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LarryWolfe

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jake said:
Looking for to buy a small smoker with offset fire box, narrowed it down to the Chargriller and the Charbroil Silver. Wondering what some opinions and modifications are for both. The way things are going the one I'm building won't make it until next spring, would like to get something for this summer.

Hi Jake! There are alot of people here that used to use the Chargrillers with great success and I'm sure they will chime in real soon to give you some good advice. I'm not trying to sway what you have in mind but is there any specific reason you want an offset vs. a charcoal smoker like a Weber Smokey Mountain or a Primo Grill Smoker?? Offsets are great and will make fantastic BBQ, but there's alot of work involved in keeping them running right. You DO have to babysit them quit a bit in order to keep your temps right and you DO have to add fuel in some cases, quite often. With the WSM or the Primo, you will get equally good or better tasting BBQ than you're gonna get with the offsets, WITHOUT the Babysitting factor. Just trying to let you know the pros and cons of the cookers.

BTW we are having a BBQ Sauce Contest here on the board where the Grand Prize will be a Primo Grill/Smoker.

HERE's the details if you are interested in entering your own sauce!
 
Here are some of the mods that I did to my chargriller IF you decide to go that way.

My honest opinion is that the chargriller w/o the fire box is a good investment for grilling but the WSM Larry mentioned is by far a better smoker for about the same money if you consider the griller, firebox and cost of materials to make modifications.


http://www.bbq-4-u.com/viewtopic.php?t=5179

http://www.bbq-4-u.com/viewtopic.php?t=5316
 
jake said:
Thanks for the reply, I have a 7 in 1 smoker from Cabelas thats I use to make small things, works great. I have built and used 55 gal drums until last winter when the bottom fell out of my last one so I decided to build one out of pipe and plate, a very time consuming process. I didn't get it finished as planned with work, remodeling the house and a new baby due in Sept., hopefully this winter I can finish it. I have never used an offset before, but for me BBQing is not just the eating but all the work that goes into it, I enjoy spending the time and labor it takes to do a 12 hour butt. Cooking on a barrel is no easy task to get a good BBQ, it took a long time for me to learn to turn out a good BBQ to be proud of. So I guess for me thats BBQ, the hours without sleep, dealing with whatever mother nature throws at you and the time spent tending a piece of meat to make a BBQ to be proud of, watching the people who eat it smack their lips close their eyes and marvel at what it took so long to produce.

I used to love that part too, but kids and chores around the house get in the way for me when you cook as much as I do. So I need something easy!!
 
The WSM is the easiest smoker to learn. It's one of the most efficient of all smokers. It's extremely well built. It requires practically no tending. They're very portable. They make excellent small grills. People who move up to big deal smokers usually keep their WSMs. It's a bit of a pain to clean up. It's really too small to do a good job with ribs. Other than that, it's easily big enough to feed 12. Like any cooker with a small firebox, it's very sensitive to bad wood; and it's quite possible to oversmoke with it.

The performace characteristics of ceramics like the Primo, the Big Green Egg or the Kamado are similar to the WSM. The major distinctions are: They are way too heavy to be considered portable. They rank among the best grills -- at any price. They last damn near forever. They are relatively insensitive to cold weather. You can buy your way around some of the WSM's size limitations, but it WILL cost you. The Kamado, if you can afford it, is yard art -- a real wife pleaser. The Primo and BGE not so much.

Small offsets are cranky. They require tending, and until you learn their ways, they require nearly constant tending. Most of them are poorly constructed. They have a rather steep learning curve, requiring four or five cooks just to be confident of your fire building technique. Without charcoal baskets they go through fuel quickly -- 30# to smoke a brisket. They're also sensitive to bad wood, and can overmoke. Although you can grill in them, they are not good grills -- their small diameters put the charcoal too close to the food, and the top too close to your hands. Most require a few modifications (4 hours, $40) to run decently. Add another couple of hours and $20 to get them running well. In fact, a Bar B Chef, Hondo or Silver can be tuned to run as well as a Klose. The LOOK like barbecues. You get a lot of grate space for your buck. They're large enough to handle ribs. Properly modded and tuned they can turn out product equal to anything. They're easy to clean.

Of the small, inexpensive offsets, the Bar B Chef sold by Barbeques Galore is the best by far. The first four hours of major mods are already done. The tolerances are better. It's built of 12 ga steel. Next the Hondo Pro. Then the Hondo, NBBD (do they still make them?) Silver Smoker and SNPP in a dead heat. After them the Char-Grillers. I put the Char-Grillers so far down the line because they were already drafty before Char-Griller put the ash drawer in. However, they can be tweaked to work as well as any other 16 ga. smoker.

