Side Smoker vs. Vertical Smoker

Cheap, Side box smoker's are fun but a lot of fire tending.

Offsets are like new puppies. Ya gotta watchem all the time. They can be fun though.

Verticals require less tending to the fire, and cheaper offsets require a lot of tending. Pricier offsets still require some tending, but not as much - usually a split every hour or so depending on the temp yer cooking at. I'd say, seeing as how you already have a vertical, to get an offset (if you can spring for a good one) and you'll have both options available - one that doesn't require tending, and one you can hang out around and drink beers - there's a lot to be said for both.

I've cooked on both and the reason I use uprights for both comp and backyard is that they are typically insulated and more efficient, require less attention, require less fuel and are more compact in size. The cooking differences between the offset and upright are really unique to the cooker. There are many designs with many tradeoffs among both cooker types.

That said, I do enjoy me a offset when the weather is great and I have the time to tend to it.

Cack said:

I intend on doing some comps in the future, so I'm wanting to start learning how to cook how I would for that. Isn't a side burner the basic style of bigger comp smokers?

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No, not necessarily. You see both types at comps.

Cack, I got addicted to this hobby about a year ago after my wife bought me a combo grill at Academy Sports (Sear burner, gasser, chargrill, offset smoker box). I thought it was awesome and it was on sale for $300.

I learned quickly that 99% of all cooks on the grill were done with the smoker box (stick burner - for brisket, chicken, butts, ribs) and the chargrill (for burgers-dogs-steaks). I rarely used the gas stuff.

After 8 months of use, the damn thing was falling apart. Decorative pieces fell off, moving parts warped and didn't perform as needed, and the cheap, thin metal construction would not hold temps during cool weather.

I loved cooking Q so much, but it killed my soul to use this cheap POS! So I told my wife "I've got a 40th b-day coming up soon and I'm gonna treat myself to a kick butt smoker."

First thing's first: You have to decide if you want to cook with charcoal or wood. "Old School" BBQ is done with a wood pit. I love working with wood, cutting wood, splitting wood, and stoking a fire. If you go with a stickburner (offset unit), you'll add wood every 45-60 min (but again, that's part of the FUN, if you enjoy it). Otherwise, you already know how charcoal units work. If I had chosen the charcoal route, I would have bought a Stumps, Backwoods, Pitmaker, etc. style unit (something insulated and will cook 10 hours on 10lbs. of charcoal).

When looking for maximum bang for my buck, just about everyone on this forum (and others) agreed that Lang was it. Every Lang owner I spoke to "Loved their Lang". I made up my mind that I wanted a Lang 60" trailer unit. It's big enough to have a major cookout (feeding 100+) and it's small enough to cook for my family of 4. It's also perfect for doing comps, if I ever get a wild hair.

Before I bought my Lang, I asked Myron Mixon, Ben Lang, and several other BBQ icons "Why should I buy a stickburner and babysit it, having to add wood every hour, when I can buy a Stumps, fill it up with fuel, and never have to get out of my recliner?" ---- The answer was the same, over and over: "You won't get the same flavor from charcoal as you will from a wood fired pit." --- Now, that doesn't mean you can't get awesome food from a charcoal unit. You CERTAINLY can. But a wood fired pit gives you a flavor that is all it's own.

If you decide to go with a stickburner, please, please, please get something with quality. Forget the $300 department store specials. They are thin metal units and will give you more headaches than you can imagine. Save up, get a good one, and not only will you be happier when using it, but it'll also LAST you a very, very long time. The Langs are made of 1/4" rolled steel. They come in 36" and 48" patio models......and 48, 60, 84, and 108 trailer rigs, in case you'd like to hook to it and go camping, tailgating, etc.

No, I'm not pushing "Lang" down your throat..... but I want you to know that I am yet another very satisfied Lang owner. I don't think you'll find anyone with a Lang that says "I can't stand this damn thing."

There's lots of brands to choose from and they all make great Q, just do yourself a favor and stick to the mainstream brands that already carry strong reputations for quality and great cooking results.

