New from IL

[bootlogic]

From IL and on the thread I just posted I explained some of this so please bear with me in my redundancy.

I'm tasked with buying an electric smoker for my father in law for Christmas (from all his kids) with a budget of $350.  Neither him or I have ever smoked food.  

I've spent more hours than I want to admit researching it as I want something that will last and not clunk out in 18 months under light usage or something like that.  Anyway my first post is asking for advice and looking for feedback.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Electric and reliable don't really go together. Given enough time they give problems. I'm not a watt-burner here, but if you want reliability, electric may not be a good choice. I once thought about going electric back in the day, but I've seen enough posts about trouble with them that I want nothing to do with them...just me.

I'm sure there will be plenty of electric smoker users who will disagree once they see this...my question is why haven't they responded? Before they do, they should ask themselves how long they've had their rig, and what is the expected life before it croaks and needs a new controller, thermostat or heating element. There have been tons of complaints about failed electric smokers. Failed electric smoker...failed controller...problems with smoke...no smoke...those are just a sample of the search words I'd use to research before deciding to buy one.

Maybe I'm biased, but everything I've read about electric smokers has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Eric

 

[gary s]

  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum, from a chilly and rainy day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of              great people with tons of information on just about  everything.

       Gary