Which smoker and why?

[diyelker]

So, the more I do this, the more I enjoy it, and I'm getting slightly better with each round as well. I mainly will be smoking summer sausages, snack sticks etc (I'm sure I'll branch out more in the future). I have a small electric smoker and it does the job, but it needs a good amount of babysitting. So, I'm considering a new smoker/smokehouse. I want something that will hold temp extremely accurately. If I go big enough, then I could potentially start processing for our entire deer camp if we do a group effort. What should I be looking at? Ideally, I'd like to smoke over 50 lbs of summer sausage at a time, if we do it as a group. Also, if we do this as a group we could potentially spend a little more than what I would individually. So, what type of smoker should we be looking for? We have some DIYers in the group as well. However a good store bought doesn't scare us either. What would be the "ideal" setup here???? I feel like this is our weak link right now. We can debone, grind, mix, stuff really quickly.....but smoking 10 lbs at a time is a real liability to our efficiency.

 

[mkriet]

I'm not sure on any smokers you could buy that would be big enough for that, but I can say that I built a smoke house based off of this post - http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/157280/small-smokehouse-build

I have mine setup pretty similar to this, with a propane burner from my turkey fryer that I never used.  I did a batch of 25 lbs a week or so ago, and it turned out great.  I could've easily fit double that amount in this smoker.  

Also, I was very happy with the way it held the temperature once I got it dialed in.  It took 10 hours to do the summer sausage, and I was able to maintain temperature all day long with minimal adjustment.  My smokehouse is not insulated, but by insulating you could easily increase the efficiency of the smoke house.  

There are also some other very nice smokehouse builds on here using cedar wood, and a separate firebox that you would burn wood in for your heat source.  I was going to follow this design, but I didn't want to put the extra work in to do all the brick work for the fire box, and I don't have a lot of wood available for fuel.  Plus, the propane is easy to maintain the temperature you are  looking for.  Some others also have smoke houses like this built, and use an electric heating element with an electronic PID to control the temp range.  This may be a little more expensive, and I didn't have an electrical outlet near the location where my smokehouse was going to be setting.  

Good luck, hope you can find something that works for you.