I fired up my WSM up for the first time in a while this weekend. It's not electric but still requires very little attention. The design makes it tough to get the fire hot enough where it goes outside of the target zone for most BBQ. It just naturally wants to stay somewhere between 200 and 250 and it's very easy to maintain 225. Especially if you do the minion method or other similar methods.
When I do chicken, I cook it at a higher temp for less time so it doesn't dry out and it can be challenging to get the smoker up near 275-300 unless you go without the water pan.
One word of warning for those considering a Traeger or similar pellet smoker is that my controls are on the fritz. I can eventually get it set, but it does weird shit when I turn the dial for the temperature and try to set it. I think I bought it around 2020, for a point of reference. With that being said, on the BGE, I have had to replace the gasket, daisy wheel, and fire box, and fire grate. Also, the wood handle has rotted off. Collectively, not cheap. I believe I bought it around 2015, for a point of reference.I have a Traeger, but had the woodwind pro been an option several years ago I would have gone with that. The convenience and easy temp control of a pellet cooker with the extra ability to add wood chunks for a heavier smoke flavor. Currently I have to use a couple smoke tubes to add extra smoke flavor. I have a cheap offset that I need to get set up. Also have thought about adding a WSM to the arsenal.
I have a Pitboss and added the WSM this year. I’ll keep the Pb but I barely use it anymore because the WSM is superior and very simple to use. Look on FB marketplace for a cheaper one and mod it out as you see fitI have a Traeger, but had the woodwind pro been an option several years ago I would have gone with that. The convenience and easy temp control of a pellet cooker with the extra ability to add wood chunks for a heavier smoke flavor. Currently I have to use a couple smoke tubes to add extra smoke flavor. I have a cheap offset that I need to get set up. Also have thought about adding a WSM to the arsenal.
The big one (1050) is far better built than the smaller version. My only issues so far have been with the door sensors but I figured a way to bypass those. I'm 2 years in on it and everything is holding up really well.The Masterbuilt Gravity smokers are badass. You get good control over the amount of smoke you want, it burns almost as clean as a stick burner and it’s almost as easy as a pellet smoker. Only downside is the build quality isn’t great (not terrible either) and there is a flare up risk if grease accumulates in the manifold.
I got mine around 2019-2020 and it's been decent so far. I do need to replace the hot rod.One word of warning for those considering a Traeger or similar pellet smoker is that my controls are on the fritz. I can eventually get it set, but it does weird shit when I turn the dial for the temperature and try to set it. I think I bought it around 2020, for a point of reference. With that being said, on the BGE, I have had to replace the gasket, daisy wheel, and fire box, and fire grate. Also, the wood handle has rotted off. Collectively, not cheap. I believe I bought it around 2015, for a point of reference.
Correct answer.Weber Smokey Mountain is the answer.
I've only had a cheaper Masterbuilt but love it. I'd buy another.
Did anyone else notice the possible erection in the background in the above pic?
I had the older generation of the pro series and it worked great. I had it for around 6 years or so and never had an issue. The only difference is probably the bells and whistles of the pellet smoker but if it takes pellets and burns them then you will probably get the same result. You can always buy certain shit on Amazon that do the same thing as the bells and whistles for cheaper overallDoes anyone have any feedback on the pro series pit boss vs the competition series? Seems the pro series is only at Lowe’s but it’s sold out and has been for a while.
For you WSM owners, one of you mentioned using the water pan. I never use water. I used to pull the water pan out and let the fat drippings hit the charcoal fire like a Pit Barrell Cooker. It works and adds a different flavor profile. You can easily operate a WSM just like a PBC if you want that's why I would always recommend a WSM over a PBC. You can mod a WSM with a rib hanger and turn it into a PBC. Versatility.
