Which Smoker?

[vizsla01]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I need some advice on which smoker to buy. What are the pros vs. cons on gas vs. electric. Charcoal is out. Which models you all recomend also would be great. I am also going to post in the recipe area. Thanks in advance.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I too am in the process of looking.. I have read and researched that the electric may be better than the gas, as the gas adds humidity which is what you are trying to take out. I am leaning electric!

[Borch]

I'm intersted too!

I've been hearing that gas units usually have more output which is nice on a cold winter day and it's a bit easier to control tempature with the gas units.

[Walleye Guy]

I have a decent electric smoker that works very well in all seasons but the dead of winter. In the winter I do get smoke I need but generally the heat is not enough to get the meat to the 165-180 degree range. What I have done to eleviate this to some degree is put a large cardboard box around the outside of the smoker. The box is large enough so that there is an air space of at least a foot between the box and the smoker. This seems to insulate the smoke some. Even when I do this it takes much longer to smoke meat and birds.

A smoker that is more insulated than the stainless steel one I have would help eliminate the problem. I would imaginge a propane fired smoker would eliminate this issue.

[MN Mike]

Guess I'll add my $.02

We have 2 of the Smokey Mtn gas smokers and I have had no problem making Snack Stick, Polish, German and summer sausages in there, I do not use any water in the drip pan. We also smoke fish in there too and it turns out fine.

Also have make chickens, ham, ribs and prime rib in there with water in the drip pan. All you can say is excellent.

We also make dried venison in the smokers and even though I haven't run the smoker durning this process, myself, I would not mind it being a little dryer ( just my personal taste ) everyone else likes the way it turns out and it is very good.

I don't think the gas adds as much water to the process as you think it might but putting water in the drip pan definetly does.

When it comes to the electric units, I would think they are just fine and will do as good of job as the gas unit. Only draw back is the price and capacity.

Mike

[Bushwacker]

I have an electric barrel type smoker from Cabela's. I absolutely love it. I am an novice smoker at best and everything still turns out great. I went with electric because it is my first smoker and it is nice to just pull it out and plug it in. I have never ran into any problems until I tried to do a turkey last week. I could not get the actual temp of the bird over 170. The smoker maxes out at 200 deg. Which works for fish and strips of jerky, but whole poultry is tough when it gets a little cooler out. I have a nice, protected place for my smoker that is out of the wind, but it still doesn't get hot enough. That is my only gripe, but it could be a very big one depending on what you want to smoke.

[vizsla01]

I borrowed a neighbors smoker which was gas, and followed his directions with water pan and with the thermosat or setting on hi or start it only reached 200 and that was the max. What I am wondering is this normal? I know that you are supposed to smoke low around the 200 mark but it took an hr. to get there. The rack of spare ribs took about 7 hrs to make and were awesome. I used Hickory chips. AND this is why I am in the market for a smoker!!!

[Mike89]

I have this smoker too, it's been great for us. i would tell anyone to get this smoker. We got ours at grander. Now they could be on sale. Mike89

[MN Mike]

It should only take a couple minutes to heat a gas smoker. I know one of ours has a funky knob on it and if you don't set it just right, it doesn't burn very hot. I have no problem getting to 400 degree's with ours.

Mike

[iland99]

I just have a little cheap electric smoker, but it works just fine for everything I make in it. It doesn't really get hot enough, especially when using it in the dead of winter, but that problem is easily solved by finishing things off in the oven. I saved the box it came in and use that as an insulator to help with the heat problems.

[jigstick44]

This is a question for any of you out there who have homemade smokers. We have these switch cabinets at work that are 6' high x 3' wide x 2' deep. A few people have taken them to make smokers, and I just wanted to ask a few questions of the people on the site here what they thought. I want to insulate it, and I was thinking about 1/2" foil back insulation. Will that stuff affect the taste of the meat do you think? Also, is there a need for a drip pan in these things? Does the sausage drip alot? I am also debating whether to get 2 electric heating coils from Cabelas which have the wood pan mounted on them already, or a cast iron burner from an old turkey fryer. Will the electric get it hot enough? thanks in advance for any replies.

