Looking to buy a smoker

F

fishin fool

Well-Known Member
My little chief is old and I am looking to buy a new smoker, I would love to hear the goods and bads on any smokers you fellas would recomend
 
Have you considered making one? Old fridges with porcelain coated steel work great and I have been using mine for maybe 5 years now. Very cheap to put together and you can even buy pre assembled propane kits online so you can just build the smoker and add the propane burner kit and you're good to go. Some kits even have automatic temperature control.

The nice thing with propane is you can use good sized chunks of wood which smoke longer than small wood chips. Going this route you can score free apple and cherry wood from local orchards and cut it up yourself.
 
Love my master digital electric one. Avoided the Bradley so I could use any kind of chips I wanted and not rely on their proprietary ones. When I bought mine I couldn’t find a propane one with digital temp/time controls. Propane would be nice for portability but I LOVE the set the temp and never having to adjust it again with the digital controls on my electric. Good luck.
 
I agree with ch312. I built one out of 1 inch square tubing 24" x 24" x 48" then pop riveted 14 gauge sheet metal on it and made a hinged door 18" x 32" made a shelf for the burner about 10" from the bottom. ( I got the burner out of an old gas stove ) drilled a hole near the bottom at the back for the line that went to the burner and made a 3" hole in the back near the top for a chimney that was angled to go straight up. I pop riveted a bar across the top of the chimney with a screw in the middle to put a can a little bigger than the chimney to let some smoke out and keep the rain out also. I used shelves out of a fridge. I built it about 30 years ago and it is still working. hope this helps
 
I like the digital Bradley. Like Willisride said you can set it and not worry about time and temp. Did some smoked fish yesterday and turned out nice.
 

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JohnW said:
This is a smoker my buddy made out of an old bread proofer. The smoker has a control panel off of a treager smoker and he had made an extended hopper to hold twice as many pellets as the original. This thing works amazing?‍???!!
Click to expand...

Hey great job on the smoker... I like it but I like the turkey on the plate better. (y):D
 
willisride said:
Love my master digital electric one. Avoided the Bradley so I could use any kind of chips I wanted and not rely on their proprietary ones. When I bought mine I couldn’t find a propane one with digital temp/time controls. Propane would be nice for portability but I LOVE the set the temp and never having to adjust it again with the digital controls on my electric. Good luck.
Click to expand...

The propane burner kits i mentioned above can be had with fully automatic temperature control with a propane burner so you just set your desired temp and leave it alone. They work similar to a gas oven by increasing/decreasing the flame to maintain proper temperature.

A fridge is excellent because theyre large capacity, but use less propane than a much smaller unit due to their efficientcy. Temperature control is very easy in them as well.

I'll snap some pics of mine to give you guys ideas.
 
Just putting my two cents in. I know yoyr looking for a larger smoker to put a bunch of fillets on. I have never really done that. But i got a weber kettle. Have done briskets,ribs roasts..pretty much everything. Have them on for 6 to 10 hours and easily holds a temp at 225. Good thing about it is i can load it up to get temps of 500 or higher for doing some steaks. The cheaper kettles arearound 100 bucks but you can get the upgraded one for 300 or so.
 
Another 2cents here, I do quite a bit of smoking and use a masterbuilt for fish as it gives me a heavier smoke and a Traeger for brisket, chicken, ducks, geese etc. Everyone has different tastes.
 

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I have a Traeger and would not use anything else. I use it as a BBQ and a smoker. The only issue I have ever had is trying to smoke when it is really cold outside. When it is set on smoke it doesn't use the thermostat so it sometimes goes out and has to be cleaned out and restarted.

I do steaks on it and they never dry out, even when I have to do them well done for people. I even do our Christmas turkey on it, not smoked but use it as an outdoor oven, cooks in half the time as a conventional oven.
 
Personally I like using a combination of smoking methods :)
I call this the TREGGER, perfect for cold smoking salmon candy or cheese.
 

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have a Traeger and a Pit Boss. Can't beat the wood pellets in my mind. The new Pit Boss doubles as a BBQ. Walmart 600.00. about $500 cheaper than my Traeger and twice as heavy too.
 
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