Rib Hanger
Now my setup is to foil the water pan so that it catches the drippings. Makes clean up easier and the bowl acts as a heat deflector between the meat and the coals. Setup is minion method with 10 lit coals dumped on the basket, top vent set to 50%, two bottom vents fully closed, third vent open about 40%. I then set the charcoal chimney in front of that vent to prevent any direct wind blowing from that direction. Set it and forget it. Churns along at 235 for 10 hours+ easily.
Now, you want to talk about easy. Buy a Weber Kettle and set it up for 2 zone cooking like Meathead instructs at the link below. I set my bottom vent at 33% and my top vent at 50%. I used to keep the top vent wide open but found it was more efficient at 50%. Use these principles and find what works for you based on the elevation of your location (it matters). Learn to control the fuel and oxygen via vent control, get your Weber dialed in, and it is the easiest smoker you will ever find.
Kettle Setup
As someone that used to have to babysit their Weber quite a bit as far as temperature, I've gotten to the point I stop fantasizing about buying any kind of automatic temperature control devices/smokers. The key for me has been:
1) the first and easiest mod you should do with a weber is just put a strip of gasket like this around the lid for a good seal. This is important for smoking, but even just for grilling, it makes a huge difference in snuffing out the fire to reuse the coals.
Gasket
2) I bought the Slow and Sear charcoal holder. It's really expensive for what it appears to be, and I resisted it for a long time. There's no apparent reason it should be better than a million other ways to bank your coal on one side, including just piling it there. But it is. Fill it up, light about 10 briquettes in the chimney and dump it in the corner, and it's just way, way more stable than any other solution. I never fill the water reservoir, but it just burns steady.
3) Stop messing around with lump charcoal. Lump charcoal just has too many variations in size, density, etc from piece to piece, and it burns hotter so your job is tougher from the jump. Yes, I get that in a $1200 perfectly maintained BGE and a $30-50 bag of charcoal, it works because the airflow can be so perfectly restricted and the thickness of the egg prevents interaction with the outdoor temperature. But it's nothing but a headache with anything less. I use Kingsford competition briquettes for like $10 bag from Costco, but wouldn't hesitate to use regular Kingsford. But the absolute reliability and repeatability of high quality briquettes makes a huge difference. The coals it's burning 4 hours into the cook will burn identically to the coals you light to start.
4) Stop trying to smoke at 225. It can be done on a Weber, but the ability to get it dialed in and run for hours and hours between 220-230 on a Weber (or really anything other than a premium Kamado) is approximately 50x more challenging than getting it dialed in to stay between 245-255. It's very hard to hold 225 without a minion setup, which has its own challenges. If you're ok with being 250-260, you can just dump the charcoal and start a minion.
When I started this game years ago, it was always 225, 225, 225. I guess that was part of the challenge of it when smoking was more of a dedicated niche hobby, rather than just something weekend warriors want to do for the actual food on their table. Hell, for pork butts, I don't think 99% of people could tell the difference between one smoked for 20 hours at 215, or cut in two and smoked for 6-7 hours at 325. Just make sure the rub isn't so high in sugar so it burns too much, and you're golden. I don't think I've done a pork but under 300 in years, and ribs are fine as long as I'm anywhere under 300. So if it settles at 260, fine, if it settles at 290 fine.
The worst is when the fire locks in at like 270, and then you have to try to bring it down and get it dialed at 225, it's just a overwhelming amount of time, and if you aren't in a major competition, ain't nobody going to taste it.
The exception might be brisket, which I make the effort to make sure doesn't run much more than 250, but otherwise, in my opinion getting it locked in at any point and staying there for hours is way more valuable than trying to reduce it 10 degrees, and as such spending an hour or two with the temperature all over the place.
I have the Akorn. Very much a red version of the Big Green Egg. Smoked my first ribs ever in them, and they were great.
There's a new gadget on the market that has my interest. FlameTechGrills Smoke and Sizzle. Only 16 reviews on Amazon so far, and this is the only YouTube review from an unbiased source so far, but it's interesting....
