ANOTHER new smoker thread, please educate me :) I dont' know much about these.

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kevinnem

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 4, 2020
6
2
Hello great smokers of the innerwebs !

I currently have a offset smoker, it was the "cheapest thing you can buy" sort of deal , it is tiny, and thin metal, parts are broken, I have to use a old can lid as a chimney damper. I was able to dip my feet in to the smoking world, have done a few pork butts , handful of 1/2 briskets, and ribs. Made some really really bad stuff at the beginning. Learned a lot. I used lump and square charcoal, burning wood as possible. it was a pain to lite made easier by useing an old coffee can as a way to lite a bunch of charcoal. Pretty sure the thermometer on the front is useless.
I paid 70$ Canadian - that would be like 50$ USD I can sell it for 80% of that easy I am sure.
While I enjoyed learning this end of things, and hey , who doesn't love playing with fire ... I think it is time to move on.
loosely related, I am building a deck, and it doesn't yet have railings on it. The wind was crazy the other day, and my BBQ rolle dright off the end, and took a 5 foot plunge on to the concrete below - so that is not done for ( got 15 years out of it, for 350$ cnd.)

SO- that brings me to my questions.
I am interested in the pellet grills/smokers -- is htere really a difference in the terms used ( grill vs smoker?)
Can I pretty much always BBQ on these units, or do I need a special one , do they work very well at all for BBQing?
Is it worth proceeding with an all-in-one idea or do I really need both a BBQ and a smoker?
Is there a stand out great value smoker on the lower end, I a m not looking for a 1000$ + unit, I am looking in the bottom 1/3 of the market segment?


Love you hear your thoughts on this folks!!

Cheeers.
 
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Can't speak about the lower end except to say you get what you pay for in the pellet smoker world. I have a Camp Chef Woodwind and it works very well. I would suggest you save your pennies and look for a mid range smoker.
 
I define a BBQ Grill as something that is used for hot and fast cook. 400-800 degrees for steaks/burgers etc. Smokers are more low and slow. More in the 225-275 range. Pellet smokers are able to do both, but may not be as "all in one" as you'd like. Many have several different tools for different cooks. Since you like playing with fire, a Weber Kettle, WSM or even a Chargriller 980 may be of interest. Welcome!
 
Grills are grills and smokers are smokers.
You can do a smoke on a larger grill but you can't grill on a smoker unless you buy one that has a special grilling addition or unless it has a lid and cook grate above the fire grate.
Pellet grills offer ease of use and hands off smoking, you just add pellets and walk away for a handful of hours, no tinkering with the fire or hours of tending fires.
Bad news is that pellet spitters can't impart true wood smoke flavor profile compared to a wood burner.
I gave up stick burning as the hours and hours and hours of fire tending became too much for my lazy ass.
I gave up on Kamado cooking because I did not like the flavor of the charcoal deep in the meat.
My solution was to buy a low/mid price gravity smoker and to mix hardwood with charcoal briquettes and lump.
I get the hands off advantage and almost the same wood smoke taste profile of an offset.
Some folks are afraid the cheaper gravity smokers won't hold up but I've done dozens of briskets, rib racks and pork shoulders over the last year and half and aside from a minor glitch (which did not prevent me from using it) it's still running strong.
About the only way to find a decent unit in your price range would be to watch Craigslist and other publications where you can find a used one for .$50 on the dollar.
Otherwise you can expect to spend $500 and up as a lower end start point.
 
Thanks fo rhe replyies so far, to be clear, I was totally expecting about 500$ ( cnd) for a smoker +/- I was not expecting anything near the "super cheap" level.
 
$400-500 gets you a nice PitBoss. I'd say this is like a move like from a bicycle to a Ford. A RecTeq is a Mercedes. Compared to the bike, you'll be real happy with a Ford.
 
As already stated grilling is hot and fast and pellet grills are just not good at it, even the high end grills don't really do it well. I would recommend going with a simple Weber Kettle for all you grilling needs and getting either a Smoke N Sear https://snsgrills.com/products/slow-n-sear-deluxe, to handle the smoking needs, or a mid range pellet grill from one of the major brands. Another way to go is getting the new Kamado Joe Kettle Joe https://www.kamadojoe.com/collections/grills/products/kettle-joe and you have the best of both worlds, smoking and grilling in one grill. Looks to be a great product from the reviews.
 
