Smoker Recommendations

[flyfish]

Krex. Thanks. It seems like both have their loyal following. Glad to hear the WSM does good in cold. I was leaning toward the WSM but the PBC has some really good reviews and following. One thing that is a plus for the WSM is if you seal it well you can snuff out the charcoal. There isn't a way to do that with the PBC.

 

[flyfish]

Well made the decision and chose the 22.5 WSM. Thanks for all of your input. Chose the bigger model since I figured if I need it I got it. One of the big drivers was price as well as a huge user base.

Looking at mods, almost all were to improve usability (i.e. Wheels, extra handles, etc). None were to improve base functionality like all of the mods I needed to do to the chargriller just to get it to work.

One of the things I was concerned about was fuel usage. I put 1 1/2 chimney of kings ford blue in and it ran between 245-265 on the top grate for about 4.5 to almost 5 hours. I shut it down and had some smaller partially burned pieces left. This was a test burn that I threw some bacon on just to season it. The temp outside was 34 degrees Fahrenheit with little to no wind. Very happy with the results.

It is big but not as big of a footprint as the chargriller.

Chose this over the PBC since it thought it would be more versatile plus the WSM has the ability to choke the fire and reuse coals. Not an option with the PBC.

Hoping to do a real cook in the next few weeks and will let you know how it all works.

Hopefully this will help someone else.