Yeah. The electric smoker I had for years was so easy to use. Unfortunately the handle had busted and was barely keeping the door shut, so I had been using packing tape to seal it when I smoked meat. Wife got the Akorn for me as a Father’s Day gift out of the blue. I’m pretty good about keeping the cover on and cleaning.I had one of those. They are nice for the price, but mine didn't last very long before it rusted through, 2-3 years maybe? I'm sure it could last much longer, but I've never been the most assiduous about making sure the grill got covered and ashes emptied. But it was great for me to discover I'm not really a Kamado guy, so I'm glad that I could realize that on a $300 Akorn rather than a $1200 BGE.
That is pretty cool. Love all the stuff they come up with for Webers.
I think for slow smoking, I can't really see a downside.
However, there are a few reasons I wouldn't trade it for my Slow N Sear, and that's mainly for the Sear part. If I want to do offset grilling, and sear on the other side, I often want the hot side as hot as hell, especially for steaks. A huge advantage of the Slow N Sear compared to this is that it's a barrier between the charcoal and the wall of the kettle. So if you want to try to get the hot part up to 600-700, and it's banked on one side directly against the kettle, you can definitely (by experience), bubble the enamel on the outside of the kettle. When I'm cooking like that, I don't even set the SNS directly against the wall of the kettle, I give it about an inch air gap, and then have zero concerns how hot I get it.
Also, occasionally I move the SNS to the middle of the grill. If I did it all the time I would get a vortex or something round, but I don't do it that often, mainly to put a cast iron above it for smashburgers. The built in tray means you could never move it to the middle if you wanted it to.
Finally, for people who already have a Slow N Sear, you could duplicate the sizzle part by buying a half moon shaped griddle, which are fairly common, or just by cutting a small pizza pan in half.
Mine likes to run at about 275° so that’s what do everything on and stuff always turns out great!As someone that used to have to babysit their Weber quite a bit as far as temperature, I've gotten to the point I stop fantasizing about buying any kind of automatic temperature control devices/smokers. The key for me has been:
1) the first and easiest mod you should do with a weber is just put a strip of gasket like this around the lid for a good seal. This is important for smoking, but even just for grilling, it makes a huge difference in snuffing out the fire to reuse the coals.
Gasket
2) I bought the Slow and Sear charcoal holder. It's really expensive for what it appears to be, and I resisted it for a long time. There's no apparent reason it should be better than a million other ways to bank your coal on one side, including just piling it there. But it is. Fill it up, light about 10 briquettes in the chimney and dump it in the corner, and it's just way, way more stable than any other solution. I never fill the water reservoir, but it just burns steady.
3) Stop messing around with lump charcoal. Lump charcoal just has too many variations in size, density, etc from piece to piece, and it burns hotter so your job is tougher from the jump. Yes, I get that in a $1200 perfectly maintained BGE and a $30-50 bag of charcoal, it works because the airflow can be so perfectly restricted and the thickness of the egg prevents interaction with the outdoor temperature. But it's nothing but a headache with anything less. I use Kingsford competition briquettes for like $10 bag from Costco, but wouldn't hesitate to use regular Kingsford. But the absolute reliability and repeatability of high quality briquettes makes a huge difference. The coals it's burning 4 hours into the cook will burn identically to the coals you light to start.
4) Stop trying to smoke at 225. It can be done on a Weber, but the ability to get it dialed in and run for hours and hours between 220-230 on a Weber (or really anything other than a premium Kamado) is approximately 50x more challenging than getting it dialed in to stay between 245-255. It's very hard to hold 225 without a minion setup, which has its own challenges. If you're ok with being 250-260, you can just dump the charcoal and start a minion.
When I started this game years ago, it was always 225, 225, 225. I guess that was part of the challenge of it when smoking was more of a dedicated niche hobby, rather than just something weekend warriors want to do for the actual food on their table. Hell, for pork butts, I don't think 99% of people could tell the difference between one smoked for 20 hours at 215, or cut in two and smoked for 6-7 hours at 325. Just make sure the rub isn't so high in sugar so it burns too much, and you're golden. I don't think I've done a pork but under 300 in years, and ribs are fine as long as I'm anywhere under 300. So if it settles at 260, fine, if it settles at 290 fine.
