re: First smoker?

Cut my teeth on a home manufactured and constructed 84 gallon offset stick burner. Don’t be intimidated by it. Just align your expectations and understand there is a learning curve. I freaking love it and smoke every weekend.

I’ve had smoked food on expensive smokers and I’ve had it on some of the cheapest smokers out there. I’m talking like $75 bullet smokers on Amazon.

The cheap ones do just as good.

It is more about the cook than the cooker imo

quote:

---

everything weber is over priced.

---

I’ve never regretted buying anything Weber. And I’ve bought a lot of grilling and smoking BS I regret.

quote:

---

you are telling me a 22" WSM is worth 550 bucks..... Im only referring to the WSMs and kettles.... they are stamped painted metal and should be super cheap... not hundreds of dollars. 18"WSM is 420 bucks...it is not worth 300 bucks more than this.

---

Those prices are way higher than what most of us on this site paid for the WSM (myself included). I love my Smokey Mountain, but yeah everything is out of whack rn

quote:

---

The cheap ones do just as good.

It is more about the cook than the cooker imo

---

The issue with a the cheaper ones is the often arent sealed very tight and with the thin metal they dont retain heat as well. I learned on a POS and you are right in the sense that you can produce a good product even on a cheap one but its better to invest a little extra the first time and get one that performs well and can last.

I started with a knock-off Weber Smokey Mountain from Brinkman with the intention of upgrading later. Everything I've made on it has been excellent so never bothered to get a different one. My one/only complaint is I'd like to have more surface area, I can get four ~15 lb pork butts in it but no more than that. I wouldn't mind having more room, but it's honestly not bothering me enough to change.

quote:

---

you are telling me a 22" WSM is worth 550 bucks


Absolutely, it’s a great smoker. Simple but quality construction and well thought out.

---

no it is not "worth" the 550 bucks.. is it a good produce, yes. is it over priced absolutely.

quote:

---

no it is not "worth" the 550 bucks.. is it a good produce, yes. is it over priced absolutely.

---

Agreed. I wouldn't spend more than $350 for one. Weber has very good designs and their standard kettle grills are a good value for the money, but they want way too much for the larger kettles and the WSMs. They aren't made well enough to justify the price to me.

quote:

---

I just disagree with this mindset. You should learn to smoke on a traditional smoker to learn everything there is to know and all the variables.

I know several people who started out with pellets. It doesn’t really teach you much as the grill is doing most of the work.

---

I'll be contrarian and disagree with your disagreement. Not about the learning all the variables part. But my personal opinion is by making the variables (temperature, time, smoke quantity and quality) easy to control you can concentrate on adjusting the variables to create the finished product you want.

Feels like I started smoking meats just yesterday but I look back and it's been over 20 years since I got my first smoker. I started on a cheap horizontal offset. I've used everything from tow behind giant competition offset smokers to ugly drums to WSM to BGEs and knockoffs. Stick burning taught me more about stoking and maintaining a fire more than how to make quality BBQ. I've gotten pretty good and maintaining a good temperature on the various apparatus I've used over the years, but the one thing I've learned is the quality of the BBQ has nothing to do with the amount of stress and labor I've had to put into maintaining the heat source.

Even pellet grills can have big temperature swings in the cooking process. I personally think the easiest and best tool to learn how to smoke meat is a propane vertical smoker. Many of the cheaper propane smokers have a shite wood chip/smoke box and a water pan that is inadequate in size. Usually those problems can be easily corrected. Make sure the smoke box keeps the wood from flaring up by limiting the oxygen to the chips (never soak wood chips it makes for bad smoke). Make sure the water pan holds a good volume of water and comes within an inch or two of all sides of the smoker. Then you can control exactly how much smoke the meat gets at an exact temperature. You have complete control over all the variables and can dial in the meat exactly how you want it. For chicken you can cook the first 1/3 of the cook low and slow over the water pan, then pull the pan and turn up the heat to get good crispy skin. Now I've never used an electric but the knock in the past was you can't get them hot enough.

I still use my 17 year old Great Outdoor Smokey Mountain vertical propane smoker several times a year. If I want set it and forget it no hassle BBQ its the one I go to. Especially if I want to do an overnight smoke where I start the meat late at night to be ready before lunch the next day that's the one I use. Or if I have a questionable quality brisket without a lot of marbling that would be easy to dry out, she's the old faithful that can turn anything into good meat.

Rec Tec Bulleseye. Love mine. Most versatile smoker/grill I have.