Once you try a good pellet grill/smoker, you'll never go back.
I currently have a Green Mountain Grills Daniel Boone pellet smoker and Can not say enough good things about it. You get a lot of bang for your $$$. I've had it for just over 2 years and use it at least a couple times a month and it works as good today as the day I bought it.
Easy to operate, easy to clean and puts out some mighty tasty "Q"
I started out with one of the old bullet electric water smokers, then upgraded to the masterbuilt electric and finally discovered the GMG Smokers. For set it and forget it smoking a pellet can not be beat IMO
I have a Green Mountain Grill, Daniel Boone model. It’s a pellet smoker and I friggin love it. I bought it a few years ago for about 370. At the time they were selling for 550. I got the old model that did not have Bluetooth.
It truly is set and forget. I used to have a propane cabinet style smoker and it was decent but you really have to babysit it for hours to maintain a steady temp.
With little ones at the house, the pellet smoker rules. There is no way I could dedicate a half day to smoking meat anymore.
I can put a brisket in at midnight and wrap it at 6 or 7 am.
A few hours later, pull it from grill and let it rest. By lunchtime, we are feasting on brisket.
If you shop around, you can get the 20lb bags of pellets for 10 bucks. Most meats will only take so many hours of absorbing smoke, so sometimes I will wrap pork butts or brisket and finish in oven to save pellets.
I was eating at a bbq joint once and we were talking about smokers. The owner overheard us and said, “get a pellet smoker. So much easier”. He was using a huge barrel smoker.
I got the Pit Barrel Cooker a couple of years ago. I think it was $299 when I bought it. I looked at the Weber Smokey Mountain as well but I’ve been very happy with the PBC. It’s extremely idiot proof. You basically set a damper based on your altitude then you really never worry about temperature control again. I’ve yet to have a bad result with it.
If you are looking for a BBQ pit style smoker, I can highly recommend the Pit Barrel Cooker. Had mine two years now and it makes great BBQ with very little fussing during cooking.
The Pit Barrel Cooker is not a cold smoker though. It's not for making smoked cheese, fish, jerky or things like that.
I have to second the earlier comments about the Pit Barrel Cooker, I finally bought one last year to be able to cook more than one rack of ribs. For those times my Webber kettle just wasn't big enough. I can get 8 full racks in the PBC if I ever need to... I'm very happy with the results I get, very little fussing with it. Light it and cook.
Camp Chef Woodwind pellet smoker here. Get yourself the propane sear box attachment with it and you'll never want anything else. Has some great features built in, it really is set and forget. You can thank me later.
I bought a Bradley 4 rack electric smoker from Amazon a few years ago. It works well and you do not have to babysit it. This is my first smoker and I see no reason for me to get anything else. It uses the pressed wood pucks and auto feeds a new puck every 20 minutes. I like that I can unplug the heating element and still get good smoke for chesses and vegies. Bradley also makes a 6 rack if you want a larger one. The 4 rack suites us just fine. I can load it up with brined salmon and have plenty for days. It will hold a couple racks of ribs or a brisket just fine. Check it out.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FJZ150/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Try looking at the Orion Cooker. No baby sitting. Just come back in the set amount of time. I have one and it is the simplest smoker I have ever used. I get consistent results.
I'm guess the OP might be inundated with various opinions at moment.
Maybe @Jiffster might have better direction by submitting a poll.
Seriously (as in items in the cart waiting for credit card) considering the Pit Barrel Cooker. Great price, portable, coal, low/no babysitting, great reviews.....
Update as of 2:45 PM: I just ordered a Pit Barrel Cooker!
Wow, so much good info. Just commenting on a few below but taking it all into consideration
These Green Mountain's look very nice. So is the WiFi model a must have for not having to babysit a lot?
These look very interesting and the price sure is right! You're using one of these on a wood deck too, correct?
We have brick pavers now but may be going to a Trex deck.
Interesting. what about when the weather is bad?
So this thing cooks faster than a typical smoker huh?
Low price for sure.
Inundated yes.... but great info!
Seriously appreciate it!
Good choice! A friend of mine has one of those and it puts out some awesome meat!
You opened up another can of worms with that Trex deck. A little but be careful with that especially if your deck has a southern exposure. Attached is the picture of our 10 year old Trex deck that was supposed to last forever. It's terribly faded, stained & warped. It's even separating in parts from all the expansion and contraction over the seasons. Apparently sawdust and recycled milk cartons aren't the perfect material for a forever-deck. According to the fine print with Trex, this is considered normal wear and tear so it's not covered under warranty.
I'm in the same boat myself as we're looking to replace this one. Some of the all-plastic products like Zuri look like the warranty might be more inclusive and also longer (25 years I think). Aluminum looks like it might be the real deal maintenance free stuff. But, it's not a very popular residential choice so it's hard to find a contractor to install it and you'll pay up front.
In the end, we may just end up going with cedar since the up-front cost is reasonable and you know what you're getting out of it. We are going to hear out a few more contractors though. They all claim to install the best product on the market that will last forever and be absolutely maintenance free.
Are you looking for smoking only? Kamado grills are great for grilling and smoking
Good choice! A friend of mine has one of those and it puts out some awesome meat!
You opened up another can of worms with that Trex deck. A little but be careful with that especially if your deck has a southern exposure. Attached is the picture of our 10 year old Trex deck that was supposed to last forever. It's terribly faded, stained & warped. It's even separating in parts from all the expansion and contraction over the seasons. Apparently sawdust and recycled milk cartons aren't the perfect material for a forever-deck. According to the fine print with Trex, this is considered normal wear and tear so it's not covered under warranty.
I'm in the same boat myself as we're looking to replace this one. Some of the all-plastic products like Zuri look like the warranty might be more inclusive and also longer (25 years I think). Aluminum looks like it might be the real deal maintenance free stuff. But, it's not a very popular residential choice so it's hard to find a contractor to install it and you'll pay up front.
In the end, we may just end up going with cedar since the up-front cost is reasonable and you know what you're getting out of it. We are going to hear out a few more contractors though. They all claim to install the best product on the market that will last forever and be absolutely maintenance free.
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Awe smoked food, nothing better.
I have 2 smokers; one I built called an ugly drum smoker, it uses hardwood charcoal. Cooks a lot of meat if needed.
The other is Masterbuilt Electric. Never wanted this unit until I started looking at cold smoking. With an A-Maze-N-Smoker http://www.amazenproducts.com/ you can cold smoke because you are using the unit to make heat just to hold smoke and your product. I have smoked cheese and it is great. Have to keep the temperature below 90 degrees F for cheese.
thanks for the heads up on the deck... i was seriously looking at the composite stuff, but now i dont know if its worth it.. my wood deck has held up better than that over the past decade with the only complaint being the need to strip and restain and seal every other year. (hence the reason i wanted to replace it...)
I'm a little late to the party here, but I made my "Little Brown Egg" for $35 15 years ago out of Flower Pots. Today it would probably cost $50 or $60. I have owned 4 commercial smokers and it is by far the best one of the batch. Someone offered to give me a Pellet Smoker and I turned it down. My Flower Pots have about an 3/16" crust inside and it is almost as set it and forget it as it gets.
In fact I converted the Cabella's 7 in 1 smoker to a Pizza Oven after using it for ribs. Way to much attendance needed and the Ribs didn't turn out as good. The Flower Pot Pizza Oven Works GREAT though.
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