[vizsla01]

Mike89, I think that is where he got it. So heating it up is this common on yours? I moved the knob all over but when I moved it in the other direction you could watch the flame go lower.

[fishhook8]

I have been using different smokers for years. The key to any smoker is controling the temp. Smoking is intended to be at lower temperatures. I originally had an electric square one can't remember the brand. The heating element wasn,t big enough. I bought a electric frying pan at a garage sale it worked great with the control knob you could control the heat.

I was given a gas smoker as a gift. This was good because you could adjust the temp. It rotted out.

My wife bought me a combination stainless steel cooker smoker last year which was good, however the temperature is hard to control. I now use a $10 electric hot plate on top of the gas burner, works great.

If you want the best vension roast you have ever eaten, inject with a marinade, smoke for about six hours or until the internal temp is about 140 degrees

[Mike89]

I have mine fired up as I write this, doing some white fish. When I want I can lower the flame to almost nothing. But I can also make the rascal really HOT. But that is the one thing I don't do, the lower the better. I start no higher than 150 to 160 and after a while I bring it up to just under or at 200. I have had this for a few years now and really enjoy using it. if you have more questions I will try to answer then for you. Mike89

[loosegoose]

I have an electric Bradley smoker with the automatic smoke generator. What a fine product. Even works well in the cold as long as it's out of the wind.

[BLACKJACK]

My first smoker, a charcoal one, I didn't like because it really 'ate' a lot of charcoal. My second one with an electric element always pops the circuit breakers. Both of these were the 3 foot tall Brinkman/Charbroil types. My next one will definaltely be fired by gas. Thinking real seriously of making the homemade wooden one that I see in one of the other posts.

Question: Do you guys smoke all winter long or does it get too cold out? Seems like any smoker I've ever tried only works good in warmer temps...

[MN Mike]

I wish I would have had those plans a couple years ago before we bought the Smokey Mtn smokers, good units, just like the bigger capacity that the homemade one would have offered, probably would have tweaked the plans and made it a tad bigger even.

Haven't run the smoker in real cold weather but when it is cooler out, we just try our best to keep it out of the wind. Shouldn't be any problem getting the heat where you want it with a gas smoker, especially with a big burner in the bottom. Once the wood gets to smoking, that will help with the heat too.

We will be running the smoker in a few weeks, got til the end of muzzle season to see if we get anymore deer. Then we will process. I'm sure it will be cold then.

Mike

[Bad Catcher]

Jig,

I think that the cabinet will work great, and you may want to have a pan or deflector above the fire as the sausage will drip. How much? Depends on the meat and fat as well as the casing.

I know several MN DOT people that have these cabinets and they like them. They didn't say anything about needing insulation. They did say that it should be seasoned to get the "electrical" smell out. Burn some good smoke woods for a day and it should smell real nice.

[HarryG]

I have always used a charcoal smoker with the water pan. It works quite well. But I did look watch the food network and found out some more info. It appears that an eletric non water smoker is the way to go. The best salmon I ever ate came from eletric smoker without water.

[NEANGLER]

Too bad you wont go charocoal it is the best way to go for flavor. Stay away from the drip pan - have you ever seen a water pan in a smoke pit. One of the better charcoal ones is the one with the fire box on the side - you can control your temp much better. As for charcoal I only use it to get the fire going, after that it is all wood from there. I have had the gas type and stay away from it. I would go electric if i had to but still going for the natural way to go. My buddy and I did a test with salmon and he used his electric with the pucks and I used My charcoal/wood smoker. We brined the salmon in the same bucket of ingredients and smoked at the same temp for the same amount of time and at the end of the party all of my salmon was gone as 3/4 of his was still on the tray. Don't knock it, you will be suprised at the results. ANy reason why you do not want a woodburning smoker?

[HarryG]

I may go with charcoal. I just got to make sure I make the right decision for my Salmon.