I need a smoker to compliment my deck, the lush tree canopy providing shade from above, the dogs, and the summer. However I'm leaving permanently, hopefully for somewhere far far away, in 7-8 months so I don't want to spend too much on something I might not be able to take with me. I'm hoping to find one under 200'ish, something cheap & simple that'll let me do a brisket. I've checked craigslist & ebay on and off the past 2 months for a used one but have only found custom smokers that are built as a trailer. Or vertical water smoker alien cocoon looking contraptions... Anyone have any rec's/tips where elsewhere to look? Thanks...
The Weber version of the "vertical water smoker alien cocoon looking contraptions..." kicks major ***. It does a great job of smoking briskets, turkeys, hams, ribs with very little babysitting of the heat, unless you are like me and like to babysit the heat to get the hell away from the women in my household. I had a cheaper version of one of these and it wasn't worth a crap. Leaked smoke and heat and was a pain to deal with. The Weber is well worth the cost.
cool, thanks for the links, I've honestly never seen one of these Weber style water smokers before, go figure... I've only encountered the metal drum style pits w/ fireboxes on the sides. how easy/effective is it to take out that water tray and then grill with this contraption? I don't have a grill other than a little camping stove edit: nm, found it here, just needs some tinkering and it's good to go... The Link
For grilling- you can remove the top section- leaving the bottom bowl- which contains the charcoal. The cooking grates fit nice on top of the charcoal ring- tho some of the grilling purists will tell you that there's too much of a height gap b/t the burning coals and the cooking surface (due to the ring height) to get a proper sear. Still- works pretty darn good if you're grilling a couple of steaks-- you're not going to get a bunch of food on it at one time though. This is a great/ cheap entry into the world of smoking- and once you get the nuances down- you can consistently keep a 200-225 temp going for 10+ hours. I routinely throw brisket/ butts on in the evening- without even checking the temp until morning. Pretty hard to mess up. btw- there are also some mods you can do to lower the grate closer to the charcoal if you like to hack.
The last brisket I cooked on the Weber smoker came out perfect. I put it on at 11pm, took it off at 11 the next morning, with very little monitoring. I think I only had to adjust the vents one time when I first checked the temp about 6am. It holds heat amazingly well.
Have you seen that episode of Good Eats where he builds a smoker out of a cardboard box and a hot plate?
Another vote for the Weber Smokey Mountain. I think the cheapo Brinkman smoker gave the bullet smoker a bad name. Like everyone has said, it's a great smoker that requires little maintenance to keep a steady temperature. I'll be firing it up on the 4th.
