Smoker recomendations

[bigorange]

For smoking you can’t beat the Big Green Egg. For overall versatility and ease of use I love my Traeger or whatever pellet grill you prefer. Steaks, burgers, ribs, pork shoulder, pizza, you name it...we love the pellet grill. 

[metau]

I have had an electric smoker, 3 different offset box smokers, a WSM barrel smoker, and a Traeger pellet smoker. I am currently looking to move into either a MAK 1 star or Yoder YS640 pellet smoker. Enjoyed nothing about the electric smoker. Loved the smoke flavors of the box smokers (especially when I had my property and own supply of mesquite), but I messed up many of my longer smokes due to not waking up often enough to maintain the temp. The barrel smoker and Traeger were both smaller than I wanted, but I love the ease of using a pellet smoker, hence why I am looking for a MAK or Yoder. I still have my weber gas grill for searing and grilling, and should I ever decide to get rid of it, would likely just get a hibachi.

[bonecollector]

I use my traegar for everything. I was skeptical at first and didnt want to drop all the cash on a new one, so I found a used one on offer up. Now I want to buy the bigger one.

[lamrith]

Get a pellet smoker of some sort.  your $ range is sort of the low end of things, so you will not get the nice features like PID controller, but it gets you a start and there are aftermarket controllers you can buy later to upgrade if you want.

Pellet grills will not put out the heavy smoke profile like a stick, elect or propane smoker.  BUT it is a nice subtle flavor that does not bother those that do not like smoked food.  Better yet they are ultra flexible cookers and can do everything.  Anything you bake, can cook on pellet smoker, plus low N Slow, and some of them also will get higher temps (500*) so you can even grill on them.

Make sure you get a good pellet, that can really make a difference.  Most pellets on west coast are 60-80% alder and the rest is the flavor on the bag.  There are a few brands that are pure 100% flavor wood like Lumberjack (I am a dealer), BBQ Delight, and Cookin pellets are the ones I know of.

[Little Creek Calls]

I have had several electric smokers, an offset charcoal smoker and have been using a Yoder pellet smoker for the past 5 years. I have liked them all but would never go back from using a pellet smoker now. There are different things you can do to get almost the same flavor out of a pellet smoker as you can out of charcoal or electric. First is using a smoke tube that burns pellets and goes on the grill with the food. You get more than double the smoke output than your normal pellet smoke. You can also use it and get smoke at any temp using the tube, super hot bake or almost no heat in a cold smoke because it is not burning in the fire box. Another option is mixing in charcoal pellets with your hard wood pellets. My ultimate smoker would be the Yoder YS1500. It's to bad there is no longer a Yoder dealer in AZ and shipping is to expensive (around $550 to ship the YS1500, they are really heavy and come assembled on a pallet). 

[muledeerarea33?]

Get 100 fire brick, a shovel, and a cord of hard wood. A hatchet and an ax is handy too. Pit/smoke your meats. I bought a gas grill for the first time in my life a year or 2 ago. It does great but after 20 years of smoking with wood, it seems real hard to change. I tried.

[CatfishKev]

Plus one on adding a smoke tube to the pellet smoker. With the two there's nothing you can't do. Imo the best bang for the buck once you consider pellet dump and ash clean out is the camp chef. The woodwind version is nice but your paying just for the stainless steel which just gets dirty anyway. Even the traegers are made in china now and have the same issues as the camp chefs and gmg's.  I got the 2nd to cheapest camp chef off amazon and will add the side burner later.  

[ctafoya]

Looks like I have a lot more to think about. I'll primarily just start out on sausages and jerky, and move up from there. 

[wellhead]

I got a 30” Masterbuilt off AmAzon. Use it every week or 2 for pork or a brisket. It’s great. The only issue is if your recipie is a bust or not. That part is trial n error. 

Mine is electric so I can start it before bed and the wife pulls it out mid day the next day. It’s a little more worry free.

[bonecollector]

Briskets on sale at fry’s 1.77lb just fyi

[25-06]

2 hours ago, wellhead said:

I got a 30” Masterbuilt off AmAzon. Use it every week or 2 for pork or a brisket. It’s great. The only issue is if your recipie is a bust or not. That part is trial n error. 

Mine is electric so I can start it before bed and the wife pulls it out mid day the next day. It’s a little more worry free.

I have a masterbuilt as well. I like the fact that I can check on it with the wireless remote. Real simple.

[25-06]

37 minutes ago, bonecollector said:

Briskets on sale at fry’s 1.77lb just fyi

Thanks for the heads up.

[trophyseeker]

8 hours ago, 25-06 said:

I have a masterbuilt as well. I like the fact that I can check on it with the wireless remote. Real simple.

Me too. I've had mine for about 10 years and it's still going strong. 

[ctafoya]

22 hours ago, wellhead said:

I got a 30” Masterbuilt off AmAzon. Use it every week or 2 for pork or a brisket. It’s great. The only issue is if your recipie is a bust or not. That part is trial n error. 

Mine is electric so I can start it before bed and the wife pulls it out mid day the next day. It’s a little more worry free.

Just picked one up. Thanks for all the input from everyone. I'll let you know how it works out.