I owned an unholy combination of a Hondo and NBBD for 15 years. I ran a WSM at work for a few years. And I've been around a few Silvers and Smokin' Pits. I"m not pushing the Bar B Chef to validate my own purchase decision. I'd done a lot to inform myself, before I bought it. But the truth is, I hadn't decided which smoker to buy before I dumb-lucked into it. I'd bought an "as is" Bar B Chef Texas Charcoal Grill that could not be made to work, and the Offset ended up as part of a very complicated deal negotiated to get a Texas that did work, but still preserve the discount.

Ceramics excel as do it alls. So does the WSM. If you can live within its size limitations, it's the smartest purchase. But, let's face it, it doesn't look like a 'q. If you must jump into that little patch of hell known as small offsets, the Bar B Chef is the most rewarding.

Good luck,
Rich
 
Like Unity said..lots of good info....
Jake as an owner of a small offset and a WSM...among other things...and the father of two small children the advice I would give to you is..Go with the WSM until you can finish your offset..Like you I prefer to cook on my offset..I like to be part of the cooking process and make the necessary adjustments..and the ability to easily move stuff on and off the pit and mop and whatever else comes to mind..But you will find once the little one arrives (congrats on the that BTW) that sometimes as much as you would like tending a pit for a long period of time all the time you want good Q it might be impossible..it is nice to be able to fire up the WSM..and know that the temps will stay steady with out much tending (I used that technique it's know as the Pen technique...{Fire up the smoker and go to sleep}...I fired up the WSM at 1:30 knowing that by 5 when my wife came home from work the temps would be steady..and the ribs would need a coat of sauce and a little more time and dinner would be ready for her)...I would have prefered to do them on my offset...but...the WSM did it's job and I got some sleep and she got her ribs...IMHO the WSM is the best bang for your buck and will work just fine in cold weather I have pics to prove it :D ...if money isn't an issue then I think I would go with the Kamido/BGE/Primo...It's nice to have different cookers for differnt circumstances...Good Luck and enjoy your pit...
 
jake said:
Cliff, I understand the Mods, would you buy another Chargriller or something different? Thanks for the post!

Sorry for replying late on this Jake.

If you really like tending the fire and standing over the pit watching the thermometers then the chargriller is ok. You cannot leave it, that is may only beef with my chargriller. I don't think I would buy another one for smoking. For grilling they are great.

Please don't compare a wsm to a brinkman. They kinda resemble each other in shape but that is all.
 
I understand your reluctance to get a WSM or any other non-offset. For a lot of us, a bullet just isn't a smoker. It doesn't matter what a logical choice, how good, how efficient, how practical or anything else. We want horizontal pipe in our backyard. Nothing else makes us happy.

Between the Silver Smoker and the Char-Griller, I'd take the Silver Smoker. It's better built and less drafty. Believe me, the ash drawer on the Char-Griller is not your friend. Between the Silver and the New Braunfels Hondo -- toss up. Between the Silver or Hondo and the Hondo Deluxe, get the Hondo Deluxe. Stull under 2 C (at Academy), bigger, better, and well worth the extra fifty bucks.

Even if it goes on sale, the Bar B Chef will break $200 and your budget. If you can at all afford the price difference get the Bar B Chef Offset. It is better in every way. The smoker is built from heavier gauge steel (12 ga), and built to higher tolerance than the others. The grates are better too. And as I said before, the major mods are already done. I don't know what your time is worth, but mine (especially my weekend time) is worth more than the time it would take to do the baffle.

So, is it worth the extra money? Hell yes! Well, it is if you have it.

The Bar B Chef has a lot in common with the WSM in that people who move up to bigger, "better" smokers keep their Bar B Chefs. With just a little tweaking you can get them running as tuned and tight as a Klose. No exaggeration. Even without the baffle, extended flue, and properly placed thermometer hole, the Bar B Chef would still be worth the extra dough.

One last thing, no matter which smoker you're thinking about, hold off for a couple of days until the Memorial Day sales come online.

Hope this helps,
Rich
 
jake said:
Looking for to buy a small smoker with offset fire box, narrowed it down to the Chargriller and the Charbroil Silver. Wondering what some opinions and modifications are for both. The way things are going the one I'm building won't make it until next spring, would like to get something for this summer.


For myself I perfer the WSM and if I have to buy a smoker with a side fire box it will be a Chargriller . just discovered my 55 gallon drum smoker has 2 holes in the bottom , if I cant get my welder to help patch it , thats the way I am going to go, just my 2 cents.
 
Ive also got an offset and a WSM. The stickburner comes out when i have time to play or need to do quantities. The WSM is perfect for when you've got 100 things to do and you want some good Q' ! Just my 2 cents ymmv..
 

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