shopping for the Smoker

[baton]

Hi All,

I am an amateur about the whole smoker business but would like to get one. What features or functionality am I looking for in a Great smoker? Does anyone have outstanding the smoker to recommend and why?

Thanks in advance

 

[mballi3011]

 First off welcome Baton to SMF. I personally like the gas units and I have 2 of them. I would recommend the Smoke Vault 24". You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127

then you will have a method to your newly found madness and believe me it will be a madness. Then when you start smoking things you will have to learn how to post the pictures / Qview 

here. So here's a link to a tutorial on how to post your Qview so we can see what your doing.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

Welcome to Your New Addiction  

Go GATORS  

 

[Bearcarver]

Hi All,

I am an amateur about the whole smoker business but would like to get one. What features or functionality am I looking for in a Great smoker? Does anyone have outstanding the smoker to recommend and why?

Thanks in advance

Depends on if you want to be right next to it all the time, or if you have a lot of time to learn how to get charcoal & wood pieces to the right temp, and hold it there, and all that tricky stuff. There are guys here who can make those kind of things do everything except go get your morning paper for you. Those guys amaze me!

I however like to go out, plug my MES 40 in, push my digital buttons to 230˚, put the meat in, close the door, and let the smoker do the rest. Throw in an A-MAZE-N-SMOKER, and I'm good to go.

MES 40 is electric, with a glass door remote control, wheels, built in meat probe & smoker heat sensor.

It costs about $300 for the one that is black on the outside & SS inside, or $350 to $400 for the one that is All Stainless (inside & out).

I would definitely recommend the MES 40, unless you like to rough it, like so many of the great smoking people on this forum.

Bear

 

[chainsaw]

Welcome aboard!

Please go to the roll call area to introduce yourself. There are many types of smokers, and many choices. The "best one" is usually dependent on your preferences.

Some of us like the electrics for ease of operation and minimum fuss. Some prefer the propane and/or the charcoal types. Some of us have more than one smoker.

Many make them from scratch, and some of those are truly works of art.

Lots of us started with the ECB or extremely cheap Brinkman. Does the job for less than 100 bucks. 

There are a ton of articles here for you to read before you make the plunge.

I'm sure you will get lots of comments. Good luck!

 

[pineywoods]

I agree with Chainsaw it depends on whether you want electric, propane, charcoal or wood fired. All of these will produce some good Q it's just a matter of what type of fuel you feel comfortable with and want to use

 

[beer-b-q]

Depends on if you want to be right next to it all the time, or if you have a lot of time to learn how to get charcoal & wood pieces to the right temp, and hold it there, and all that tricky stuff. There are guys here who can make those kind of things do everything except go get your morning paper for you. Those guys amaze me!

I however like to go out, plug my MES 40 in, push my digital buttons to 230˚, put the meat in, close the door, and let the smoker do the rest. Throw in an A-MAZE-N-SMOKER, and I'm good to go.

MES 40 is electric, with a glass door remote control, wheels, built in meat probe & smoker heat sensor.

It costs about $300 for the one that is black on the outside & SS inside, or $350 to $400 for the one that is All Stainless (inside & out).

I would definitely recommend the MES 40, unless you like to rough it, like so many of the great smoking people on this forum.

Bear

I would have to agree with Bear on this one...



 

Welcome to SMF, Glad to have you with us.
 

This is the place to learn, lots of good info and helpful friendly Members.
 

For those of you new to Smoking, be sure to check out Jeff's 5 Day Smoking Basics eCourse.

Click Here it's "FREE" ... 5 Day eCourseE

 

[jirodriguez]

For me it was a desire of wanting to return to the flavor you get with charcoal and/or wood. I started with a horizontal offset smoker, but quickly switched to a 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain and haven't looked back since.

Do some reading on the forum and decide what fuel type you want to use first, then start narrowing down to a specific smoker in your price range.

 

[smokeamotive]

Welcome to SMF and your new addiction. Lots of great folks here and great info too. That said, all the above is good info. Its all about what your comfortable with. As stated above, many have more than one smoker. I have and ECB, an MES 40 and a SFB stick bruner with a vertical chamber on the end to smoke sausages. Once you get started it's hard to stop. Theres just soooo much good stuff to try. have fun and enjoy.

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF. There is no easy answer to your question. If you want easy, go with the MES like Bear said. If you want that charcoal wood flavor, I would go with a WSM. The one thing I wouldn't do is make a quick decision, check out the different smokers & see the advantages & dis-advantages of each one. If there was THE perfect smoker, we would all have them. That's why a lot of guys have more than 1 smoker.

 

[fpnmf]

Welcome!!

 Do some reading here.

The WIKIs and the search tool can provide a few tons of info that will help you decide which way to go!!

  Good luck!!

I started out with and still enjoy my MES.

  Craig

 

[alblancher]

There is something about tending a fire, smelling the smoke, the smoke ring, the taste of food from a stick burner that can not be duplicated with electric or gas.  Also the size of your smoker is limited with generally available gas or electric.  They do make commercial smokers that burn gas and watts that get quite large but they are generally out of most people's hobby price range.  Decide how you are going to use your smoker, base your decision on that.

All the smokers that you will look at can do great food if used by someone that knows how to use the smoker.

Good Luck on your search

Al

 

[Fife]

I am new to the smokeing hobbie also and I got the Masterbuilt Electric 40 from Sam's. I have smoked chicken, pork tenderloin, sausage, ribs, and have all turned out very good. All you do is put the meat in it set the temp and time put some wood in the loader and that is it about every 1-1.5 hours put some more wood in it. I love mine. Just my 2 cent worth.

 

[callahan4life]

 to SMF! I'm glad you joined us.

 You will find this a great place for increasing your BBQ knowledge

, from a bunch of great people. Have fun and Happy Smoking.  

I like my Lang 36 Patio. You check them out at http://pigroast.com.

 

[baton]

Oh Boy! What did I get myself into! :)

Thank you all for suggestions and a lot of information. There is a lot to grasp and research.

I work from home and able to spare a little time to learn how to get charcoal & wood pieces to the right temp. (Thanks Bear)

For now i will definitely start with 5-day E-course.

Thank you all again and will post more once i have questions.... or pictures :)

 

[richoso1]

Hello, and welcome to the SMF. I see you've already gotten some good feedback on your questions. It's all good my friend.

 

[meateater]

Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.

 

[tyotrain]

Welcome to SMF its nice to have ya..

 

[baton]

Thank you all for help and useful information. After doing some research I’ve decided to go with inexpensive wood and charcoal smoker grill. One of the candidates I like is The Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill and it is displayed here: http://www.grillsdirect.com/charcoal-grills/grills-with-carts/chargrillersmokinpropackage.cfm

 

Unfortunately reviews on the above site are not convincing and I think that they were created by robot.

Does anyone own this smoker? I appreciate any information about it you have.

 

Thank you in advance.

Max

 

[lookwow]

I think you will find a lot of people have either the MES, WSM, UDS, GOSM, SV24. They are some of the better smokers out there.

 

[baton]

What I am hoping to find is combination of wood and charcoal smoker.  By looking at your suggestions Weber Smokey Mountain might work but I think it is only charcoal, is that right?