Peoria Smokers

N

nopantsdan

Is lookin for wood to cook with.
Joined
Mar 26, 2013
Location
denver, co
Been awhile since I've been around. I had to sell my uds, offset stick burner and broil King keg as we moved back to Illinois. I'm in the market again for a smoker. I was about to pull the trigger on a Humphreys Pint, mostly for ease of use. We have a toddler and something about the near set it and forget with the Humphreys is very appealing.

I just started reading about Peoria smokers, and I'm very interested. I know a stick burner is a stick burner and will always need to be attended, but does the insulated firebox make this a bit easier? When I had my 1/4" offset fire management was ok, a real pain during cold months.

Just curious
 
Insulated fireboxes Do Help but a split only lasts so long......... I'd get a Humphreys then get a less expensive stickburner to go with it for when you do have the time to Tend it.
 
Which pit are you looking at? If it's the Meat Monster the whole pit is insulated, it's badass too, not cheap though $$$.
 
I had the Peoria backyard and enjoyed it. Hopefully mcspazatron will chime in. He has one now and could give you some good advice. Might be worth searching for his posts.
 
Would be the backyard model, on a small trailer.

I'm sure I would use the Humphreys a lot more than the offset merely out-of convenience. Something about an offset though. I miss mine a lot. I hate decisions.
 
Listen to smitty. Get the insulated cabinet first then the offset.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
wow thanks for all the suggestions and insight. my wife is so sick of me talking to her about smokers. she likes my cooking, but just wants me to buy and stop talking to her about it. its nice to bounce some thoughts off you guys.

i should mention the reason I even looked at Peoria is because we are back in Chicagoland and I would be able to drive and pick it up.

My all in cost (including shipping) is 2500 and am open to other suggestions.
 
KevinJ said:
Since you're in the midwest, you might want to contact T&K Smokers they're in Indy.
Click to expand...

Oh now that looks nice. Looks like the small with addons would be in my range. I'm starting to dig deeper, is that comparable size wise to a pint?

Anyome with experience with T&K?
 
Peteg said:
I had the Peoria backyard and enjoyed it. Hopefully mcspazatron will chime in. He has one now and could give you some good advice. Might be worth searching for his posts.
Click to expand...
You can also checkout this guys smokers, from what I understand you can burn both sticks or charcoal in his Cabinets.
 
nopantsdan said:
Been awhile since I've been around. I had to sell my uds, offset stick burner and broil King keg as we moved back to Illinois. I'm in the market again for a smoker. I was about to pull the trigger on a Humphreys Pint, mostly for ease of use. We have a toddler and something about the near set it and forget with the Humphreys is very appealing.

I just started reading about Peoria smokers, and I'm very interested. I know a stick burner is a stick burner and will always need to be attended, but does the insulated firebox make this a bit easier? When I had my 1/4" offset fire management was ok, a real pain during cold months.

Just curious
Click to expand...

I've got two little ones including a toddler. I've been around the carousel with many cookers and I just keep coming back to stick burners. Even though tending a fire with kids is rough, I've found a middle road with wifi enabled FlameBoss 300 digital stoker. It buys me 4 hours and it's been a godsend allowing me to enjoy caveman style stickburning while still being able to do naps and play dates knowing the meat will be done. Just my .02!!
 
I have the Meat Monster with the internal firebox. It's meant to be used with charcoal/wood chunks instead of splits. I think I have a way to use splits but I haven't messed with it yet.

The internal firebox and insulation are definitely awesome. I ran my smoker from 7:30 yesterday morning to just about ten minutes ago (24 hours) on less than two bags of Royal Oak briquettes and 1 1/2 bags of hickory chunks. It maintained 250 degrees through the process with no trouble thanks to the BBQ Guru. Incidentally, after 24 hours at 250 I could still comfortably rest my hand on the outside of the smoker.

One of the drawbacks is that it has three levels of shelves. While that's handy to have three temperature zones, you have to really plan your cooks if you're doing several different meats at once. If you have ribs on the bottom that are ready to come off before the brisket up top, you're going to look like a nerd.

Overall I love my Meat Monster. It lets me walk away for several hours without worrying about it spiking or dropping thanks to the Guru.
 
nopantsdan said:
Oh now that looks nice. Looks like the small with addons would be in my range. I'm starting to dig deeper, is that comparable size wise to a pint?

Anyome with experience with T&K?
Click to expand...
A few were bought by brethren recently and Todd has been building cookers for almost 3 years now. Really nice guy. Check with Louis at the St Louis BBQ Store. He has a couple in stock most of the time. They are absolutely awesome to work with, their shipping is reasonable and they fully crate their smokers. If you've ever seen what happens to smokers in shipping you will appreciate the crating.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
You know.....I heard Humphrey's came out with an offset. They debuted it this past weekend at the Old Orchard Beach, Maine Contest! Leads times are out there on these units, but they also have some cabinets in stock. Why not mount a cabinet to the offset. The offset has an insulated firebox too. Everyone was throwing food on it. Here is a picture of a cheeseburger fatty. They also cooked a bunch of butts for a veterans dinner.

19989690_10213699745431441_6666562484041727905_n.jpg


20136366_1710204699283564_2074126556_n.jpg


19989305_10213699746791475_3818149092870938492_n.jpg


20031845_473594496323892_4995373267575275704_n.jpg
 
I got me a Peoria backyard model with an insulated firebox a couple of years ago. I also considered several others before getting, but the shipping really made the decision in the end. It's Expensive to move these things cross country!!! I went down and picked it up in a rented Sierra and trailer from uhaul for under 200 bucks.

Anyways, you really cant go wrong with this pit. It will run charcoal if you want, or small splits. You cant really use whole fireplace splits because it is too much, you will need to cut them down.

I did one mod to mine so I can have one temp zone (well, two if you count the shelf). http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232977. If the pics dont work, somebody say so, they are still on photobucket)

Search my threads and you can get a good idea of my experience with it. And ask questions if you have them.

That said, seriosly take a look at what Peteg can offer if you are considering verticals. He has some very sweet looking and well thought out pits!
 
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