Smokers for Dummies

[quadrafire]

Master Built electric. Has a side loading tray so you don't need to open the door to add chips. I do a lot of pulled pork and ribs and chicken, Have never done a turkey in it but you could for sure.
I use an amazn smoker inside of the masterbuilt for cheese, as you don't want the heat.
If you want simple this is an easy way to go. Set your temp and time and you are good to go. I've had mine for about 7 yrs, wish it was twice as big.
I can do 20+ lbs of pork shoulder at a time in it.

[whitey]

Build a Ugly Drum Smoker.

The best smoker you will ever use. You can grill, smoke, cold smoke. Plus put two upper shelfs in and it will hold alot of meat, I did 60 lbs of pork butts on mine. They have won more BBQ cook offs then any other smoker.
Honey or food grade drum and weber replacement parts, start the build.

[PlateauNDN]

Been awhile since I seen pics of your smoker do you mind posting pics whitey so I can drool over what I eventually want to build.

[Buckmark]

Build a Ugly Drum Smoker.

The best smoker you will ever use. You can grill, smoke, cold smoke. Plus put two upper shelfs in and it will hold alot of meat, I did 60 lbs of pork butts on mine. They have won more BBQ cook offs then any other smoker.
Honey or food grade drum and weber replacement parts, start the build.

Smossy had food grade drums for sale recently

[swashington2128]

Pellet smokers/grills are the way to go, I picked up a Green Mountain about a month ago and did the best pork butt I every had this weekend. Start it at midnight, set the temp, insert the food temp probe and go to bed. Wake up at 7 and check temp with a cup of coffee in my hand. These things are literally just a push button operation. I filled the hopper when I started and 7 hours later still 3/4 full. The smokey flavor cannot be beat. Literally the best BBQ I have ever done.

Spendy grills, but worth every penny.

[Stein]

Charcoal and wood are the most difficult to learn.  You will need to figure out how much fuel and how to run the vents to get the temperature you want as well as keep adding fuel for longer smokes (unless you go with something like the Big Green Egg).  You will get frustrated and need to practice to get good.  Once you do, you can smoke anything in any type of equipment.  My preference is wood as the rest just try to replicate cooking on wood.  All the great bbq places will cook on wood.

Electric is easiest, just set the temp and walk away.  Propane is pretty close, you can adjust until you get the temp you want.  Both make a great product and the ease of use certainly justifies not using wood.

For 12-16, you don't need one that big, a single pork shoulder would do that easily.

It all depends on your budget, the more you will spend the more options you have.

[ridgefire]

I'm a fan of the green mountain grills as well. Makes smoking or grilling stuff easy and tasty.

[Bean Counter]

Cool stuff guys. I think I'm going to nut up and buy the barrel type with the offset firebox. I see a few for sale around the state but I'm too lazy to drive the distance to go get one. Sooner or later one seems as though it should pop up locally. Should save 50% off the cost of new, cuz that's how I roll 

[blindluck]

Just bought a 22.5 Weber smokey mountain smoker, Love it. smoked a 14 lb brisket this last weekend One load of charcoal. Started at 5am with some hickory chunks, held 250deg with some minor adjustments. brisket was done in just over 8 hours, Juicy smokey AWESOME. I let it run, it held 250 for 15 hours.

[Stein]

Cool stuff guys. I think I'm going to nut up and buy the barrel type with the offset firebox. I see a few for sale around the state but I'm too lazy to drive the distance to go get one. Sooner or later one seems as though it should pop up locally. Should save 50% off the cost of new, cuz that's how I roll 

I bought mine at Walmart in 1999 and it sits outside all year.  It is just about getting too rusty to use.  Not too shabby for something that was about $150 plus a few bucks in upgrades.

[gilroym]

Cool stuff guys. I think I'm going to nut up and buy the barrel type with the offset firebox. I see a few for sale around the state but I'm too lazy to drive the distance to go get one. Sooner or later one seems as though it should pop up locally. Should save 50% off the cost of new, cuz that's how I roll 

I started out with a barrel  smoker with the offset box still use my original smoker today. Depending on how much you get into it you will end up with more then one smoker. Charcoal is by far the best for larger items pellet cant touch full log smoking. I didn't struggle to much with temp control depending on construction some do hold temps better then others but once you find the sweet spot for temp its easy to hold the grill there and keep it there.

But for salmon, jerk, and ribs I use an custom built electric smoker this was added down the line as I needed something that could hold the volume of jerky racks.

[Bean Counter]

I've been looking at the pellet smokers--seems like it'll be about $500. None for sale used which tells me people tend to hold onto them even if moving.

Is it pellets that I remember seeing people do group buys for on here?

[Special T]

My wife found a used pellet smoker for $150. Its a "smith&wesson" made by treager. Keep your eyes open on CL and youll find a DEAL on one. I had to do 2minor things to mine. I added a temp gauge in the lid and bought some felt weather stripping to help seal the smoker up. It smells so good our neighbor  boys begged thier mother to bring ANYTHING smoked over so we could have dinner together. They just couldnt stand smelling the ribs,steak,salmon, or pizza being cooked.

Most pellet smokers cant/dont cold smoke. If things like cheese are super important then make sure they have a cold smoker box attached.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

[Bean Counter]

Good grab there, Special T! 

[quadrafire]

Here is my dream smoker. Wish I had room for it

http://spokane.craigslist.org/spo/5178117227.html