I did a little searching here..I found a thread Guns & BBQ...Some of you were nice enough to put in pictures & recipes....It has been thirty years since I bought an older Brinkman Bullet style two pan, two level grill Smoker...It served me well for about ten years..Now I'm retired..I want to be able to do racks of ribs and have better temp control and more versatility...Should I buy or build a smoker ? Please show us your smoker grill & share a recipe..Thanks in advance...Uncle "Mike in Ct"
BBQ Smoker Grill, Build or Buy ??
- Thread starter mikeinct
- Start date
Pretty much depends on your pocket book. You can buy a 40" electric no fuss smoker that will hold LOTS of racks of ribs for around 300.00. Done deal. Easy to clean, consistent heat and excellent final table results. Not sure about homemade jobs but I'm sure with charcoal you'd have as good or better food quality. Just alot more babysitting the temp control. That's my biggest complaints of charcoal models is babysitting. Now I just set it and forget it pretty much. May add wood chips a couple times. Mine is only a 30" model but it holds alot of ribs as well
"Smoking" can mean several things. If you want very low temp smoke only for things like preserving fish, my rig won't work well. But if you mean long, low, slow BBQ cooking then you might like my Akorn Kamado Kooker Charcoal Grill, available at Lowes and Home Depot. It goes for three hundred bucks, and sometimes less when on sale at this time of year. It's a steel version of the much more expensive ceramic "egg" style cookers. It's double wall, pretty well made considering the cost, and cooks very well.
I do ribs on mine all the time, usually for four to five hours for a small rack. I also do beef brisket for up to 18 hours. A nice thing to have is an automatic thermostat. There are several types, but most of them involve a small fan connected to the lower air intake. The electronic PDF controller has a temp probe near the meat. I set mine to 220 usually and the little fan comes on for one second about every ten seconds to maintain that temperature. It will do that for hours and hours usually between 218 to 222 degrees; i.e. much better than my home oven. At that setting the grill burns very little charcoal so after 14 or 16 hours there is always plenty of fuel left.
You can buy a thermostat for $175 to $375 or build one very easily for about 30 bucks. No fancy soldering or circuit board building required. You just buy a PID controller, wire up the power supply and the thermocouple and find a project box (I 3d printed mine). With the thermostat you set the temperature and pretty much ignore it until you ready to eat. Of course I check the temperature every once in a while, but that's it.
It makes a great pizza oven and by removing the ceramic heat deflector and lowering the grill, it sears steaks too.
There are other ways to skin the BBQ cat of course, but the Akorn with a thermostat is hard to beat. Excellent results at a rock bottom price.
I do ribs on mine all the time, usually for four to five hours for a small rack. I also do beef brisket for up to 18 hours. A nice thing to have is an automatic thermostat. There are several types, but most of them involve a small fan connected to the lower air intake. The electronic PDF controller has a temp probe near the meat. I set mine to 220 usually and the little fan comes on for one second about every ten seconds to maintain that temperature. It will do that for hours and hours usually between 218 to 222 degrees; i.e. much better than my home oven. At that setting the grill burns very little charcoal so after 14 or 16 hours there is always plenty of fuel left.
You can buy a thermostat for $175 to $375 or build one very easily for about 30 bucks. No fancy soldering or circuit board building required. You just buy a PID controller, wire up the power supply and the thermocouple and find a project box (I 3d printed mine). With the thermostat you set the temperature and pretty much ignore it until you ready to eat. Of course I check the temperature every once in a while, but that's it.
It makes a great pizza oven and by removing the ceramic heat deflector and lowering the grill, it sears steaks too.
There are other ways to skin the BBQ cat of course, but the Akorn with a thermostat is hard to beat. Excellent results at a rock bottom price.
Have someone with a Traeger cook you some ribs. They are kind of expensive, but wow, talk about some good eating. I would think similar designs for a little less money would work just as good.
It has a module that connects to an iPhone, so you can monitor grill temp and meat temp from a distance.
It has a module that connects to an iPhone, so you can monitor grill temp and meat temp from a distance.
I bought this one.
https://store.grillagrills.com/products/silverbac-b-series
Makes a Trager look cheaply made.
https://store.grillagrills.com/products/silverbac-b-series
Makes a Trager look cheaply made.
Buy a temp controller and spend more time drinking beer and a LOT less time tending your grill. Here's the one I bought first: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M3E6YEM/?tag=accuratescom-20
It goes for $160 and is VERY good. But my home brew versions I make for about 30 bucks are equally good. It's hard to beat Charcoal and once you overcome the fiddly part related to precise temperature control, it's hard to resist.
pirate ammo
Guaranteed to take the wind out of their sails
right now Brinkman Trailblazer, holds 50 pounds of meat easy,,wood fired,,getting my new one built, www.easttexassmokercompany.com like 4 grand, but I do a lot,,
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There is no reason to babysit. We live in modern times. Put the probe in the meat, set the alarm to sound at your desired temperature and walk away. You can also use your cellphone to keep track of it.
Last edited:
JayHHI6818
Silver $$ Contributor
Build. Got to be big enough for a whole pig.
pirate ammo
Guaranteed to take the wind out of their sails
now your cooking, when they show back up I'll get us a HOG,,
That's probably true, if you have the material, shear, brake, welding machine, ability to piece it together with a complete seal and the equipment to paint it.
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