• Klose
• Jambo
• Yoder
• Meadow Creek
• Bubba Grills
• Lang

Regarding obtaining wood for a stickburner, I'm sure you can find all the wood you want, for FREE. You'll need a chainsaw, utility trailer, and wood splitter. Here in northeast Alabama, I've cut, split, and stacked red oak, cherry, hickory, and pecan......FREE! Just keep an eye on the local papers for "free firewood" --- "Tree down", etc. I even posted my phone number on a cork-board in my local grocery store, asking if anyone had a tree down in their yard. Got plenty of calls. :thumb:


Here's a pic of me and Ben Lang, the day I bought my smoker. 60" Deluxe smoker with 40" chargrill on the front.




I hope this helps and please feel free to PM me if you have questions. Good luck!!!

Great advice on buying quality and I would agree that Lang makes a great product that's very competitively priced :thumb:.

I'm not sure I agree about the clear flavor advantage of an offset vs. an upright though, but that's just my personal opinion.

Truth be told, I've cooked on Snyper's Lang in competition and it's a damn nice cooker... I almost bought it from Ben before Snyper jumped on it first. It did us well at the Jack. Having said that, I got less sleep maintaining temp in it than I typically do with my uprights in competition. For a backyard cooker who may do an 18 hour overnighter every couple months, feeding it every 40-50 mins is probably not as much of a consideration than it would be for a comp cook who's cooking a couple comps a month.

My $.02 would be to first commit to the type of cooking you'll be doing, determine your needs and what's important to you - then make your decision purely on what's truly important and essential for your cooking needs and not so much on what you're seeing more of at comps.

HTH

I'm in the process of bodging together an offset vertical.... the best, or worst of both worlds.

I don't know the answer. But, I'll add that you can use charcoal in an offset smoker to cut down on the babysitting, if you want to. I know Jack winner Mike Wozniak use charcoal in his http://www.peoriacookers.com/ . At the cooking class I took, he said he got about 6 hrs out of a load of charcoal. I think he uses a Guru too with it.

On a side note: If you want to try out the typical offset you can check craigslist and find a bunch of the $300 units from the outdoor stores for around 100-150.

If it were me, I'd want both :thumb:

Question is, what's your budget?
If it's the $200 -$300, I would go with a WSM, and run away from the Chargriller offset. I have both. I won't get rid of my Chargriller only because of sheer size.
Snyper77 recomended a Lang. I have cooked on one and they are awesome. But you lock yourself in to the temperature maintenance every hour.
If a WSM is too small, I like the Backwoods style cooker.

snyper77 said:

Cack, I got addicted to this hobby about a year ago after my wife bought me a combo grill at Academy Sports (Sear burner, gasser, chargrill, offset smoker box). I thought it was awesome and it was on sale for $300.

I learned quickly that 99% of all cooks on the grill were done with the smoker box (stick burner - for brisket, chicken, butts, ribs) and the chargrill (for burgers-dogs-steaks). I rarely used the gas stuff.

After 8 months of use, the damn thing was falling apart. Decorative pieces fell off, moving parts warped and didn't perform as needed, and the cheap, thin metal construction would not hold temps during cool weather.

I loved cooking Q so much, but it killed my soul to use this cheap POS! So I told my wife "I've got a 40th b-day coming up soon and I'm gonna treat myself to a kick butt smoker."

First thing's first: You have to decide if you want to cook with charcoal or wood. "Old School" BBQ is done with a wood pit. I love working with wood, cutting wood, splitting wood, and stoking a fire. If you go with a stickburner (offset unit), you'll add wood every 45-60 min (but again, that's part of the FUN, if you enjoy it). Otherwise, you already know how charcoal units work. If I had chosen the charcoal route, I would have bought a Stumps, Backwoods, Pitmaker, etc. style unit (something insulated and will cook 10 hours on 10lbs. of charcoal).

When looking for maximum bang for my buck, just about everyone on this forum (and others) agreed that Lang was it. Every Lang owner I spoke to "Loved their Lang". I made up my mind that I wanted a Lang 60" trailer unit. It's big enough to have a major cookout (feeding 100+) and it's small enough to cook for my family of 4. It's also perfect for doing comps, if I ever get a wild hair.

Before I bought my Lang, I asked Myron Mixon, Ben Lang, and several other BBQ icons "Why should I buy a stickburner and babysit it, having to add wood every hour, when I can buy a Stumps, fill it up with fuel, and never have to get out of my recliner?" ---- The answer was the same, over and over: "You won't get the same flavor from charcoal as you will from a wood fired pit." --- Now, that doesn't mean you can't get awesome food from a charcoal unit. You CERTAINLY can. But a wood fired pit gives you a flavor that is all it's own.

