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Anyone know anything about this smoker??

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  • #16
    I tried to get the wood chips ignited again and this time, they lit up great and was some pretty heavy smoke... Much more than the MES. But I also may have overloaded the wood chip tray for the sake of seasoning it.

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    • #17
      a learning curve with every new unit...
      Craig
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      • #18
        Originally posted by SMOKE FREAK View Post
        a learning curve with every new unit...
        Agreed. The first time I test it with a smoke, it'll probably be side by side with the old one with something small like pork loins. I just pulled the chip tray and put more in for the sake of testing the loading process. It seems worth giving it a test run at least for all aspects.

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        • #19
          Sure is a nice looking unit
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          • #20
            Originally posted by Fishawn View Post
            Sure is a nice looking unit
            I bet you say that to all the guys....
            Island of Misfit Smokers Member #92

            How to heal the world. Love people and feed them tasty food.

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            • #21
              Originally posted by crusty ol salt View Post
              I bet you say that to all the guys....
              Craig
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              • #22


                I guess I could edit my wording
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                • #23
                  Keeping an eye on how you get along with this thing.

                  My current smoke chamber for sausage, etc. remains a simple 55 gallon drum, using a small (7,500 BTU) gas burner as my heat source and an A-MAZE-N tube smoker for the smoke. Getting that to work consistently was a long trial and error process, but I now have something that works pretty well, but I have to keep an eye on it at all times.

                  In theory, these small smokers should be simple to build. Nice sized, insulated box, heat source, smoke source, dampers and such. In practice, they all seem to fall down in one way or another. I think a big problem with all of them is they try to do too much. Or rather, the people who buy them try to do too much with them. The swiss army knife of smokers. I'm finding it is better to get a dedicated tool specific to each job.

                  So the deal is, you have to generate enough heat to get the temps up, yet at the same time, you are venting the smoke and moisture that build up so a lot of heat is lost. With electrics, the limiting factor is how much heat can you generate with 1,500 watts of juice......about the max you can run on a 110 volt outlet. I tried to do that with a proctor silex hot plate.....a single burner electric......and couldn't heat a 55 gallon drum up to 100F, even on high. It just didn't put out enough heat. So most electric smokers tend to be small, as if they get too big, they can't ramp up to 250F +, where folks try to run them. And residential grade consumer stuff isn't going to work on 220V. People don't have 220v outlets on their patio. Electric ovens, do, but smokers don't. BTW, an old beat up, but still working, electric range might make a decent smoker if you could find a way to vent it.

                  Second area where electric smokers fall down is their tendency to set a hot plate holding wood chips or sawdust on the heat source as their smoke generator. If the burner is cycling on or off, or holding at a low temp, unit may not be generating smoke. Related to this is in a hot environment, unless the wood chips are smothered, they are smoldering in ambient temps of 150F to 250F, and may catch fire. So you may burn through chips at an alarming rate producing heat and too much smoke. All this is pretty tough to make idiot proof.

                  Third part where the watt burners fall down is these have all gone electronic......blue tooth, etc. When I read the reviews, almost all the complaints center around the electronics not working right. Cheap, crappy stuff does that. A simple rheostat to control the heating elements....like that found on an electric range oven from 50 years ago.... is all you need, but try to find a modern era smoker that has one of those.

                  I also note a HUGE gap in the cheap stuff sold in box stores and on Amazon vs. the high end stuff sold by Sausage Maker, Cookshack, etc. http://www.cookshack.com/FEC100At least "high end" on the cost to purchase side. Would be tough to find enough user data to get good reviews on these to know if they are worth the additional cost. Not many of us use them. For those prices, you would think they would be bomb proof and work flawlessly for years, but who knows?

                  Then there are the gas smokers. Once you bump up in size, to get the temps up, LP gas puffers come into play. Problem with them is most have a too large burner (most around 12,000 to 15,000 BTU). These can't seem to throttle back enough in temps to stay as low as 130F to 160F where sausage smoking takes place. Most won't stay lit much below 180F or so. So take sausage off the list of things you can do with them.....at least until you get into the larger dedicated units.

