Any advice on picking a competition smoker?

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Rusty Kettle

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What would you say is the most important thing to look for? I am thinking maybe rectec or greenmountain grills or traeger. I have 2000 to spend so yeah any recommendations? I want to pick up a setup that will let us be setup to compete and get us the most cooking space for our money. I like pellet grills but am open to other ideas. I figure get one to practice with in the off season and start trying to compete again in May.
 
270 Smoker. Fully insulated vertical cabinet smoker. Will run 250* for 12-14 hours on basket of charcoal (8-10 lbs). No electronic temp gadgets needed, truely set it and forget it.
 
Humpherys smokers will get ya a deadly set up for that much, pick your cooking style first though.. dont buy a water cooker if your a dry kinda guy, and also keep in mind its not necessarily the cooker but you, as guys like harry soo prove time and time again cooking on not much. My self i would either get a battle box from humpheys or a backwoods fatboy.
 
I have cooked both using a water pan and no pan of any kind at all. It depends on what I am using. My traeger no water pan and it is fantastic but my kettles have to have water pans when they are set up as a smoker otherwise it just isn't as good. Seems to help keep the temps stable in the kettles. I totally get that it is me and not the cooker but it can change the flavor and the tenderness of the meat depending on your setup. My pork shoulder improved in that it had a better bark on it. I use same recipe of mine and cooking times and temps and yet it was better and more tender off the traeger than my kettle grill. My chicken up until the last cook I did using myron mixon's cupcake chicken recipe along with rubs and sauces from other teams, it was terrible and dry. Now it is amazingly juicy and I can taste flavor all the way to the bone.
 
It depends on your style of cooking and what pit interests you. You can cook great BBQ on a drum, gravityfed pit, cabinet water pan, stick burner, bullet, and pellet cooker. Once you figure out the style you want then ask for recommendations as we could have several pages of everybody's favorite cooker.
 
Ain't nothing wrong with a UDS. I use mine exclusively for ribs.
 
Keep portability in mind. I have two really nice smokers, but if I had it to do over I think I would go with the Weber 22.5s for several reasons. I can't pull the camper AND the BBQ trailer, so we have to take two vehicles or leave the camper at home. It's also getting a little harder to roll the smokers in and out as I age since they weigh 300 & 400 pounds. I don't always have help and do this by myself at times. And the cost of most smokers is huge. For about $1K you can get two 22.5s and a kettle for chicken. In your case, you can buy all the peripheral equipment like remote therms, temp controllers (which you don't really need), etc, and still have money left over. Harry Soo is all the proof I need that it can be done - and done well - on a couple of Webers. And when/if you decide to call it quits, you don't have $10K invested in equipment to cry about! Good luck with whatever you choose!
 
Since you mentioned pellet grills, you should at least consider a used FEC-100. They typically go for $2000-$2500 and you can do all four meats on one without crowding things too much. You call lay it down in the back of a pickup if that is all you have to transport it with. They hold their value pretty well, so you can always sell it and try something else if you want to.

A big consideration for you is how you plan to haul everything. If a trailer isn't in the budget, I would avoid a gravity because they are pretty heavy to load into a pickup. It will also be difficult to find a towable offset that would be comp worthy for $2K and you don't want to be loading a backyard pit into your pickup.
 
I am not sure what I like as I have tons of weber kettles but mostly cook on my traeger junior elite. I like the idea of a reverse flow offset but there are none that are in my price range that will have the capacity I want. I like the heat retention ceramics have and can get an actual big green egg for 700 I think it's the medium if I remember right but I am afraid when my son gets bigger he might open it and might get hit with flashback. I love pellet smokers as they are a bit safer and I can work 12 hour days and cook at the same time which is awesome. I really am open to hearing all the positive and negative things about smokers. I don't really have a good idea what is out there. Maybe a list of my needs will help. I need cooking space, I need something that has low fuel consumption especially in winter, I would like something that can fit a pig on it not a deal breaker but would be nice. It has to fit a large turkey bare minimum for thanksgiving yeah I know not a competition requirement but you know thanksgiving is a big deal.
 
It may be too late in the year, but if there is a competition within driving distance go and visit on Friday afternoon and evening and look at the smokers and talk to the owners. That will give you a good idea of what folks are using and what they think of them
 
If you go the pellet grill route, you need to remember that you need a reliable power source at the competition. So you may need to invest in a generator as well.
You may want to use a combination of pellet grills and WSM's in case you lose power, or your auger jams.
 
didisea said:
If you go the pellet grill route, you need to remember that you need a reliable power source at the competition. So you may need to invest in a generator as well.
You may want to use a combination of pellet grills and WSM's in case you lose power, or your auger jams.
Click to expand...

Yep... I use an inverter/charger and a marine battery as my backup power source for the pellet cookers. When the AC power is live it charges the battery and if the AC power fails it automatically switches to the inverter. I use it only for the cookers so I don't need a huge inverter.

I also have a generator in the truck to power the trailer, lights, etc. if needed.
 
I would never just have a pellet. What if it breaks. Man can build his own fire but can be hard to use a broke pellet smoker. Seen it happen before.
 
Rusty Kettle said:
Maybe a list of my needs will help. I need cooking space, I need something that has low fuel consumption especially in winter, I would like something that can fit a pig on it not a deal breaker but would be nice. It has to fit a large turkey bare minimum for thanksgiving yeah I know not a competition requirement but you know thanksgiving is a big deal.
Click to expand...

There aren't a lot of good comp pits that fit a whole hog and have low fuel consumption. You might keep an eye out for a used Louisiana Grills Whole Hog (or Super Hog). These are basically two regular size pellet grills stuck together with separate controls and a removable divider in the center. For a comp you would have plenty of space and two different temps available. For home you can just run one side. Remove the divider and throw on a whole hog. The whole hog runs about $3K new, but a used one should be in your price range.

As far as fuel consumption, an insulated pellet cooker like an FEC or Memphis will use about 1/2# an hour regardless of weather. An uninsulated pellet grill will run 3/4-1#/hr depending on the weather. It's a consideration, but probably not the most important thing on your list.
 
I agree with red valley... 270 smokers are mackdaddy... Once dialed in they stay where they are... U won't believe how little amount of charcoal it uses... And damn good bbq!
 
Duddy55 said:
I agree with red valley... 270 smokers are mackdaddy... Once dialed in they stay where they are... U won't believe how little amount of charcoal it uses... And damn good bbq!
Click to expand...

I have used my 270 with snow on it.

At the last competition, I used about 8# of lump and had to open the fire box door after 14 hours to burn the last of the charcoal off.

Rusty, I'm not that fare away from you if you want to check it out.
 
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