Smoke Hollow 44" or MasterBuilt 40"

[heavyhev]

My Master Forge 30" is currently out of order. Leaves caught fire beneath it burnt hole in the propane line and has given me the excuse to look at something bigger. Probably will revive the Master Forge when the Artic Blast thaws but the new addition will be put to use for Thanksgiving. Leaning towards the SH 44 right now since it has two doors but the access and mods that can be done on MB 40 keeps me from making my decision. Using a skillet and replacing the water pan in the MB 40 seems rather easy but then the thought of opening the door to add wood is the big drawback for me. SH 44 drawback to me are the smoke dishes. Most have had success using tubes but I intend on using chunks. Read that some have used coffee cans but I'm wondering if some other type of pan (bread pan?) can be used for chunks. Probably will buy one or two racks and use one of the mesh racks on the lowest possible settings to place an aluminum pan (sand filled?) for heat sink and drip catching. Throw it away and start fresh instead of wrapping the included pan in foil. This is just an idea taken from other users, feedback or different mod would be appreciated. I'm ready to use a bit more propane but not sure if one of the two is a known propane hog but I would guess that between the two there wouldn't be much of a difference. Quantities of both a very low in my area stores so availability might be the determining factor but hopefully the knowledge shared with me here will be that factor.

 

[wolfman1955]

Heavy,
Good mornin, I had a Smoke Hollow 44, but gave it to my son when I got my Yoder Pellet Grill, wife sait I was taking up to much patio space. Son still uses it quite often. Just some info on the SH. It really was not that big of a gas hog in moderate weather, but like any non-insulated pit, when it gets cold outside it uses more fuel. Still not terrible though. There are a couple of down sides to the pit I wanted to tell you about, 1) The exhaust is out of the top of the unit and it had a tendency to build up condensation at the exhaust when it was cold outside, that would then drip back down on your food. Was an easy fix I just put a slanted shield that routed the condensation to the back wall. Was not a lot of condensation but it would leave dark spots where ever it dripped. 2) The wood chip trays were at best a pain, I could never quite get the hang of how they would react. Sometimes they would sit and smolder just fine and other times they would flair into open flames. I think wind had allot to do with that.
Here is a link to the mod I did to take care of that using the AMNPS and a mailbox.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/155584/getting-rid-of-the-wood-boxes-in-my-smoke-hollow-44-gasser
Not only did the mod take care of the wood chip issue it enabled me to cold smoke on the unit.
Over all the SH 44 is a nice smoker, easy to learn heat control and the food capacity is great.
Just thought I would give you my 2 cents worth.
Keep Smokin!!!
Wolf

 

[heavyhev]

Thanks for insight and mod possibilities. Really sure I'll do something different with the trays starting with seasoning it. I'll throw this out there as well about seasoning, dry seasoning is oil a must? Read where someone skipped the oil and wondered if more go this route than what I believe.

 

[wolfman1955]

I can't remember if I used oil or not when I seasoned my SH 44. I know I was pretty new to smoking so if the manufacture didn't say to use oil I probably didn't.

 

[demosthenes9]

I recently picked up a second SH44 and am very happy with both of them.   I'm one that got rid of the chip trays and went with an AMTS from Todd and I've been a happy camper ever since.   I have a various sizes of tubes that I use depending on how long I want the smoke to go.  Sometimes I'll throw two tubes in at the same time to get even more smoke, but that's usually when I've loaded the thing up with 10 butts, or 16 Sirloin Tips, or some other crazy amount of meat.

I'm working strictly from memory here, but if you pull the drip pan out, you ought to be able to put taller wood boxes in place.  You can put one of the mesh racks right on the very bottom of the smoke chamber if you want as the frame will support it.   

 

[heavyhev]

Just a quick report on what I actually used. Used a wire rack at the bottom of top door for my water pan. Sam's has an aluminum pan that covers most of the cooking surface allowing for easy cleaning. Just throw away the pan and a wipe up here and there. As for the wood chunks, went with small loaf pans. If you remove the chip trays that came with the smoker the loaf pans actually dropped right into the hole of the chip tray stands. However this caused the loaf pans to be too close to the heat so the chunks would flared up. I replaced the original chip trays and then sat the loaf pan on the chip trays and this has worked out well for me. Getting better at moving smoke from one burner to other. Still working on the switch any suggestions on maintaining temp when changing between burners would be great.