                  Gas puffers, I have found, run a tremendous amount of heat and air volume through the smoker. Residential gas ovens do as well. Residential gas ovens have to be vented to work, burning combustion air, which then has to also be vented to the room. But as for gas smokers, those also snuff all the combustion air from the chamber making it difficult for smoke generators like the A-MAZE-N to stay lit. You almost have to have it off to one side and have it vent into the smoke chamber. I saw that yesterday when I placed the fully lit tube inside my Weber Genesis. When the grill was cold, smoke was pouring out of it. Once the grill was fired up, smoker nearly went out.......dying out to almost no smoke at all.

                  Gas puffers can also be dangerous. A gas unit that cycles on and off, or one that can have the flame snuffed, yet continues to pump gas into a cold chamber........one that still has wood chips smoldering away, is a gas explosion waiting to happen. I found that out when trying to use burners off my fish fryers as my heat source. You could not throttle a 30,000 btu burner down low enough to get the temps you want and keep it lit in any sort of wind at all. I never blew anything up, but I was probably lucky in that sense.

                  So between electric units, which top out at around 1,200 watts.......those are equal to a gas burner of around 4,500 BTU. Most gas units start out at 12,000 to 15,000 BTU, which are going to be closer to 3,500 to 4,500 watt range........nearly triple the heat output of most electric smokers.

                  Bottom line is there is a big gap in size that is created by the two heat sources. I am having good luck maintaining the right temps with my 7,500 BTU Coleman burner, placed under the barrel.

                  A good compromise for the gas puffers would be to install a 2nd, smaller burner. Like one in the range of 5,000 to 9,000 BTU. (smaller if cabinet is insulated, larger if it is not). That would make smoking sausage and larger stuff doable from the same appliance.

                  But again, I'm watching and am curious to see how you get along with this thing.

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by hog warden View Post
                    I think a big problem with all of them is they try to do too much. Or rather, the people who buy them try to do too much with them. The swiss army knife of smokers. I'm finding it is better to get a dedicated tool specific to each job.
                    “Why yes, hunny..I DO need another smoker...”

                    This is why I have 3 at my place and a Kettle
                    In God I trust- All others pay cash...
                    Check out the Mad Hunky and products at https://madhunkymeats.com or https://www.facebook.com/MadHunkyMeats
                    Lang 60D, The Beast, 18 and 22 WSM, Brinkmann Backroads trailer, Weber 22 Kettle, gutted MB burning watts

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                    • #25
                      thick white smoke - reminds me of the bradley. Now they are seriously nasty.

                      I mean it's nice and shiny, and if it works - great :-)

                      But you need to be able to get that smoke under control, that's for sure.
                      Made In England - Fine Tuned By The USA
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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by curious aardvark View Post
                        thick white smoke - reminds me of the bradley. Now they are seriously nasty.

                        I mean it's nice and shiny, and if it works - great :-)

                        But you need to be able to get that smoke under control, that's for sure.
                        Yeah, I loaded a crap ton of wood chips in for the sake of seasoning it... Probably would need to put a lot less in

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                        • #27
                          I don't know if a "crap ton" of chips would generate a "heavy smudge", but the latter is what is called for when smoking sausage. So I might be liking it for that.

                          The exact opposite for ribs, butts, birds, etc where "thin blue" is the goal. An A-MAZE-N tray might be needed for that.....and forget the chips in the pan routine. Second benefit of the pellets is the smoke time, measured in hours vs. minutes.

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                          • #28
                            Originally posted by hog warden View Post
                            I don't know if a "crap ton" of chips would generate a "heavy smudge", but the latter is what is called for when smoking sausage. So I might be liking it for that.

                            The exact opposite for ribs, butts, birds, etc where "thin blue" is the goal. An A-MAZE-N tray might be needed for that.....and forget the chips in the pan routine. Second benefit of the pellets is the smoke time, measured in hours vs. minutes.
                            Fair enough. I was also thinking about loading the Amazn pellet tray in the wood chip tray for just that reason... Experimenting with the levels of smoke

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by jgruberman View Post
                              Yeah, I loaded a crap ton of wood chips in for the sake of seasoning it... Probably would need to put a lot less in
                              That a metric or standard crap ton?
                              In God I trust- All others pay cash...
                              Check out the Mad Hunky and products at https://madhunkymeats.com or https://www.facebook.com/MadHunkyMeats
                              Lang 60D, The Beast, 18 and 22 WSM, Brinkmann Backroads trailer, Weber 22 Kettle, gutted MB burning watts

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by Richtee View Post
                                That a metric or standard crap ton? [emoji38]
                                Imperial

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