Help Picking a Smoker

Thanks smokinit

I wanted to say thanks to smokinit. I just got off the phone with him on a Sunday afternoon. He was very personable and let me ask all kinds of questions. It was great that I was able to ramble around with not much of a cohesive structure to my questions and yet he was awesome in listening to me and giving me all the facts. He did not bash any of the various products. He is great and I highly recommend anyone to give him a call or ask him questions here in the forum. He also made some suggestions on which smoker would be a good fit for my needs and didn't try and upsell me. He told me call him at any time day or night, weekend or weekday and he will pick up or call me back in a few minutes. Impressive customer service.

I am starting to narrow down my choices and will update everyone as the day gets closer. This is awesome! I'm hoping to have everything ready for Thanksgiving :thumb:
 
Toast said:
Going by your list, Have you considered a Crock Pot?
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Ouch. Just cause I'm looking for something to make things easier, doesn't mean I'm looking to plug in and walk away... otherwise I'd get an electric :wink:

BTW, my wife did try the crock pot and tried to convince us that it was practically the same thing :eusa_clap. She was voted down... way down.
 
BBQLuver said:
I wanted to say thanks to smokinit. I just got off the phone with him on a Sunday afternoon. He was very personable and let me ask all kinds of questions. It was great that I was able to ramble around with not much of a cohesive structure to my questions and yet he was awesome in listening to me and giving me all the facts. He did not bash any of the various products. He is great and I highly recommend anyone to give him a call or ask him questions here in the forum. He also made some suggestions on which smoker would be a good fit for my needs and didn't try and upsell me. He told me call him at any time day or night, weekend or weekday and he will pick up or call me back in a few minutes. Impressive customer service.

I am starting to narrow down my choices and will update everyone as the day gets closer. This is awesome! I'm hoping to have everything ready for Thanksgiving :thumb:
Click to expand...

Hey bud great chatting with you also today:thumb:
 
bdare said:
Sounds like you need a Big Green Egg...
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Don't listen to this guy. He may be from Texas and all but he doesn't know $hit about BBQ. :p

For what it's worth I went through the same thing just a month ago. I have a bad back and got tired of breaking down and reaching down in the WSM 22 for the last 7 years or so. So I wanted something that was easy to use and I didn't care about portability.

After a lot of research and stretching of the budget I went with a Humphreys DownEast Beast. It's expensive and shipping sucks but this is going to be my hopefully last and long term smoker 'til I keel over and die over it.
 
After doing a lot of reading it sounds like if I had to choose between a Humphreys and a Backwoods, I would choose the Humphreys. I'm seeing very little on the Kat so I'll probably steer away from that one. That leaves just the LSG and the Humphreys to pick between.

Has anyone cooked on/own/sell/seen these smokers and could comment as to them in comparison to one another?

Thanks
 
If I was within driving distance to Kat I'd give them a call before wrighting them off, shipping on these are quite expensive. They just started making a insulated vertical cabinet smoker so there wont be a lot of feedback. I am confident though that it would be done right, checkout their builds on this forum, they are very impressive.

Humphrey's and LSG both make great smokers flip a coin either one will meet your needs and last you a lifetime.
 
Humphreys all the way. Not trying to take business away from smokinit because his is a awesome guy/dealer, but the St. Louis Bbq store is also a dealer on here and has amazing customer service as well and is a little closer to you so might bring down the shipping. My brother and I have both used him. Also have you tried checking for a dealer closer to you? I know the Kansas City Bbq store sells them as well as Bbq pit stop in Utah.

http://www.stlbbqstore.com/

http://kc-bbq-store.myshopify.com/

http://www.bbqpitstop.com/
 
The Pitmaker BBQ Safe has internal cooking chamber dimensions of 24" T x 21" D x 18" W and weighs under 500 lbs with the cart option. Based on the detailed information you provided it sounds like this would be the perfect option for you. Why did it not make your final list?
 
dont have any of these but...

from the looks of your pros and cons you should be going with a backwoods. You said a con was 4 inches between racks but for your interest in ribs that is not going to affect anything. Maybe a little crowded with bigger cuts of meat but a bigger cut will feed 6-20 people easier.