Well KevinNEM did post in the Pellet Grill area. Let's see if he's interested in other options. I use my pellet grill more than any other cooker, but if I could only have one, you're right, I just might choose my old Weber kettle.

And for me, I get my best steaks on the pellet grill. 15" cast iron pan on a rebar stand directly over that roaring, flaming crucible will make a couple big steaks a whole lot faster than any gas grill.
I've kept my gas grill...in case I need to make steaks for a crowd...but it just doesn't get much love any more. Using a rotisserie is easier in my pellet grill too.
 
Alot of really great stuff here, thanks ALL.

I have never used a Webber grill - they are cheap enough, they are basically just big pits to toss charcoal in. Do you find they are worth the effort over propane BBQ, I was thinking a propane bbq, and a smoker would be the way to go for me. - but I am open minded. Seems you can get fancy one with a fan on the bottom or something.

1) Assume we are a no go on the pellet grill for searing, then you guys think the weber style charcoal is better the propane(up here in calgary Alberta, 95% of grills are propane or natural gas)?

2) Also what do you guys think of the blue tooth / wifi connections, -- useful, or just another gimmick that is kind of point less.

3) what do the meat probes actually do ? I notice some of them come with none, some come with 1 some come with 2? love to get some more info on what these do - are they simply reading info , or do they adjust the feed somehow? If one is in the meat , 100 degrees below the temperature of the bbq, how is that helpful to the unit to know how to feed pellets? .. if it has 2 probes is one always in the "air" of the grill, and the other in meat? --- any help to sort this out would be great.
 
Propane is quick and easy, but does not give you the flavor of a Kettle or pellet smoker. I'm a big fan of a therm with at least 2 or 6 probes. I have not used all 6 at once but I could. I would a therm seperate than whatever came with the grill. Some appreciate wifi included in their grill, not a big deal for me.
 
Alot of really great stuff here, thanks ALL.

I have never used a Webber grill - they are cheap enough, they are basically just big pits to toss charcoal in. Do you find they are worth the effort over propane BBQ, I was thinking a propane bbq, and a smoker would be the way to go for me. - but I am open minded. Seems you can get fancy one with a fan on the bottom or something.

1) Assume we are a no go on the pellet grill for searing, then you guys think the weber style charcoal is better the propane(up here in calgary Alberta, 95% of grills are propane or natural gas)?

2) Also what do you guys think of the blue tooth / wifi connections, -- useful, or just another gimmick that is kind of point less.

3) what do the meat probes actually do ? I notice some of them come with none, some come with 1 some come with 2? love to get some more info on what these do - are they simply reading info , or do they adjust the feed somehow? If one is in the meat , 100 degrees below the temperature of the bbq, how is that helpful to the unit to know how to feed pellets? .. if it has 2 probes is one always in the "air" of the grill, and the other in meat? --- any help to sort this out would be great.

1) You will never get the flavor from a gas grill the you will get from a Weber charcoal grill,

2) Wifi and blue tooth capability are extremely nice to have and are very useful for monitoring your cooks. I wouldn't consider them a deal breaker but they are nice to have. If you have ever had to go out in very cold weather to see what is happening with your grill, you would understand.

3) Temp probes monitor whatever you are cooking, or the grill temp if it is not a controlled type. Grill built in, or a remote Temp Monitor, along with a good instant read thermometer are almost essential to produce quality meat results.
 
Pit Boss offers the most bang for the buck and has a five year warranty. They even have some rather fancy models now with a secondary vertical smoke chamber and also a side by side pellet smoker/propane grill model where the gas side can be used as an additional smoke chamber. If you go above $500 there is more selection and features like Wi-Fi, but they all cook about the same.
 
In general, the Controllers with Meat Probes only monitor and relay the current Internal Temp of the meat. This info is only for the Cooks benefit and the controller does not react or make temp changes based on the current Meat IT...
However, SOME, mid to high end Pellet Grill Controllers, can be programmed to monitor the meat IT and when a Programmed IT is reached the controller will notify the user and automatically reduce the Pellet Grill temp to it lowest, " Keep Warm " temperature and stay there until you set the controller to Shut Down Mode. Other models can Run Programmed Cooks. Ex...Run at 225°F until meat reaches an IT of X°F. Raise Grill temp to 400°F until an IT of Y°F is obtained. Reduce Grill temp to Keep Warm and hold...JJ
 
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