The worst is when the fire locks in at like 270, and then you have to try to bring it down and get it dialed at 225, it's just a overwhelming amount of time, and if you aren't in a major competition, ain't nobody going to taste it.
The exception might be brisket, which I make the effort to make sure doesn't run much more than 250, but otherwise, in my opinion getting it locked in at any point and staying there for hours is way more valuable than trying to reduce it 10 degrees, and as such spending an hour or two with the temperature all over the place.
A pellet grill is best.
I have a traeger, I would hope they don’t add bad things to the pellets, but who knows.Except for the whole "pellets" part. Who knows what's in those things?
The minion method is the GOAT of all smoking techniques. I can keep the WSM dialed in around 225-250 for 15 hours easy. Also I disagree with the Lump Charcoal comment. I use jealous Devil:As someone that used to have to babysit their Weber quite a bit as far as temperature, I've gotten to the point I stop fantasizing about buying any kind of automatic temperature control devices/smokers. The key for me has been:
1) the first and easiest mod you should do with a weber is just put a strip of gasket like this around the lid for a good seal. This is important for smoking, but even just for grilling, it makes a huge difference in snuffing out the fire to reuse the coals.
Gasket
2) I bought the Slow and Sear charcoal holder. It's really expensive for what it appears to be, and I resisted it for a long time. There's no apparent reason it should be better than a million other ways to bank your coal on one side, including just piling it there. But it is. Fill it up, light about 10 briquettes in the chimney and dump it in the corner, and it's just way, way more stable than any other solution. I never fill the water reservoir, but it just burns steady.
3) Stop messing around with lump charcoal. Lump charcoal just has too many variations in size, density, etc from piece to piece, and it burns hotter so your job is tougher from the jump. Yes, I get that in a $1200 perfectly maintained BGE and a $30-50 bag of charcoal, it works because the airflow can be so perfectly restricted and the thickness of the egg prevents interaction with the outdoor temperature. But it's nothing but a headache with anything less. I use Kingsford competition briquettes for like $10 bag from Costco, but wouldn't hesitate to use regular Kingsford. But the absolute reliability and repeatability of high quality briquettes makes a huge difference. The coals it's burning 4 hours into the cook will burn identically to the coals you light to start.
4) Stop trying to smoke at 225. It can be done on a Weber, but the ability to get it dialed in and run for hours and hours between 220-230 on a Weber (or really anything other than a premium Kamado) is approximately 50x more challenging than getting it dialed in to stay between 245-255. It's very hard to hold 225 without a minion setup, which has its own challenges. If you're ok with being 250-260, you can just dump the charcoal and start a minion.
When I started this game years ago, it was always 225, 225, 225. I guess that was part of the challenge of it when smoking was more of a dedicated niche hobby, rather than just something weekend warriors want to do for the actual food on their table. Hell, for pork butts, I don't think 99% of people could tell the difference between one smoked for 20 hours at 215, or cut in two and smoked for 6-7 hours at 325. Just make sure the rub isn't so high in sugar so it burns too much, and you're golden. I don't think I've done a pork but under 300 in years, and ribs are fine as long as I'm anywhere under 300. So if it settles at 260, fine, if it settles at 290 fine.
The worst is when the fire locks in at like 270, and then you have to try to bring it down and get it dialed at 225, it's just a overwhelming amount of time, and if you aren't in a major competition, ain't nobody going to taste it.
The exception might be brisket, which I make the effort to make sure doesn't run much more than 250, but otherwise, in my opinion getting it locked in at any point and staying there for hours is way more valuable than trying to reduce it 10 degrees, and as such spending an hour or two with the temperature all over the place.
