Gas or Electric?

[toughguy]

FF has masterbuilt smokers on sale this week. $100 for gas or electric - your choice. Which heat source do you guys prefer and why? At $100 the wife should let me pull the trigger.

[OnAFly]

I would go electric. They are more controllable and you can get lower temps.

[reinhard1]

i seen those smokers. great buy for the money. i would go electric like Fly said. good luck.

[Leaky]

I also saw that ad. The problem I see with propane is having to have multiple gas tanks and worrying about running out during a cook. I just bought a Masterbuilt electric last week and it ran flawlessly on it 1st run.

I'm a complete novice, but did a lot of homework before buying. The one you are looking at doesn't have the digital thermostat. From what I've read, spend the extra money for a good digital thermometer to make sure your cooker temp is right and you're good to go.

[grey ghost]

I have this one (electric) and kicked out some good eats without the digital thermostat. I haven't used it for temp sensitive things like sausage so it's worked great for an entry level smoker. I'd pull trigger on the electric one and see how much you use it. If you use it a ton and want to upgrade that's always an option.

[toughguy]

Sounds like electric it is. They have a digital one there for another $60. decisions decisions decisions

[OnAFly]

I have the digital one. It's a great little smoker. I've only done temp sensitive stuff once, but I think the outcome had more to do with me than the smoker. Everything else I've done has been great with the exception of fish, which again is more me than the smoker. I've tested it with a couple digital thermometers and it's pretty close to what it say on the unit's thermo.

The nice thing is that I can set it and just check on it every couple hours and add chips if I need to. Also, you don't need to open the smoker and lose all that heat when you add chips.

[old goose hunter]

I bought one of these little smokers 3 weeks ago at FF, they had them on

sale for $99.00. I have a large walk in smoke house that I build a wood

fire in, and wanted something for doing a couple of fish fillets or

smoking a chicken or chops for dinner. I bought the propane one, I stood

there for 25 minutes trying to decide gas or electric. A guy walked up

and we started talking, he said he had the electric and it worked good

unless it is windy or cold. He said it is hard to keep the temp up if it

is at all windy. So I bought the propane one. It works great I have had

no trouble controlling the temp, and best of all if you want to crank

it up to finish something it will. Yesterday did a sirloin roast in it

smoked at 200 for 1 3/4ths hours. Then I cranked it up to 325 for about

20 minutes to internal temp of 135 degrees. So my 2 cents.