BeerBorg

Time to flip a coin and I need the BORGS help.
Looking at two smokers, an electric and a conventional charcoal.
The Char-Griller has been the apple of my eye for a long time. It's a conventional smoker, (charcoal) and has excellent reviews on many websites. Did I mention it's almost $100 cheaper than last month at this time?
The Masterbuilt Electric is probably the highest rated smoker I've seen. Little to no maintenance while it's working makes it an ideal cooker, just not "old school" smoking!
Only $22 difference in price!
Preferences please!
http://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070 ... ref=sr_1_4…

http://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-1224 ... ef=sr_1_21

We have a Masterbuilt but I'm not sure what model. It's pretty easy to work but I'm not sure it's as good as charcoal but I hate dealing with that and got rid of my old smoker for this one.
For New Years we did a few things in it at once. Smoked oysters, smoked turkey and smoke pork loin. Yum, yum, yum.
You really can't go wrong as far as taste but to me, it's a matter of ease and time savings and that's why we went electric. That plus the boss got our without me knowing about it.

I have a Char-Griller Akorn vertical smoker. I use it exclusively for low-and-slow barbecue. For grilling, I have a gas grill. I used to have a Char-Griller grill with a side fire box, but it was really too big for my needs, and it was a huge waste if I was grilling burgers or steaks or chicken. I'd spend 20 minutes waiting for the charcoal to prep, cook for 10 minutes, and then have all that charcoal burn up for another two hours doing nothing but making a hole in the ozone.

Fortunately, my company was doing a safety rewards program, so I got a really nice gas grill free fer nuthin'. Depending on your usage, I'd advice you to consider a vertical smoker for genuine barbecue, and a gas grill for high-heat, quick grilling. It may save you money in the long run.

Have a Kingsford charcoal grill/smoker at camper, offset charcoal and Madterbuilt Electric at home. Love them both, when I have the time to tend, I use the charcoal with wood chunks. When don't have time to tend the electric is awesome, set and almost forget, add chips once an hour till internal temp of meat hits 140, then the meat stops absorbing smoke!

Let me just add that there's no wrong way to do this. It depends on your lifestyle, your needs, your wants, etc.

I would still recommend a vertical smoker for BBQ and a gas grill for high temp grilling. But that's what works for me.

I already have a Weber charcoal grill and just recently rebuilt my gas grill so SWMBO could
grill, if she wanted to, before I got home from work. She doesn't like messing with conventional grill.

I see the point about the time and waste, persay, of the Char-Griller. That's what I'm running into with
my small vertical now. If I don't time it right, I'm left with quite a bit of smoldering charcoal
in the chimney. But, I'm wondering how much flavor I'll lose without the charcoal just using wood chips.

I'm leaning more to the electric also so the wife can operate it too. She has no interest in sitting
and watching the thermometer on a grill and drinking beer for most of an afternoon!
With that, all she would have to do is load it, set the temp and add chips every so often.

Both have their pro's and con's.

Yeah, you have different considerations, definitely.

Me, I'm the only one who grills and/or smokes, so these are my babies, and I tailored my purchases for me and me alone.

What I suggest is that you talk it over with SWMBO and see what kind of input she has to offer. If you're taking these considerations in and she's not really going to use it, then you may be in danger of getting something you don't prefer for no good reason.

TT,

I just got into this myself, SWMBO got me a Smoke Hollow 38 vertical propane smoker for my 50th last month. I wanted a 2 door model so I could add chips/chunks without letting the heat out of the smoke chamber. Has worked out great so far.

In my web travels, I happened upon what can best be described as the Borg for smokers, http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/

Tons of folks willing to help, and lots of already posted wisdom on the forums, plus they highly encourage "Q-Vue", which are photos of folks smoking adventures. If your not hungry going in, you will be 5 minutes into surfing the forums.

Happy Smokin

BTW, I couldn't tell from the Amazon link, but it seems maybe you're considering a Masterbilt electric? If so, the Smokingmeatforums has an extensive knowledge base on those, under the acronym "MES".

I also own a Masterbuilt MES30 - it's a decent machine; I've done chicken, ribs, pork shoulder and whole packer brisket in it - all were very tasty. I did have a problem with mine - after owning it for 8 months or so, I was smoking 8 racks of ribs for a party, and the damn smoker just kept turning itself off after a couple hours - I had to finish the ribs in the oven. I suspect it was a defective thermal fuse, so I bypassed it, and it's been working fine since then.

Other than this glitch, it's been a great little smoker, other than running about 15-20 degrees too hot - I bought a dual probe wireless Maverick BBQ thermometer, and rely on it instead.

For hi-temp cooking, I got a decent gas grill - I have no patience for charcoal!

Here's a pic of the smoker girll I wanted to get but the wife said I couldn't have it.
I think it would have looked really nice out on my patio.

This guy has a pretty good newsletter:
http://www.smoking-meat.com/

He does push his rubs, but I guess he has to pay the bills too.

My buddy has the Mastercraft. His biggest gripe is that it does not seem to heat as even when doing sausages and jerky as my Little Chief. What he did at first was try a big slab of metal but now has firebrick inside and said it works like a champ.

I have a Little Chief for cold smoking and a Brinkman for hot smoking. Pretty happy with both of them although the Brinkman is getting a bit long in the tooth so have been contemplating an upgrade.

I have a Masterbuilt, forget model numba, it's not the one with auto feed or the glass door. As long as I pre-heat it for 30 minutes it does a very good job. I do a lot of bangers all the way to thanksgivin day turkeys. I recommend it.

I'll just leave this here as another option to look at: http://www.smokin-it.com/default.asp

One of the things I like about the Char-Griller Akorn vertical smoker is that it's really well-insulated. I smoked a turkey last Thanksgiving, and had to do it on my porch due to the weather. I didn't have to worry about the house catching fire or anything. In fact, you could set your hand on the smoker throughout the process and never feel a thing.

The drawback is that you can't add more fuel without opening the top and removing the meat and the grate. Pretty stupid design; they could have put a door in the bottom quite easily.

Didn't realize the links weren't working!

http://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070 ... ker+grills

http://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-1224 ... ker+grills

Let's try that!

You cats are full of info!

Dave, the wife and myself had that talk and she told me if she bought me the electric, as my birthday present, she would definitely learn to use it!
I also told her I would hang on to the vertical smoker she bought me about 10 years ago. She agreed wholeheartedly!
There are gonna be times when I'm gonna want to sit and watch the thermometer all afternoon!
Plus, I have about 300 lbs of charcoal to use up.
She endorses me doing things like cooking and brewing because she understands the enjoyment I get out of them and knows it's my downtime.
I've also looked the Akorn. It's very impressive, especially with the way it's insulated, but right now, it's way out of my price range.

Yooper and Bluejaye, thanks for the links! Another hole for me to chase rabbits down! I look forward to researching the info
they provide!
ChuckN, if I was you, I would really push for that smoker!