My experience has been primarily with a Weber Smokey Mountain or other bullet style water pan smokers. 3 decades. Affordable and simple. It's what I started with and I've just stuck with what I knew. Always make really good food. The drawback has always been the time/tending to the fire. The older I get and as busy as my schedule is, I'd like something "easier" but with same level product of delicious smoked meats.

Side note, I love my Weber Kettle grill and I can arrange it to an excellent smoker with a Slow-n- Sear for a small cook. Besides obvious grilling, use it often for a single butt, chicken, or a rack or two of ribs. No complaints except for a little tending time for long cooks like a pork butt.

So I am looking for personal experience recommendations for a new smoker.
List of priorities:
1. Minimal tending time. Think get it to temperature and get an overnight cook/all day cook without all the fire and vent adjustments.
2. Technology like auto fans to keep temperature regulated are fine as add ons.
3. Ability to do larger cooks like I can do on my Smokey Mountain. 4 larger cuts like a butt or whole chickens or 4 - 6 racks of ribs...or really the ability to do several racks and a couple of butts. Regularly cook for 15-20 people (holidays, church group, get togethers)
4. Space limitation is around 3 feet width, maybe 4 ft. Incorporating a new 36" Camp Chef griddle, a new smoker, and my Kettle grill into an outdoor kitchen build.
5. I'll spend some $$ because I cook enough to justify it.

So what say the Aldeer gurus of smoke?
Pellet? Gravity Charcoal? Kamado w/ 2 racks? Vertical? Horizontal? Something else?
If you had the same priority list, what would be your recommendation?

Thanks in advance!
Mike

BGE with two racks.

Sorry, I don’t like the idea of plugging my grill into an outlet.

Pellet is by far the easiest if you don't mind it using electricity. Mine connects to WiFi and I can control the temp and temperature alerts on my phone from inside. Very simple.

Pellet smokers are getting better and better. They will smoke meat but in my opinion you don't get the amount of smoke flavor as you do with a Komodo or a stick burner. As far as set and forget goes, in my opinion the best system going right now is a Komodo/ Egg with the Digi Q / Ultra Q system. You can leave it unattended for 12 hours at least. If you set up your wood / charcoal correctly you can go even longer. I've smoked several briskets and butts by putting them on before I went to bed and in the morning they were ready. With that setup the system will shut off the oxygen to the fire when your internal temp hits what you want it to hit so you don't risk overcooking. The blue tooth / wifi model's will also notify you of temp spikes and you can monitor your cook from wherever you like. It takes a little learning curve to get the feel for it and what your particular grill likes. But once you get it figured out, it's a no brainer.

With that said, it still doesn't give you the smoke of an offset. But it's close.

I don’t have a Yoder yet but will. I did like the smoke flavor from my Pitboss 1100 pro. It caught on fire easily though. A pellet that drops the pellets instead of inline auger probably the best design. There’s numerous pellet grills out there and I’d spend the money on the higher end one of those for ease of use. Cookshack Eddie is another good one and very well built.

A friends brother has one of these. Has two outdoor kitchens and no telling what kinda money he has in both of them.

https://grillio.com/brands/memphis-...-UxLisRTUa9iTsmmoSy8jzVYxgEaAgsVEALw_wcB

I'm a big fan of charcoal and wood for a really good smoke flavor.
My late night interwebs deep dive let me read about the Masterbuilt Gravity charcoal/wood smokers. Limited tending because of the Gravity feed and fan regulated temperature controls.

Anyone have any experience with these?

Also, on the kamado style smokers, are they large enough to put on full racks of ribs? I'm assuming a second grate can be added above the main cooking grate

The kamodo's are plenty big.

Large BGE with ribs

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/QtqXVm0X/temp-Image-Ixw-BQh.avif[/img]

I don't know how much better temp control can be, but I have a Fireboard 2 Drive and it will hold my Kamado Joe at whatever temp I set it at. Here's an example from yesterday on a brisket flat 250F. Any big dips were from opening the lid to spritz with ACV.

Man I love my green egg, I have a large and it may not cook all you are wanting to cook at the same time.I have set mine many times at 225 and went to bed and wake up and it it still at 225.

I was until I got my Big Joe 3 with all the accessories. I have to smoke hotter than I like otherwise I get a funkiness too it. Like 285-300. Had the Ikamand until it was unsupported. Didn’t matter. My BGE large had a great smoke with it down low. I think it’s the relative size to fire/smoke box. A friend had one of the larger at green eggs and he says the same thing.


I’ve followed this guy for a few years
https://youtu.be/SmxUImDZBpo?si=gt4mCTv3PvsyJJ1X

Brother has a smoker like you looked at I’ll ask him.

This is about as set and forget as you can get. These units basically turn your Kamodo into an oven.

I think I'll be cranking up the kamodo soon

My pit boss caught on fire a few weeks ago, it could have been a bad deal. It was my own fault. The small cup at the end of the auger was full of ash, I cleaned it out and left the remanding pellets and turned it back on. I guess it was to many at one time, got real hot and had a small grease fire going. It was also my own ignorance on not keeping the build up of grease cleaned out on the inside of the cabinet, I always considered that extra seasoning. Since my incident, I know of one other pit boss and a Traeger that all caught on fire.


I am researching now for the replacement.

Yes, I have the 800. Works well and they sell upgraded internals made of SS online but I'm still using the originals.

I’ve had good luck with my camp chef

My Inlaws gave me a Rec Tec for Christmas and I love it. It is definatly set it and forget it. I also have a Large BGE, and a smaller griddle.

I still use the BGE for steaks burgers and such. But for most other grilling or smoking the Pellet Grill is just so much easier and I still get plenty of smoke ring in the meat with it.

Same with my primo grill

Had a KJ for 14 years. Not knocking the folks who have the temp controllers on their BGE/KJ, but I've never found a need for them. Once you know where to set your vents, it will maintain temp until the charcoal is almost gone. Its really a set and forget once you get a few cook under your belt and know how to set the vent/daisy wheel.