Maybe this is not what you wanted to hear. This is my take on your critiques.

Also, don't know the company but BQ Grills was not on your list. They make a cabinet I saw that looked very roomy and is taller set that some and seemed nice. But again, I haven't got one.
 
Last edited:
KevinJ said:
If I was within driving distance to Kat I'd give them a call before wrighting them off, shipping on these are quite expensive. They just started making a insulated vertical cabinet smoker so there wont be a lot of feedback. I am confident though that it would be done right, checkout their builds on this forum, they are very impressive.

Humphrey's and LSG both make great smokers flip a coin either one will meet your needs and last you a lifetime.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately they aren't within driving distance.

I know I put that coin around here somewhere
 
Sfine118 said:
Humphreys all the way. Not trying to take business away from smokinit because his is a awesome guy/dealer, but the St. Louis Bbq store is also a dealer on here and has amazing customer service as well and is a little closer to you so might bring down the shipping. My brother and I have both used him. Also have you tried checking for a dealer closer to you? I know the Kansas City Bbq store sells them as well as Bbq pit stop in Utah.

http://www.stlbbqstore.com/

http://kc-bbq-store.myshopify.com/

http://www.bbqpitstop.com/
Click to expand...

I guess the reason I reached out to smokinit was because I kept seeing his name here in the forum answering all kinds of questions.

As far as shipping, I was told it will be the same regardless since I'll be getting some add ons, so it will be shipped from Humphreys when they finish building it.
 
BBQLuver said:
I guess the reason I reached out to smokinit was because I kept seeing his name here in the forum answering all kinds of questions.

As far as shipping, I was told it will be the same regardless since I'll be getting some add ons, so it will be shipped from Humphreys when they finish building it.
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I hear ya! Smokinit is awesome I've talked to him a few times as well. I was just trying to give you more options closer to home. But if it's all going to cost the same definitely use him.
 
jermoQ said:
from the looks of your pros and cons you should be going with a backwoods. You said a con was 4 inches between racks but for your interest in ribs that is not going to affect anything. Maybe a little crowded with bigger cuts of meat but a bigger cut will feed 6-20 people easier.

Maybe this is not what you wanted to hear. This is my take on your critiques.

Also, don't know the company but BQ Grills was not on your list. They make a cabinet I saw that looked very roomy and is taller set that some and seemed nice. But again, I haven't got one.
Click to expand...

I am completely open to critiques as I have only owned WSM smokers. And since I can only go by websites, pictures and posted specs on the smokers I'm trying to make an educated guess with the help of all of you. So bring on the critiques (except for the crock pot one :wink:)

I hear ya about the space issue though. That has been a big headache for me since I want to have room for the big stuff but not waste space when doing ribs or even bacon :)hungry:). So I'm thinking I'll order an extra grate or two and use those when I'm cooking the ribs and bacon and leave them out otherwise or even mix/match.

I originally was going to go with a BW but more and more I saw people recommend the Humphreys over the BW... so I crossed it off the list.

BTW, I saw the BQ Grills after I posted the spreadsheet. I'm looking at them again, but at some point ya gotta stop window shopping and start smoking.
 
Peterock4040 said:
The Pitmaker BBQ Safe has internal cooking chamber dimensions of 24" T x 21" D x 18" W and weighs under 500 lbs with the cart option. Based on the detailed information you provided it sounds like this would be the perfect option for you. Why did it not make your final list?
Click to expand...

That is a good question that I do not have a good answer for. Now I gotta go back and take another look :doh:

Also, are you sure about those dimensions? I was guessing at the chamber dimensions based on grate size and spacing.
 
i hear that

BBQLuver said:
at some point ya gotta stop window shopping and start smoking.
Click to expand...

I am totally in agreement with that! I think you are on the verge of ordering. Looking forward to pron!:hungry:
 
There's a guy on the Humphreys Smoker Users page on FB that is selling a tricked out Down East Beast for $2400, he's in SD. Heck of a deal.
 
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