Recommend a Smoker!

[onewhippedpuppy]

It’s time for our next family purchase - a smoker! I say “family purchase” because my wife loves to cook and I love to eat, so it works! I’d love good/bad recommendations from the braintrust. I’d like to keep budget under $2k and this will be for smoking only, we already have a nice Weber that we intend to keep for basic grilling purposes.

[Chocaholic]

My son loves his Traeger. Following our move, I've got my eye on a Yoder smoker...apparently as good as it gets. https://www.yodersmokers.com/pellet/

[onewhippedpuppy]

My BIL has a Yoder pellet smoker, they are made semi-locally in Yoder KS so that’s pretty cool. They seem to be more designed for dual use, are there better options for only smoking?

[rfuerst911sc]

A few things I think I know about smokers . The thicker the metal the better as it retains heat . Good quality gaskets to retain heat and smoke . Do you want to learn how to really do low and slow ? If the answer is yes I think a real wood burning setup is the way to go . You have the ability to use real wood cut to length and/or real wood charcoal . That's about all I know

[fanaudical]

I have a charcoal-fired kamado-style grill (company that made it is now defunct). I have been casually looking at others.

I've looked at Traegers but the steel seems thin and friends complain about the electronics going out.

The two lines I do like are Yoder (noted above) and Green Mountain Grills:

https://www.greenmountaingrills.com/

Both seem to have thicker steel when compared to a Traeger and the both have better warranties.

I do lean toward the Yoder stuff but it's a bit pricy. The downside to the Green Mountain Grill options is that they seem to be manufactured in China.

[greglepore]

Do you want a pellet smoker or an honest to goodness real hardwood smoker?

[onewhippedpuppy]

We would consider a legitimate hardwood or charcoal smoker. Pellets would be handy because we also have a pellet stove in our house, but I don’t want a half-assed smoker because it’s designed to double as a grill too.

[greglepore]

I'd shop marketplace or somewhere for something like this https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1146746673676091/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A66dfa45c-257d-4a85-b277-106d62df0232
I have the current Chinese "Brinkman" clone - DynaGlo. Its available from Amazon and elsewhere. The firebox is a little light duty but has held up for 4 years or so and is still going. If I wanted a heavy duty offset its hard to go wrong with a Yoder, but they're real money.

[greglepore]

Also look at Horizon and Shirley Fabrication.

[Dixie]

If I had to have a smoker, I'd pick this one. Oh, wait, y'all mean the OTHER kinda smoker.... Nevermind....

[rfuerst911sc]

To me this is a decent first time smoker grill . An offset box so you can easily tend to the fire without disturbing the meat . Good size cooking surface for slabs of meat and/or pans and racks . Pretty basic so not overwhelming to learn on .

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1237331267810642/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A82fb11ac-0d67-4c42-a400-8e70c30e3165

[gacook]

We got this one recently: https://www.acehardware.com/departments/outdoor-living/grills-and-smokers/smokers/8033427?x429=true&x429=true&gclid=50b43fd6eca81058c64058b83073176a&gclsrc=3p.ds&gclid=50b43fd6eca81058c64058b83073176a&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=50b43fd6eca81058c64058b83073176a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLAs_FF4-BBQ_Outdoor-Living_Grills-and-Smokers_Other_Other&utm_term=4582077287903619&utm_content=Outdoor-Living_Grills-and-Smokers_Smokers_All

Not from Ace, but same smoker. We love it.

**edit** That link is terrible...(but works). It's a PitBoss vertical smoker. Has 5 racks, so you can smoke lots of different stuff all at once!

[jrj3rd]

For ease of use and consistently good outcome look at a Big Green Egg. Fabulus heat retention and I can get 16 hours plus cooking time with a single load of lump charcoal for full size packer brisket cooking.

[herr_oberst]

Warning: Smoking can be really pleasurable.

[Bill Douglas]

This proves Tabs is NOT coming back.

Asking for a recommendation on a smoker would have been the highlight of his year. Even better than predicting the crash of the world's financial systems.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Dixie

If I had to have a smoker, I'd pick this one. Oh, wait, y'all mean the OTHER kinda smoker.... Nevermind....

I should probably keep that one far, far away from my wife.

Thanks all for the recommendations! Big Green Egg is another that we have looked at, they aren't stupid expensive and seem pretty straightforward. I'll check out the others that everybody has suggested.

[craigster59]

It depends on if you want to "babysit" or go about your day without having to constantly monitor temps, dampers, airflow, etc.

Some like Traeger for its ease of use and "set it and forget it" capabilities. I know others that think offset is the way to go and the only "real BBQ".

I've done off set, Weber, Kamado (BGE) and Traeger. I now use Traeger since it's usually ribs, chops and chicken. I can set the Traeger and monitor it with my phone. Easy peasy. I'm a lazy ass.

[greglepore]

One thing that will really help if you do a woodburner and not a pellet stove is a wifi temp unit. I have a cheapish inkbird 4 channel from Amazon. You can set alarms on the phone app and go do other things rather than babysit the smoker for a 9 hr brisket.

[herr_oberst]

Someone brought a smoked apple pie to the christmas dinner this year; baked in the Traeger..

Wow. To use an old cowboy word, it was larapin. Just a touch of smoke.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

There's only one choice.

Franklin BBQ Pit