A good cheap smoker for meat?

[tokugawa]

Any advice on this?  I am not a barbecue aficionado and don't need to impress guests...
 Just want something I can put a brisket on from time to time.  Plenty of access to fine dry hardwood scraps.
 

[dogmush]

I had great success with my Weber Smokey mountain vertical smoker before I went to a pellet smoker.  Couple hundred bucks at Lowes Depot, holds enough charcoal for 8-10 hours, the water bowl is nice for thermal mass and keeping temp steady, and can hold a bunch of meat.

I still sometimes use mine for brisket or shoulder if I want more smoke than the pellet gives, or I'm smokeing for a party.

[K Frame]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Brinkmann-810-5301-C-Charcoal-Grill/876295

[Kingcreek]

Another vote for Weber Smokey mountain. I really like my Pit Barrel. Compared to the Weber SM it’s a little heavier, a little simpler, but maybe not as versatile.
https://pitbarrelcooker.com/product
They are up to $400 for the kit now which seems overpriced for what it is.

[Kingcreek]

I just checked prices on the Weber and they are higher than I thought also.
There are some copies on Amazon for a lot less but I don’t know what kind of quality you get.
I guess that would lead me back to recommending the Pit Barrel Cooker. Pretty simple and should last almost forever. I dabbed up a heat shield for the bottom of the charcoal basket to make cleanup easier and prolong the life of the barrel bottom.

[bedlamite]

I'm not familiar with the current models, but if you get an electric smoker, the cheaper digital controls are garbage, find an analog, I got one of these several years ago: https://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070210-30-Inch-Electric-Analog/dp/B0034VXAY0/

I prefer coal, and usually use my Oklahoma Joe.

[tokugawa]

I knew I should have saved my old pressure tank.........could have spent a week making a $300 item..

That pit cooker looks like a 55gal drum with a rack and a fire tin at the bottom- not sure on having to take off a top mounted lid to look inside?

 
 

 

[Kingcreek]

I knew I should have saved my old pressure tank.........could have spent a week making a $300 item..

That pit cooker looks like a 55gal drum with a rack and a fire tin at the bottom- not sure on having to take off a top mounted lid to look inside?

It is a 30 gal drum. I went to a pro bbq competition and talked a guy using 3 “ugly drum” smokers - 55gal version with a snorkel draft but they were $800 each. He said he had a $26k smoker he didn’t even use anymore. That’s when I started looking and found the 30 gal pit barrel cooker.
Taking the lid off is not an issue. With ribs or chickens I don’t even open to check it for at least 2 hours.
The vertical cooking method is same for the Weber SM. It works surprisingly well.

[BobR]

You can get a bullet smoker for less than 100 bucks. I used an electric like this for multiple years. It will smoke nearly anything you want to do. As a bonus you won't have a fire to tend, just add woo chips every couple of hours or so.

bob

[bedlamite]

I knew I should have saved my old pressure tank.........could have spent a week making a $300 item..

That pit cooker looks like a 55gal drum with a rack and a fire tin at the bottom- not sure on having to take off a top mounted lid to look inside?

 

There's always the UDS:
https://grilling24x7.com/ugly-drum-smoker/
https://smokypete.com/building-an-ugly-drum-smoker-uds/

[Doggy Daddy]

As a bonus you won't have a fire to tend, just add woo chips every couple of hours or so.

bob

My brain delighted in the idea of "woo chips".  Don't know what they would be and don't care.  I just like it.

[K Frame]

"You can get a bullet smoker for less than 100 bucks."

Exactly. That's what my Walmart link was, to a Brinkmann bullet smoker. And crap, it looks like the one I posted the link to is no longer available.

But, Home Depot carries a similar design from Master Cook that's very similar to the Brinkmann.

I had a Brinkmann for many years before it finally gave up the ghost. It was a bit fiddly, yes, and could be a bit difficult to control if it was gusty out, but I never had any complaints about the food that came out of it.

The only real problem I had with it was in the winter. It was very difficult to get up to temperature. A large cardboard box slipped over it, forming both shield and insulation, was the solution.