If you decide to go with a stickburner, please, please, please get something with quality. Forget the $300 department store specials. They are thin metal units and will give you more headaches than you can imagine. Save up, get a good one, and not only will you be happier when using it, but it'll also LAST you a very, very long time. The Langs are made of 1/4" rolled steel. They come in 36" and 48" patio models......and 48, 60, 84, and 108 trailer rigs, in case you'd like to hook to it and go camping, tailgating, etc.

No, I'm not pushing "Lang" down your throat..... but I want you to know that I am yet another very satisfied Lang owner. I don't think you'll find anyone with a Lang that says "I can't stand this damn thing."

There's lots of brands to choose from and they all make great Q, just do yourself a favor and stick to the mainstream brands that already carry strong reputations for quality and great cooking results.

• Klose
• Jambo
• Yoder
• Meadow Creek
• Bubba Grills
• Lang

Regarding obtaining wood for a stickburner, I'm sure you can find all the wood you want, for FREE. You'll need a chainsaw, utility trailer, and wood splitter. Here in northeast Alabama, I've cut, split, and stacked red oak, cherry, hickory, and pecan......FREE! Just keep an eye on the local papers for "free firewood" --- "Tree down", etc. I even posted my phone number on a cork-board in my local grocery store, asking if anyone had a tree down in their yard. Got plenty of calls. :thumb:


Here's a pic of me and Ben Lang, the day I bought my smoker. 60" Deluxe smoker with 40" chargrill on the front.

I hope this helps and please feel free to PM me if you have questions. Good luck!!!

Click to expand...

WOW that smoker is gorgeous . now I know what smoker I will be buying when I move back to the States; $3500 is a nice price.

I'll chime in inline with speed. In a perfect world, a Lang or Peoria (my dream cooker) might possibly be the best for you. But I have a modded $300 Brinkmann offset that I absolutely love. I have to check on it enough to give me something to do but not enough that it ruins my day. I also like to keep it old-school and don't use a Guru or remote therm. If I did I would have to check it even less. Don't be scared by a less expensive offset. There are 300 and 400 dollar offset pits out there that you might love.

Just checking out the side box smokers. Think I'll stick with my Apollo stack 3. Has worked great for 3 years.

Cack said:

So I currently have a vertical smoker with a water pan over the coal pan, but will be buying a new one as time gets warmer. I'm leaning more towards the side smoker/traditional style, but was curious what's the difference in cooking styles between the two? I realize the closer to the box the hotter the smoker will be, but is there any other differences as far as cooking goes?

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I'm a little biased and of the two styles I think that the offset gives better flavor, (just my opinion). That being said, there are differences in offsets as well. There are the traditional horizontal offsets and there are vertical offsets, mine is a vertical offset and I'll have to say that it's a LOT more efficient than the horizontal style.
In a horizontal cooker the heat and smoke must travel sideways for a while before being allowed to go up and out the exhaust whereas with the vertical configuration the heat and smoke get to start going up almost immediately after leaving the firebox delivering a wider range of temps, MUCH better fuel economy and more thorough heat distribution. A well built vertical offset equipped with a heat deflector and a few tuning plates give you pretty much dead even temps from front to back, up or down. Also, a vertical with four or five slide-out cooking grates will hold a LOT more food than your average horizontal offset. Mine with all cooking space combined has about 6000 sq. inches of cooking capacity, MORE than a Lang 84 Deluxe with a char-grill. (The Lang is a trailer pit that is about 15 ft. long while my pit has a 2 ft. x 4 1/2 ft. foot print)! Here's my pit's design on Youtube video.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RnBnW82Tr0"]Lone Star Grillz 30'' Vertical Smoker - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGhSn4UkQ_k"]lone star grillz warmer box 2 - YouTube[/ame]
So my advice to you is if you want to try an offset smoker go with a vertical and learn the art of stick burning. Even though better in design than the horizontal, a vertical offset is not a set it and forget it cooker but it's a very rewarding thing to be able to turn out Q that rivals anything from some of the best BBQ joints out there in flavor and to know that your skills are what created it.:wink::-D

There's no price listed for the small one, but I bet these are well built: http://www.shirleyfabrication.com/smokers/patio-models/

Old thread I believe cack has a Lang BY model.

you have a Lang 36 patio in your signature?

you should already know the answer!!