Hi folks,
I recently decided to buy an IronSide Smoker from Pete after spending some time reviewing the design and speaking with him. It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of competition cooker and big cooks for home. I had previously owned an FEC-100 pellet cooker which I added a modified expanded metal grate to add wood-chunks. Pete designed his cooker to use real mini-wood splits in conjunction with the convenience of pellets. In fact, the cooker can be used with wood, charcoal or pellets alone. Super versatile, but my plan is to always cook with pellets and mini wood-splits.
So, while me and the family were on a quick summer vacation trip to the Smokey mountains my CDR arrived, and luckily my neighbor was gracious enough to receive it for me (might have something to do with promised BBQ in the future). I had set a spot in the garage for it so lift-gate to garage and wait!
Needless to say I was excited to get home and check this beauty out!
First impressions: This thing is built like a tank, and it is gorgeous. Super thick walls, very heavy steel. Great high-heat paint-job, and sexy powder coated heavy duty doors.
Moves great on hard surfaces, not so much on grass (used plywood to move it around to my back porch which worked like a champ). The casters are very heavy duty and turn well on hard surfaces. The thing probably weighs half a ton so not surprised when it dug into grass that it didn't move very easily, especially between my house and the neighbor's where there is a slope/ditch shape for drainage.
I love the rack position lay-out so I can adjust height easily depending on what I'm cooking. The hangers are an added bonus if I ever want to do sausage etc.
Below are some pictures. I have it set to 250 right now with pellets only, and it has almost gotten to set temp. I'm going to plan on cooking two pork shoulders, a 19lb brisket, 4 racks of spares, and some chicken wings. The big meats will be going on this evening some time.
I love the size of this thing for two full pans to fit on each rack as I like to cook in pans for easy cleanup and move to cambro etc.
I will post more pics/results/impressions as I cook. :-D
I recently decided to buy an IronSide Smoker from Pete after spending some time reviewing the design and speaking with him. It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of competition cooker and big cooks for home. I had previously owned an FEC-100 pellet cooker which I added a modified expanded metal grate to add wood-chunks. Pete designed his cooker to use real mini-wood splits in conjunction with the convenience of pellets. In fact, the cooker can be used with wood, charcoal or pellets alone. Super versatile, but my plan is to always cook with pellets and mini wood-splits.
So, while me and the family were on a quick summer vacation trip to the Smokey mountains my CDR arrived, and luckily my neighbor was gracious enough to receive it for me (might have something to do with promised BBQ in the future). I had set a spot in the garage for it so lift-gate to garage and wait!
Needless to say I was excited to get home and check this beauty out!
First impressions: This thing is built like a tank, and it is gorgeous. Super thick walls, very heavy steel. Great high-heat paint-job, and sexy powder coated heavy duty doors.
Moves great on hard surfaces, not so much on grass (used plywood to move it around to my back porch which worked like a champ). The casters are very heavy duty and turn well on hard surfaces. The thing probably weighs half a ton so not surprised when it dug into grass that it didn't move very easily, especially between my house and the neighbor's where there is a slope/ditch shape for drainage.
I love the rack position lay-out so I can adjust height easily depending on what I'm cooking. The hangers are an added bonus if I ever want to do sausage etc.
Below are some pictures. I have it set to 250 right now with pellets only, and it has almost gotten to set temp. I'm going to plan on cooking two pork shoulders, a 19lb brisket, 4 racks of spares, and some chicken wings. The big meats will be going on this evening some time.
I love the size of this thing for two full pans to fit on each rack as I like to cook in pans for easy cleanup and move to cambro etc.
I will post more pics/results/impressions as I cook. :-D
