Chilling and grilling...

[Lfdp13RET]

I have a gas grill for the quick grill meal and two Weber kettles for charcoal and smoking. Sell me on a pellet grill / smoker, GO!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Why bother....

 

[Lfdp13RET]

Why bother....

Ok

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I meant with the pellets, sorry

 

[The Grintch]

Just picked up a Weber Smokey Mountain, couldn't justify the cost of the pellet grill.

Bring on summer!

 

[stratocaster1422]

Get a Weber Smokey Mountain. Pellet smokers are cheating.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Pellets are not for cooking.

 

[pelletizer]

What if one found a used one reasonably priced?
Are they worth it? Start up, heat up etc VS. grilling with "Hank Hill" Propane?

 

[stratocaster1422]

They aren't grills. They are smokers.

 

[pelletizer]

Ok then are they worth it as smokers? as there are electric and propane smokers and charcoal smokers out there as well, Had a charcoal smoker and it was ok but did not work as good as I thought.

I have thought a pellet grill would be nice but not sure of fast start up, heat up time etc

 

[stratocaster1422]

Well....what kind of charcoal smoker did you have? There are chit ones and there are great ones. My Weber Smokey Mountain is unbelievably awesome and burns charcoal.

Start here
http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/smokers/how_to_buy_a_smoker.html

A pellet smoker, like an electric smoker is cheating in my opinion. Wayyyyyy too easy

 

[pelletizer]

We had this one,

http://www.outdoorpros.com/Prod/Char-Broil-06701289-H2O-Charcoal-Smoker/67881/Cat/1558

It did the job but we had to keep adding charcoal and it seamed to never get hot enough even with good charcoal.

I will check out your link as we miss smoking.

 

[stratocaster1422]

Yup...I wouldn't waste the gas money driving to the store to buy that POS. You get what you pay for. The WSM is definitively worth the money.

You can spend 4-5 figures on a good charcoal smoker of you really want.

 

[pelletizer]

Checking them out now as well as the WSM and the WSM looks great for us and from what I see rates good.

Thanks Man for the info.

 

[RKS130]

We had this one,

http://www.outdoorpros.com/Prod/Char-Broil-06701289-H2O-Charcoal-Smoker/67881/Cat/1558

It did the job but we had to keep adding charcoal and it seamed to never get hot enough even with good charcoal.

I will check out your link as we miss smoking.

I smoke regularly on my New Braunfels offset smoker. It burns charcoal and wood. Once I got the hang of temperature control using the vents, couldn't be happier.

 

[Jigger]

The units I've looked at look good. Most hold 20 lbs. of pellets which will allow you to cook over night at a set temp without haveing to tend to it as it will hold the set temp. The down side is the cost. How often do you smoke ? I have a kettle grill that I enjoy. As I can use it as a smoker or a grill.When I'm smokeing it might take a little more attention in maintaining tne temp. But I also only smoke once a month or so.

 

[Lfdp13RET]

The units I've looked at look good. Most hold 20 lbs. of pellets which will allow you to cook over night at a set temp without haveing to tend to it as it will hold the set temp. The down side is the cost. How often do you smoke ? I have a kettle grill that I enjoy. As I can use it as a smoker or a grill.When I'm smokeing it might take a little more attention in maintaining tne temp. But I also only smoke once a month or so.

I use my kettles for smoking, which I have figured out running them, sometimes it's a challenge to keep the heat right.

 

[stratocaster1422]

Weber kettles are a great first step into smoking. It's honestly more like indirect grilling vs smoking though as you are just physically too close to the fire. There is aninsert that you can get for the Weber kettle that really helps seperate the direct heat from the meat though, it's called the Smokenator. It seems like a great little piece to add if you aren't ready to get into a full blown smoker. It's one step further away from indirect grilling and one step closer to a full blown smoker.

I have cooked overnight with my WSM a bunch of times. Granted, it's not a "set it and forget it" setup like a pellet smoker, but it can easily be done and you don't need a pellet smoker to do it. Hell, I could add a full stoker system to my WSM and have internet monitoring, adjustment, and logging capabilities. Then I'd have the "ease" of a pellet smoker with infintely more data logging and remote operation capabilities at probably 50% cost of an entry level pellet smoker. Honestly, I just have a remote thermometer that has high and low temp alarms. Maybe I get up once or twice during the night depending on what the weather is doing, usually I don't have to do much if I gave the smoker plenty of time to settle first before going to bed.

 

[ScotL]

They aren't grills. They are smokers.

Check Louisiana-grills.com They have everything from cold smokers to grills. My CS-680 can be used at any temperature from a hot smoke (around 220F) to grilling (650F). Mine is an older model so it doesn't have the flame broiling option.

 

[Bioburner]

Check Louisiana-grills.com They have everything from cold smokers to grills. My CS-680 can be used at any temperature from a hot smoke (around 220F) to grilling (650F). Mine is an older model so it doesn't have the flame broiling option.

Made in Ramsey, MN

 

[mikestod]

Check out the Kamado (egg-shaped) cookers. I have a cheap Char Grill Akorn and I love it. You can smoke, grill and bake in it. Mine is not a high end $1000 ceramic one, but for $250 it does a good job. Mine uses charcoal but they are making pellet fueled ones but they are even more expensive then the traditional charcoal ones... almost $2000.

http://blackolivegrill.com/products/pellet-grill-l/

 

[stratocaster1422]

Check Louisiana-grills.com They have everything from cold smokers to grills. My CS-680 can be used at any temperature from a hot smoke (around 220F) to grilling (650F). Mine is an older model so it doesn't have the flame broiling option.

Ohhhh....nice. Me likey! I always thought they were only smokers.

The tailgater is interesting. Do you need to plug it into your car or does it have batteries?

I guess that is the one downside of pellet smoking...you need electricity.

 

[stratocaster1422]

Check out the Kamado (egg-shaped) cookers. I have a cheap Char Grill Akorn and I love it. You can smoke, grill and bake in it. Mine is not a high end $1000 ceramic one, but for $250 it does a good job. Mine uses charcoal but they are making pellet fueled ones but they are even more expensive then the traditional charcoal ones... almost $2000.

http://blackolivegrill.com/products/pellet-grill-l/

Kamado + pellets huh? That's pretty cool

Is your Char-Griller ceramic? I had a Char-Griller side by side setup and that was god awful...so cheap. I had it for one season and moved on to the WSM. I bought it before I had any idea what it was like to use a nice smoker.

 

[mikestod]

Is your Char-Griller ceramic?

Mine has a steel shell, with glass mat insulation between the outer and inner layers. I got mine on sale at a local wholesale club last summer. Here is a link or a newer version from home depot with a built in cart.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Char-Gri...arcoal-Grill-in-Grey-with-Cart-6520/204151650

Its a much cheaper version than the Big Green Egg or Kamado Joe's, but it does a good job. There is quite a cult following of kamado cooking and the number of people using this cheaper alternative was the main reason I wanted to give it a try. I could never spend $1000 on one of those ceramic ones. It works great as a smoker and I do a lot of high temperature grilling on it too. It puts a heck of a nice sear on a T-bone. I'm still trying to master the art of using it as a pizza oven though.

 

[TimfromMA]

My smoker:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_121289-4663...&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=smoker&page=2&facetInfo=

It's not a high end fancy one but works quite well. I did put stove gasket around the doors so they seal better.