BBQLuver
Knows what a fatty is.
I recently have decided that I am too old, my back is getting tired of disassembling the WSM for every smoke and I've put in enough time to know what I want from a smoker. I tried the WSM mini but it just didn’t feel right and wasn’t the direction I want to go (besides, it was for my son). So here I am, back at the bbq-brethren looking for a new smoker. I’ve been scouring the site researching all kinds of information, changing my mind about 100 different times on the direction I’m going. I think I’m towards the end of my research, but before I pull the trigger I get to ask all my questions :becky:
Here is what I’d like to have in my new smoker:
• Easy to use
• Easy to clean
• Easy to maintain
• Guru wifi (mobile phone monitoring/updating temp)
• Moveable
• 10 hr smoke w/o refill
• 2 Full racks of ribs lying flat side by side (3 preferably)
• Lasts for many years
• No need to replace parts ever (you can read this as I don’t want a pellet smoker)
• Easy to pull out racks during smoke for basting/spraying
• Solid racks
• Open firebox w/o opening food and vice versa
• I cook for about 6-20 people at a time 8 on average
• Not a stick burner
• No heavy lifting to use or load or move
• Backyard smoker
• Great company building it
• Great customer service
• Great quality
• No need to set any part of the smoker on the floor during use or move things around to get to the food
• No hotspots
• Kid friendly (easy to open door, add charcoal, pull open grates, won’t burn if touch outside)
• Three usable racks bare minimum, ideally five for large parties
o Three racks of ribs (2 racks), 2 boston butts (1 rack), 1 brisket (1 rack), side dishes (1 rack)
Based on this I moved towards vertical smokers. While I thought this would be a small list it turned out much larger than I thought, so… I started gathering all the information, was completely overwhelmed but rather than just pick one, I thought I would put something together to help me make the decision.
Warning, this is where I go a little crazy…:crazy:
I figured I wasn’t the only one going through this, and based on what I’ve read I’m not, I decided to put something together we could all use. Attached is a spreadsheet with the list of smokers I’m looking at. The criteria is loosely defined as vertical smokers at under $2k (which of course slowly moved up to $3k and in a few cases a bit beyond). The info in it is meant to be purely based on facts.
I’d love if you guys helped give me some feedback on the data I put in the spreadsheet. Some of it is readily available, but quite a bit is estimated based on a number of things from pictures I looked at, things people posted or I just couldn’t find it. There is a bit of conflicting information on the websites as well, so again, I took a guess. I’ll update it and upload a new version or even add more smokers to the list I may have missed.
I really hope you like the spreadsheet and find it useful. I put some filters in so you can filter out based on any criteria you have (cost, size, etc.). I then put some graphs that update in there to help visualize it.
I was hoping this would help me focus my search efforts… it worked… kinda. What I thought would point out a clear winner actually didn’t. I kept adding more smokers to the list, reading up on them and changing what I was going to get.
Here is how I finally narrowed things down (you can do this using the drop down arrows in the spreadsheet to see how it updates the graphs too):
I started off with 38 smokers!
• Filtered out all smokers at or over $3k
• Filtered out all gravity fed smokers
o My back just wouldn’t like having to lift the charcoal and feed from the top
• Filtered out all smokers that weren’t insulated
o Remember, kid friendly and teaching my son
• Filtered out any smoker with less than 1000 sq. inches of grate space
o I added a grate to the Pint because of its height and ease of adding a grate
This gave me a list of 14 smokers:
Backwoods, Humphreys, Meadow Creek, Lone Star Grillz and Pitmaker
• Filtered out any smoker with less than 4 inches of space between the grates
Down to 12 smokers
• Filtered out any smoker over 600 lbs as I still need to pay for shipping. It also makes me nervous having something that massive because I have to put it away after each smoke (which is sad because those two smokers had a lot of space and one was well priced for the space you got)
Down to 10 smokers
• Filtered out the smokers who had less than 20 inches of internal height. I want to make sure I have space
Down to 8
Humphrey’s Pint
Humphrey’s Down East Beast
Backwoods’ Party
Backwoods’ Extended Party
Backwoods’ Party G2
Backwoods’ Fatboy
Backwoods’ Fatboy G2
Lone Star Grillz’ Insulated Cabinet Mini
From what I’ve read, everyone likes these smokers and I’ll be happy with whatever I get. Still I need to choose one so here are my thoughts.
1) Humphrey’s
a. I love that racks can be moved around to change up the distance between them
b. I like the way they look (probably because of the colors)
c. Seems to get recommended a lot in head to head comparisons with other smokers
d. Lots of raving about customer service
e. Love that dealers post to this forum
f. 14.5 inches wide feels too narrow for three racks of ribs
g. Website could be better (some inconsistencies) since I can’t see any of these in person I have to go by what their site and this forum has
h. Made in West Newfield, Maine? (shipping)
2) Backwoods
b. Large community
c. Lot of people who love them
d. People like customer service
e. Good simple website
f. 4 inches of space between racks seems pretty tight (fixed spacing)
g. Made in Dixie, Louisiana (shipping)
3) Lone Star Grillz
a. Largest cooking area (3 dimensional space… elbow room)
b. I love that the owner posts to this forum
c. People like customer service
d. Seems to have the smallest community (compared to HP & BW)
e. Website looks old/confusing and makes me lose trust in them
f. The bottom shelf sits nearly on top of water pan
g. Not 100% comfortable with the water loading from the top (my back)
h. Not sure I like having a built in water pan
i. South Willis, Texas (shipping)
Each time I look, I change my mind, any help out there that could finally tip me one direction or the other?
