Smoker opinions? Follow up and review

 Anybody have a unit they love? I currently am using 2 Little Chief  smokers. I guess I don't hate them...seem to get a pretty good product, I think my main problem is inconsistencies in time it takes. Probably due to varying outside temps, depending on time of year.
 Thinking of moving up to a larger,propane,thermostat control (?) ...haven't done any homework yet,thought I'd check with the masters first.
 Thanks for any thoughts...

-Dean-

Interested in hearing what others here are using. I am currently using an a-Maze-n smoker tube on my grill and while it works pretty darn well a dedicated smoker would be nice.

I, too, have a Little Chief and it does fine as far as I am concerned. It's good if you are just doing small amounts. I wrap it with a towel to hold in the heat and speed things up. In winter, it takes forever. I know there are some better options out there.

A couple of important questions.  First, what is your price point/range?  Next, what do you want to smoke?  Doing ribs and pork butts are a lot different than a slow/cold smoke for fish or cheese.  Do you also own a grill, or do you want a unit that does double duty?

I started with a little Chief and moved up to this one in late 2014- 30" with window, got it for $260 from Amazon:

https://www.masterbuilt.com/30-inch-electric-digital-stainless-steel-smokehouse-with-rf-remote.html

love it, use it both as a smoker and electric oven for roasting meat slowly and adding a hint of smoke...max temp is 275F.   

I have the same 30 or 31 inch Masterbuit with digital display but with usual door. I do not remember model number, it is a signature edition that was sold only in Lowes. It is great smoker for pork, ribs and other meat. But not so good for fish, because it comes out more cooked then smoked.

We have a MAK one star general pellet grill.  It's amazing but VERY expensive.  Also, it's not real portable.  MAK is making a smaller travel grill but it hasn't come out yet.
It makes everything and anything.  Also grills steaks and burgers just fine too.  Dannybay loves the ribs I make and I've done a whole brisket- just set the temp and forget it for 18+ hours.
Made right in Dallas Oregon. (That's why we bought it- support local!!)

Anybody have a unit they love? I currently am using 2 Little Chief  smokers. I guess I don't hate them...seem to get a pretty good product, I think my main problem is inconsistencies in time it takes. Probably due to varying outside temps, depending on time of year.
 Thinking of moving up to a larger,propane,thermostat control (?) ...haven't done any homework yet,thought I'd check with the masters first.
 Thanks for any thoughts...

-Dean-

Before I built the wood fired monster out if the compressor tank I used a little cheif.I experienced the same problems when the weather was cold.I solved it by building a plywood box that slipped over it with holes to vent smoke.with a hole on the front to view a temp gauge I put on the smoker door. There are many treger generics out there that are the same just cheaper.

I started with a Little Chief smoker, and put a lot of fish through it, but I definitely don't recommend them.  They don't have a thermometer or thermostatic controls, you have virtually no control over the temperature of the smoker, the heating element is inadequate to get the smoker hot enough to produce safe smoked fish in cold weather, and they don't have ventilation.  Once you try a smoker with thermostatic controls, you'll throw away your Little Chiefs.  I have had two Masterbuilt smokers, a 4-rack and a 6-rack, and recommend them both.  They work very well and are quite reasonably priced.  I don't see any advantage to having a window in the door, because you have to open the door and poke the fish to tell how done it is, dump ashes, and rotate the trays, and the window is going to get all gunked up with smoke deposits.  I don't like Bradley smokers, because you have to buy Bradley's wood chip pucks, and can't use loose chips like you can with a Masterbuilt.

There is excellent and authoritative information about smoking fish in “Smoking Fish at Home – Safely,” http://seafood.oregonstate.edu/.pdf%20Links/Smoking-Fish-at-Home-Safely.pdf , and Smoking Fish at Home, https://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/hec/FNH-00325.pdf .  There is a lot of good information about smoking fish in the Fish section of the Bradley Smoker Forum, http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=11.0 . If you haven’t smoked fish before, a great place to start is by following Kummok’s recipe and directions for wild Alaskan smoked salmon at the beginning of the Bradley Smoker fish forum.  If you want to get creative, a good smoking recipe book is “Smoking Salmon and Steelhead” by Scott and and Tiffany Haugen, although I don’t use any of the recipes which call for Morton’s Tender Quick.

Here’s some smoked kokanee.





Here’s a great DIY smoker a friend made out of a railroad signal box.  It has a couple fans inside the smoke chamber which distribute the smoke and temperature evenly throughout the chamber.

My brother-in-law uses a hot plate in a cardboard box. We offered to buy him a smoker but he prefers his cardboard box and hot plate.

