Pellet smokers. Yay or nay?

bigalsworth said:

@hondabbq not sure where you have landed on this yet but I have investigated Yoder smoker in the US and they are much cheaper even with the exchange rate.  Assuming they are similarly prices throughout the states you can get the YS640 for $1450 US, which is about $1900 CAN.  Just and FYI

Thanks Al,

I haven't pulled the trigger on one yet. I too looked at the Yoders. A couple of things about them, I feel that they are more than Im willing to spend on one, Id like to have a dealer close to me instead of a province over or having to deal with possible issues via email or phone.

You guys have a lot of access to different smokers than I do up here.

I don't doubt the yoders are a great smoker, especially when you start getting up to that price range. I don't want to dump that much cash on one to find I dont

Rec Tec had a crazy sale on one of theirs a few weeks ago. I think it was about $500 off, I wanted to see how much shipping was and they don't ship to Canada.

Ladeback69 said:

My brother in law and a couple friends have a Traeger and like it a lot, I have never eaten food off it so I can't say as to the flavor of smokiness.   Another friend sold his Traeger for a Rec Tec Pellet Grill and loves it and says it is better. I have thought about checking into a offset smoker, but would want it on a trail.  The thing is I wouldn't have room to store it anywhere.  If I was to get a stand alone smoker I would look at Stumps or GoodOne, they both use lump and that way I don't need to buy another fuel source for cooking.  The GoodOne Marshall is what I have been looking at and once its set you really don't have to mess with it like the egg.  Stumps is cool that it has a temp controller and is gravity feed.  Another brother in law is building his own lump gravity feed smoker.  He hopes to have it done this year. 

@hondabbq, what are you trying to accomplish for finish product in food?  More smoke flavor and something that can cold smoke?  From what I read on one of your post you want to go below 180 for cold smoking?  You can use a coffee can or if you have a Mini or MM you could use it with a flexible duct from them to the bottom vent of you bigger egg.  I am thinking of doing this with my little Kahuna sometime with maybe cheese, pork belly or sausage.

There are many choices out there for smokers.  There are many offset smokers out there you can go with as well.

Here is what I am wanting.  http://thegood-one.com/the-marshall/

Ultimately im just trying to get some more real estate for cooking larger amounts of butts, ribs etc.

I thought if the food that comes off the pellet is comparable to the egg +-, plus go low enough so I can do my kielbasa, meat sticks, and sausages etc then I would consider one.

I have a "Propane" Smoke Vault 24 which I got to do larger batches of cold smoking bacon etc. I use it only for low temp smoking of the kielbasa and meat sticks as I cant get the egg low enough plus i need more room. I was thinking if I could get a single unit that I could accomplish those tasks I would add it to the collection for the times I need it.

These days I make a lot of meat products at a time as my friends all want some. So to do a small batch of 10 lbs of anything isn't enough. I did a run of 50 lbs of bacon last run. I do no less than 20 lbs of any sausage at a time and I do multiple flavors. If Im getting the stuffer dirty for 10 lbs I might as well do 20-30 lbs, and I have no trouble getting cost for it from friends.