Pellet Fan

All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: rdsbucks on April 19, 2021, 01:59:19 PM

Title: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: rdsbucks on April 19, 2021, 01:59:19 PM
What other kinds of smokers do you like?
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: 02ebz06 on April 19, 2021, 02:04:08 PM
If I didn't use a pellet smoker, I'd probably use an offset stick burner.
Don't know of any brands offhand, but I'm sure there are plenty out there.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Bentley on April 19, 2021, 02:15:23 PM
Probably the oven.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: hughver on April 19, 2021, 02:37:51 PM
Before pellet, I used either a vertical wood chip smoker, the BGE or a gasser with a smoke box. If you took my pellet smokers away from me, I'd go back to one of those.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Canadian John on April 19, 2021, 03:09:15 PM

 Unequivocally, my kamadoes (Big Green Eggs).
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: GREG-B on April 19, 2021, 03:26:40 PM
If I lost my pellet pooper, I probably wouldn't do that much smoking.  Although I could use my Kamado's, I like the more subtle flavors you get with the pellets.  Burning chunks of hardwood gives it too harsh of a smoke flavor in my opinion.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Th3Batman86 on April 19, 2021, 04:09:55 PM
I own a Pit Barrel cooker, two weber kettles, and an offset stick burner. The pellet is my daily driver but I enjoy smoking in all of them. I will say the pit barrel is the second easiest to use behind the pellet grill.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: SmokinHandyman on April 19, 2021, 04:19:23 PM
I like my Weber charcoal
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Bar-B-Lew on April 19, 2021, 04:27:08 PM
I used to use a propane Weber Summit with built in smoker box for wood chips prior to my pellet grills.  The propane seemed to dry out the meat more than pellet grills.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: hughver on April 19, 2021, 06:01:05 PM
The propane seemed to dry out the meat more than pellet grills.

Strange as it my seem, propane produces 4 cubic feet of water vapor for every cubic foot of gas. This is one of the reasons that modern boats switched to electric stoves, moisture inside the cabin is not a good thing.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: pmillen on April 19, 2021, 06:32:44 PM
I think that the sweetest smoke is produced by a fire that’s burning freely and not being smothered by a lack of oxygen.  That’s a pellet pit or a stick burner.  But a stick burner has a giant fire-tending learning curve.  The less-than-experts have to throttle back on their stick burners’ air flow to choke down the fire when their stick burner fires get too hot.  Doing so creates at least a bit of smoldering and smoke that’s a bit tainted by undesirable components.  Controlling the temperature by choking down the air flow to the fire, thereby producing tainted smoke, is the weak spot for my smoking efforts on my Pit Barrel Smoker, kamado, Masterbuilt Gravity Series, and any pit that damps the combustion air.

The Karubecue C-60 is a stick burner that allows the smoke wood to burn freely into the atmosphere.  It maintains pit temperature and flavoring smoke by drawing in the heat and pure smoke only when the pit is below its set point.  For most of us backyard stick burner users, it produces the purest smoked goods, but it’s not at all automatic or set and forget.  It requires attention every 20 minutes or so.

Nevertheless, that’s what I’d use.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Bar-B-Lew on April 19, 2021, 06:33:31 PM
The propane seemed to dry out the meat more than pellet grills.

Strange as it my seem, propane produces 4 cubic feet of water vapor for every cubic foot of gas. This is one of the reasons that modern boats switched to electric stoves, moisture inside the cabin is not a good thing.

I don't have any scientific proof to back my claim, but it was the reason I changed to pellet grills after a dealer let me cook on one for two weeks. ;D
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: reubenray on April 19, 2021, 08:28:17 PM
I am seriously looking at the Masterbuilt Gravity Fed smokers as my next smoker.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: W6YJ on April 19, 2021, 09:22:32 PM
The Masterbuilt Gravity Fed at under $500 seen like a very good deal.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Brushpopper on April 20, 2021, 08:21:00 AM
I'd go back to my old offset smoker that's looking rather neglected out by our firepit.  I never did like my upright electric smoker that I gave away.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: jgrayson on April 20, 2021, 11:03:18 AM
My charcoal grill would just get used more often.  It has a wide body, and I have used it for low and slow cooking before for several hours.  I haven't tried to keep it going for long enough for a brisket though.

Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: ylr on April 20, 2021, 11:18:57 AM
I'd probably go with a Chargriller charcoal grill with an attached firebox. It's what I used before I got the PB820.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: bregent on April 20, 2021, 12:27:20 PM
MB Gravity for me as well. I think they now have 3 models.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: 02ebz06 on April 20, 2021, 01:13:58 PM
MB Gravity for me as well. I think they now have 3 models.

I just looked at the "Masterbuilt 30 in. Gravity Series 1050 Digital Charcoal Grill"
Looks like a pretty nice unit.
Wish I had known about it before I bought my gasser.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: dk117 on April 20, 2021, 03:36:57 PM
I think I'd go back to pure gasser.  Napoleon pro series comes to mind. 
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: cookingjnj on April 20, 2021, 06:26:39 PM
If I am not using my RT, I use my Weber Kettle.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: glitchy on April 21, 2021, 10:17:14 AM
I use my pellet grill the most, but already have a Weber Summit Charcoal I use as well. If I had to get rid of pellets all together I’d probably just use that, but be tempted constantly to buy one of the Masterbuilts for convenience.

Some day I want to get some form of stick burner, but haven’t settled on traditional offset, KBQ, or something like an M1 or Good One Open Range. It might depend on what shows up on the local used market as I don’t see using it enough to justify buying one new.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Bar-B-Lew on April 21, 2021, 10:42:46 AM
My brother liked the Lang offset he used to have.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: glitchy on April 21, 2021, 11:14:52 AM
My brother liked the Lang offset he used to have.

I really thought I wanted a KBQ as it's the closest thing in the stick burner world to a pellet grill. However, there's rarely not at least a strong breeze where I live, so I'm not sure the open firebox on top is going to be the wisest choice and it might severely limit the days I could even use it when I wished to, so that is leading me more to the others. I'd love one of the new Franklin BBQ Pits, a Lone Star Grillz, or a Shirley Fabrication unit, but no way I can justify the price on those for something that will end up used likely 1-2 times a month for probably at most 9 months of the year.

Lang is probably one of the one's I'd snatch up for the right price used along with a Horizon or and older Oklahoma Joe before they sold the company. I like the reverse flow concept of the Lang for sure.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Jimsbarbecue on April 22, 2021, 12:15:46 AM
We have a Weber summit charcoal and a Hasty Bake Gourmet. Both cook great. The Weber is thrifty with charcoal. The MAK is the work horse and if we had only one cooker it would be the MAK
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Darwin on April 23, 2021, 08:47:29 PM
I purchased a masterbuilt just to have a cabinet for cold smoking.  It was on sale when I was buying all the other equipment for sausage making.  Before that I used a Webber kettle and the snake method for smoking.
Title: Re: If you did not use a pellet smoker what would you use?
Post by: Kristin Meredith on April 24, 2021, 08:12:51 AM
Just don't smoke that much anymore.  I would probably like a Santa Maria grill.