Top positive review
14 people found this helpful
Great value for what you're getting
By Dave on Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2020
My buddy has one and when I bought my house, he loaded up my Amazon cart with everything he has. I don't live in the south and haven't had "real" BBQ before, but this makes the best everything from a vertical smoker. Everyone from BBQ-prominent areas of the country have said that it's the best BBQ they've had since they moved from there. It's simple, it's elegant, it works. When I first got the smoker, the box had pretty wild temperature differences. The different between the top rack and the bottom rack (5 spots) was 60 degrees. The difference between an inch from the edge of the box and center was 30 degrees. After a few smokes and a thick, black, smoke wall on the inside, this thing has very little variance anywhere in the box now, which makes for a very even heat. Difference top to bottom for me now is about 10 total degrees and on one rack from wall to center about 3 degrees. Now that I have a good 20 BBQ's under my belt, here are the features I want, and would be HAPPY to pay for! 1) Double door for separate meat and water pan/chips. It's a waste of heat to have to open the door every time. 2) Thicker door edge so I can use Lava Lock. The edge isn't wide enough to put on Lava Lock, so I end up losing a lot of smoke out of the seams of the door. The gap between the side of the door and the wall is too thin to put it on either. 3) Better handle and locking mechanism. The cheap (this smoker is cheap!) handle will be loose because if you tighten it too much, you can't turn it. Furthermore, it bent the edge of the box, so it's a key area where smoke comes out. Two latches that compress the door into a seal would be the perfect solution. 4) Double wall. When it's 32 degrees out here in winter, I mine as well just not smoke as turning it on high can barely keep it at 225 degrees. 5) Let's get bougie: Wifi heat control. The taste benefit of burning chips on this smoker over a pellet grill like a Traeger is huge. The appeal of a Traeger is that wifi heat control, set it and forget it. This isn't a wood fire sidebox... It's not real Texas BBQ where you tend to a fire for 12 hours... it's a knob that controls how much gas you feed to a small burner flame. There is no "skill" in your knob turning abilities. It's not affecting the final product. If I could abstract away the need to go out and simply turn the knob a little bit when that cold meat gets a little warmer and doesn't need so much heat to stay at temp, I would love it!
Top critical review
2 people found this helpful
Save your money, buy something else
By Tim on Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2023
I had high hopes for this smoker. I purchased it to replace an older weber style propane smoker my dad passed down to me that was having terrible temperature control. When the new smoker finally arrived I was excited to start following the directions to get it put together. Very quickly you start to realize how much poor craftsmanship went into this product. The metal that creates the body of the smoker is about half the thickness or less of my dads 1990s $75 weber smoker. While the outside looked alright (with the exception of a mediocre color coat), the inside was all scratched up. The door handle warps the entire door as you twist it to open and close the door because of how thin the metal on the door is. It also came half assembled with the tray holders already mounted to the side but that is the biggest waste of time because you have to remove them to get the screws for the legs and the burner tightened; and to fit the drip cover in the bottom. At first the burner looked like it was okay quality until you try to put the control knob on the front of it and you find out that it was not lined up when they installed the connector and there is no way to get it apart without special tools... So add another $50-$100 into the cost for those tools... oh and you wont find out about that until you have everything else already tightened down and put together. The issue with the control knob on the burner is a major safety concern and makes it so that I cant confidently let anyone use it without me being there; in fear that they will burn down my house by unknowingly having the burner on high while the dial is set to low. I really had high hopes for this product but I'm embarrassed to even put in on my porch so now I have a $400 waste of space in my shed. I should have known better than to buy this product; next time I'll just save my money and buy an actual smoker. (I attached some photos of how terribly inaccurate the propane control knob is)
Sort by:
Filter by:
By -
Verified Amazon Purchase
Vine Customer Review of Free Product
Sorry, no reviews match your current selections.
Try clearing or changing some filters.Show all reviews
Show more reviews