[RocketMan]

Unfortunately, Brinkman has gone out of business.  I have an electric Brinkman smoker, and it works pretty well.  Added electronic temperature control to it for more precise smoking and jerky making.
Also added a grate at the bottom to support a wood chip box.  Hopefully that will put less strain on the heating element and it will last longer.  Only aftermarket parts are available for it since Brinkman is gone.  Third party replacement heating elements are out there, but they're a bit of an unknown quantity so I want to make the original last as long as possible.

[K Frame]

"Unfortunately, Brinkman has gone out of business."

I was starting to suspect that as I did my googles.

That's unfortunate. They made decent products of decent quality at decent prices.

I've toyed with the idea of getting one of the electric smoker cabinets. A friend has one and it really is almost effortless, but actual charcoal adds another layer of flavor that I really, really miss if it's not there.

[T.O.M.]

I can do decent smoking using my Weber charcoal kettle grill.  Requires more attention than a Smoky Mountain or one of tge pellet smokers, but you can buy one for $100 or less, and it will last a lifetime.  Mine is the one I bought my dad for father's day in 1987.  Had to replace some parts along the way, but it's still cooking.

[BobR]

I used to do all of my smoking on a bullet smoker made by Brinkman for Cabelas. It was raised and had a small shelf. I loved that smoker but it died and of course they were no more.

Now I have a Weber grill for grilling, a Masterbuilt cabinet smoker which has not impressed me, it can only hold a small amount of chips so it is something that has to be watched. I also have a pellet grill and I don't care how much they try to tell you otherwise it is nothing more than an outdoor oven. They cook but do not smoke very well. If I am smoking in it I have to use a smoke tube to make it act like a smoker. What I do most times is start the smoke in the smoker and leave it for 3-4 hours to get the smoke and then move over to the pellet grill for the rest of the cooking time. I will keep a smoke tube going in the pellet grill. The biggest advantage to the pellet grill is I can start my meat the night/afternoon before and let it run all night without having to get up and tend to the fire because it just keeps chugging away.

bob

[K Frame]

Got to admit, I have not been impressed with the pellet grills I've seen.

As you said... outdoor oven. Can't really sear on most of them, and the ones that you can sear on it's really a faux sear.

I, too, have done a lot of smoking on my Weber kettle, but it's a bit more limited and difficult.

Friend of mine has a Big Green Egg. That thing is the absolute tits, but I am NOT going to spend that kind of money on one.

I've considered getting one of the steel shell insulated kamado smokers, but just have never gotten around to it. Not enough time in the day, really. Maybe once I retire.

[Kingcreek]

Friend of mine has a Big Green Egg. That thing is the absolute tits, but I am NOT going to spend that kind of money on one.

My bro in law has one. I thinks he’s only used it once or twice. He probably doesn’t have the slightest idea what to do with it, but he lives in a neighborhood where it is expected. And he’s the kind of guy that is so insecure that he worries about what every neighbor is making and spending.

[dogmush]

I really like my pellet smoker, but it's a "smoker" not a grill.  It rolls good smoke, holds temp like a beast and will run for 10-14 hr smokes with only minimum supervision of the fire, leaving me free to do other stuff, and futz with the meat.

It maxs out at about 325, so you couldn't even faux sear on it, but it smokes very well.

If I want to grill, that's what the Weber Kettle is for, although I'd love to install one of those Santa Maria grills.

[K Frame]

My biggest gripe with the pellet smokers is that the pellets are, minimum, of $1 a pound, and often FAR more, in my area.

A bag of similar wood chips/chunks are generally far cheaper.

[Kingcreek]

The Weber SM and the Pit barrel cooker can both go full on grill over charcoal or be throttled down for low smoke. It’s not indirect like offsets but I can keep mine around 225

[tokugawa]

Took the old BBq grill, laid foil on top of the grate, put another grate on that and set the meat on it. Put an aluminum pan with hardwood scraps, covered with foil and set it next to the meat. Lit the scraps with a torch, and set the grill for 250f. 4 hours.
Worked OK, I need less salt on the rub, and a tighter fit on the wood scraps- there was too much air the second time wood got added. But overall, it is a workable solution.

[Kingcreek]

Just saw this
https://youtu.be/TcfiKsqh07Y