The minion method is the GOAT of all smoking techniques. I can keep the WSM dialed in around 225-250 for 15 hours easy. Also I disagree with the Lump Charcoal comment. I use jealous Devil:
Jealous Devil All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal - 35LB https://a.co/d/93vM8SI
They are very consistent with good chunks of Lump Charcoal And then I fill in the spaces with regular Kingsford Charcoal. I also put 8 wood chunks at the bottom (Harry Soo FTW). I found that Bear mountain Wood chunks are very uniform for the minion method.
The minion method is the GOAT of all smoking techniques. I can keep the WSM dialed in around 225-250 for 15 hours easy. Also I disagree with the Lump Charcoal comment. I use jealous Devil:
Jealous Devil All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal - 35LB https://a.co/d/93vM8SI
They are very consistent with good chunks of Lump Charcoal And then I fill in the spaces with regular Kingsford Charcoal. I also put 8 wood chunks at the bottom (Harry Soo FTW). I found that Bear mountain Wood chunks are very uniform for the minion method.
In my experience it is the most consistent and have the least amount of dust. There have been a couple bigger pieces of lumber but that doesn’t bother me at all tbh.You really don't get a couple of pounds of unusable dust in a bag of Jealous Devil?
And no big pieces of lumber instead of lumps?
I actually agree with you on the lump in the Weber Kettle grill compared to the WSM. I never use lump in mine. I enjoyed doing longer smokes in mine but ever since the WSM it has been easy peasy with the smoking and controlling the temp plus better product imo. But both are 2 of the best cooking inventions ever lol. I Love doing normal grilling on my kettle.Yep, I've never used a WSM, but I'm sure as a dedicated tried and true smoker, its going to handle lump better than a setting up a weber kettle with the offset setup.
Part of the reason I think it works less consistently for me in a weber kettle is the setup of the charcoal on one side, in a half moon or a bank, usually in some kind of charcoal holder, so you're dealing with the shapes of lump and the shape of our charcoal area. It would probably work better if I used a deflector setup where the entire base is filled with lump, with a deflector in between. That's how you do a WSM or a kamado. I actually have a setup to do that, but I don't like being able to see and access the charcoal if I need to throw another piece of wood on it, or just want and idea of how much time I've got left, so I just go with this method so it's easy to get to the charcoal.
![]()
I can't remember if I used lump when I did use the method with the deflector and the full base charcoal, and if it was easier to dial in. But setting up as the diagram, the briquettes are just so perfectly consistent, touch each other perfectly to keep the fire steady, etc. I just have a lot fewer spikes. I mean, people still do lump in their kettle for smoking, I just found that briquettes are way less volatile if you want to go hours without much change.
I do love your idea of mixing in briquettes to fill in the gaps of lump...that's a great idea that eliminates some of the variability.
Check out the WW Pro. Build quality is nicer and it has the smoke box.I have a Camp Chef Woodwind and a Traeger Pro 34. I've had a lot of issues with the Woodwind, mostly quality and build related. I'm about to get rid of both and get a Rec Teq
My BIL had the same issues with his Camp Chef and got a higher end Pit Boss rig. He's been happy with it.
I have a traeger, I would hope they don’t add bad things to the pellets, but who knows.
Can you guys honestly tell the difference in pellet brands? They all kind of taste the same to me. When using the green egg, same for general lump. I can taste different finishing woods added like cherry and mesquite, but not the base woods or pellets.I enjoy my traeger, but their pellets are shit. Cookingpellets, knotty wood, lumberjack all make far superior pellets. And the latter is available at fareway and some Hy-Vees for half the price of traeger pellets.
I can. Traeger pellets add almost no flavor. The others listed are much better. Lumberjack 100% hickory is my go to. The other brands I listed are also good but about 2-3x as expensive and have to be ordered online.Can you guys honestly tell the difference in pellet brands? They all kind of taste the same to me. When using the green egg, same for general lump. I can taste different finishing woods added like cherry and mesquite, but not the base woods or pellets.
YesAnybody else ever find an questionable stuff in your lump? Shit that looks like a piece of a pallet? Rocks?