I absolutely love my Masterbuilt 30". It works great on brisket and ribs plus does an excellent job smoking fish. I am very OCD about fish smoking though. Like most cooking devices, it has different heat "zones" so I utilize three different thermometers and rotate racks while smoking fish. I also start it out slow at about 120 degrees for an hour or two so you don't get the white goo coming out of the flesh. I then bump the temp up every once it awhile until the fish hits 142. I let it stay there for a few minutes. For thick fillets, it can take me up to 8 hours to get there.

It must be decent because friends and several co-workers bring me fish to smoke.

It is well insulated so It works great in the winter when I do most of my fish smoking.

http://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070910-30-Inch-Electric-Controller/dp/B00104WRCY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1462506084&sr=8-3&keywords=masterbuilt

 OK....except for Eugene,everyone seems to like the Masterbuilt.
Gonna check these out...

A couple of important questions.  First, what is your price point/range?  Next, what do you want to smoke?  Doing ribs and pork butts are a lot different than a slow/cold smoke for fish or cheese.  Do you also own a grill, or do you want a unit that does double duty?

Got my grills,so yeah,a dedicated smoker and yes slow/cold mostly along with the ability to pop it up to a safe temp for vacuum packing and freezing fish. Hate to break the bank,but getting a good product is more important than being cheap.

Anybody have a unit they love? I currently am using 2 Little Chief  smokers. I guess I don't hate them...seem to get a pretty good product, I think my main problem is inconsistencies in time it takes. Probably due to varying outside temps, depending on time of year.
 Thinking of moving up to a larger,propane,thermostat control (?) ...haven't done any homework yet,thought I'd check with the masters first.
 Thanks for any thoughts...

-Dean-

Before I built the wood fired monster out if the compressor tank I used a little cheif.I experienced the same problems when the weather was cold.I solved it by building a plywood box that slipped over it with holes to vent smoke.with a hole on the front to view a temp gauge I put on the smoker door. There are many treger generics out there that are the same just cheaper.

 Hey Austin,let's see a pic of the monster!

I have a Traeger Elite.  Great for smoking most things other than cheese, and for that I can use a smoke tube.  Temp control at the very low settings is tough, but I've lined the bottom and sides of my box with firebrick and I cover the whole thing with a folded welding blanket to help keep the temp consistent.  If I had it to do over again, I would probably do a MAK or a Green Mountain.  With the pellet grills, you are at the mercy of the companies producing the pellets as far as what the wood really is, and how good the quality is, but they are incredibly convenient.  I do pork butts over night and turn out some damned fine pulled pork...and ribs...and salmon...

I absolutely love my Masterbuilt 30". It works great on brisket and ribs plus does an excellent job smoking fish. I am very OCD about fish smoking though. Like most cooking devices, it has different heat "zones" so I utilize three different thermometers and rotate racks while smoking fish. I also start it out slow at about 120 degrees for an hour or two so you don't get the white goo coming out of the flesh. I then bump the temp up every once it awhile until the fish hits 142. I let it stay there for a few minutes. For thick fillets, it can take me up to 8 hours to get there.

It must be decent because friends and several co-workers bring me fish to smoke.

It is well insulated so It works great in the winter when I do most of my fish smoking.

http://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070910-30-Inch-Electric-Controller/dp/B00104WRCY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1462506084&sr=8-3&keywords=masterbuilt

 Thanks for bringing up the "white goo" ,Craig. ..I also dislike and had problems with in the Little Chiefs. Assumed it was a too much heat thing but hard to tell the temps in those things.
 To be clear,you are getting 120 to start on the digital readout and then 142 on a probe on the fish?
 Thanks for the input everyone! Does anyone use a Bradley? I wouldn't be afraid of the pucks unless I heard they were formed with something toxic.
 

To be clear,you are getting 120 to start on the digital readout and then 142 on a probe on the fish?

Oops. The magic number is 143.

Actually, the 120 is what I set the temp at on the digital display. However, depending on where you measure in the chamber, it can be anywhere from 115-125. That is acceptable to me since it is not an entirely closed system with a fan to circulate air (which you wouldn't want anyways). I then bump it up a few degrees every hour or so until it gets close to 143. The white stuff comes out when it heats fast. The temp range throughout the smoker is withing about + or -5 degrees depending on where you stick a thermometer. This is why I will rotate racks through every level.  Then, I kick it up (depending on outside temps this can be as high as 190) to get the fish to 143-145 which I confirm with a Thermapen (awesome instant read thermometer-told you I was a smoking nerd) for about 15 minutes to ensure any residual parasites are dead, or at least so only the strong survive. You never want to get infested with the weak ones. That means you are weak and it is embarrassing.

When smoking trout or kokanee, it doesn't take more than about 3 hours if I remember right. It has been awhile.

I can be real nerdy and pm you the recipe of Ron Sauber's Dead Nutz Smoked Salmon with my smoking notes.
http://www.amazon.com/ThermoWorks-Super-Fast-Professional-Thermocouple-Thermometer/dp/B002FYS5BA/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1462510785&sr=1-2&keywords=thermapen+thermometers