Yoder YS 640 S is what I have, and it exceeds expectations.

 

[whistlepig]

Plug and play a Yoder. For flavor a Masterbuilt graviity.