Please Help
ray:
Here is what I’d like to have in my new smoker:
• Easy to use
• Easy to clean
• Easy to maintain
• Guru wifi (mobile phone monitoring/updating temp)
• Moveable
• 10 hr smoke w/o refill
• 2 Full racks of ribs lying flat side by side (3 preferably)
• Lasts for many years
• No need to replace parts ever (you can read this as I don’t want a pellet smoker)
• Easy to pull out racks during smoke for basting/spraying
• Solid racks
• Open firebox w/o opening food and vice versa
• I cook for about 6-20 people at a time 8 on average
• Not a stick burner
• No heavy lifting to use or load or move
• Backyard smoker
• Great company building it
• Great customer service
• Great quality
• No need to set any part of the smoker on the floor during use or move things around to get to the food
• No hotspots
• Kid friendly (easy to open door, add charcoal, pull open grates, won’t burn if touch outside)
• Three usable racks bare minimum, ideally five for large parties
o Three racks of ribs (2 racks), 2 boston butts (1 rack), 1 brisket (1 rack), side dishes (1 rack)
Based on this I moved towards vertical smokers. While I thought this would be a small list it turned out much larger than I thought, so… I started gathering all the information, was completely overwhelmed but rather than just pick one, I thought I would put something together to help me make the decision.
Warning, this is where I go a little crazy…:crazy:
I figured I wasn’t the only one going through this, and based on what I’ve read I’m not, I decided to put something together we could all use. Attached is a spreadsheet with the list of smokers I’m looking at. The criteria is loosely defined as vertical smokers at under $2k (which of course slowly moved up to $3k and in a few cases a bit beyond). The info in it is meant to be purely based on facts.
I’d love if you guys helped give me some feedback on the data I put in the spreadsheet. Some of it is readily available, but quite a bit is estimated based on a number of things from pictures I looked at, things people posted or I just couldn’t find it. There is a bit of conflicting information on the websites as well, so again, I took a guess. I’ll update it and upload a new version or even add more smokers to the list I may have missed.
I really hope you like the spreadsheet and find it useful. I put some filters in so you can filter out based on any criteria you have (cost, size, etc.). I then put some graphs that update in there to help visualize it.
I was hoping this would help me focus my search efforts… it worked… kinda. What I thought would point out a clear winner actually didn’t. I kept adding more smokers to the list, reading up on them and changing what I was going to get.
Here is how I finally narrowed things down (you can do this using the drop down arrows in the spreadsheet to see how it updates the graphs too):
I started off with 38 smokers!
• Filtered out all smokers at or over $3k
• Filtered out all gravity fed smokers
o My back just wouldn’t like having to lift the charcoal and feed from the top
• Filtered out all smokers that weren’t insulated
o Remember, kid friendly and teaching my son
• Filtered out any smoker with less than 1000 sq. inches of grate space
o I added a grate to the Pint because of its height and ease of adding a grate
This gave me a list of 14 smokers:
Backwoods, Humphreys, Meadow Creek, Lone Star Grillz and Pitmaker
• Filtered out any smoker with less than 4 inches of space between the grates
Down to 12 smokers
• Filtered out any smoker over 600 lbs as I still need to pay for shipping. It also makes me nervous having something that massive because I have to put it away after each smoke (which is sad because those two smokers had a lot of space and one was well priced for the space you got)
Down to 10 smokers
• Filtered out the smokers who had less than 20 inches of internal height. I want to make sure I have space
Down to 8
Humphrey’s Pint
Humphrey’s Down East Beast
Backwoods’ Party
Backwoods’ Extended Party
Backwoods’ Party G2
Backwoods’ Fatboy
Backwoods’ Fatboy G2
Lone Star Grillz’ Insulated Cabinet Mini
From what I’ve read, everyone likes these smokers and I’ll be happy with whatever I get. Still I need to choose one so here are my thoughts.
1) Humphrey’s
a. I love that racks can be moved around to change up the distance between them
b. I like the way they look (probably because of the colors)
c. Seems to get recommended a lot in head to head comparisons with other smokers
d. Lots of raving about customer service
e. Love that dealers post to this forum
f. 14.5 inches wide feels too narrow for three racks of ribs
g. Website could be better (some inconsistencies) since I can’t see any of these in person I have to go by what their site and this forum has
h. Made in West Newfield, Maine? (shipping)
2) Backwoods
b. Large community
c. Lot of people who love them
d. People like customer service
e. Good simple website
f. 4 inches of space between racks seems pretty tight (fixed spacing)
g. Made in Dixie, Louisiana (shipping)
3) Lone Star Grillz
a. Largest cooking area (3 dimensional space… elbow room)
b. I love that the owner posts to this forum
c. People like customer service
d. Seems to have the smallest community (compared to HP & BW)
e. Website looks old/confusing and makes me lose trust in them
f. The bottom shelf sits nearly on top of water pan
g. Not 100% comfortable with the water loading from the top (my back)
h. Not sure I like having a built in water pan
i. South Willis, Texas (shipping)
Each time I look, I change my mind, any help out there that could finally tip me one direction or the other?
Please Help
ray:
