Pellet smoker

[dtaft943]

I have a Weber smokey mountain 22, i have been using for 4 or 5 years. My neighbor bought a pellet smoker, lights it for 15 minutes, puts on pork chops or whatever for dinner and 30 minutes later they are done. He just loves it. I am wanting one, for the evening meal when I have time. Whats everyones opinion of those. With my weber it takes an hour to get to operating temp.

[Old Dave]

I like the pellet cookers and use them often. And they are very handy for quick grilling as compared to your WSM. However, in my opinion, the flavor produced from most pellet cookers is just not as good as what would come off of your WSM running a good all hardwood briquet with some wood chunks for smoke.

Have you considered something like a Weber Performer charcoal grill with the gas ignition? In most cases, it can be ready to cook in about 20-25 minutes and does a great job with most cooks.
_________________
Old Dave
Ribs & Bibs BBQ Team
http://olddavespo-farm.blogspot.com/

[Brutalgrandpa]

I have had many smokers. I had a few of the WSM smokers over the years and loved them. I have had a backwoods chubby as well. I also currently have an ugly drum smoker and an offset. Any of the charcoal or all wood smokers, in my opinion, put out the best flavor. I just don't see anything comparing. I have had a cookshack electric and couldn't wait to sell it. With that being said, I have recently purchased the Green Mountain Daniel Boone wifi pellet grill.

Let's start off with the pros.

1) I can smoke at 150 and grill up to 500.
2) Set the temp, and walk away and only thing you have to do is take care of the food.
3) My wifi, allows me to control from the app or even use the GMG servers and monitor from outside of my home if need be.
4) Minimal cleanup. The grates fit in the dishwasher. Every 4 or 5 smokes, I simply vacuum out the inside where the pellets burn.
5) Many different flavors of pellets and easily available. I get them from either a local store or on Amazon.
6) Can do a very low smoke for a short time, like steak, and you don't have to wait to fire up the charcoal smoker and then waste charcoal for such a short time.

Cons:
1) Strength of smoke flavor is weaker for sure. I actually use the A-Maze-N smoke tube when I do smokes. It simply adds more smoke flavor and the food turns out awesome. Even then, it still does have less smoke then a charcoal smoker but it is evident and I honestly think the food is better. Before we used to have a good dominant smoke that sometimes took over the flavor. Now, it is a hint and everything seems to blend perfectly.

Here are some pictures of the ribs I did on it.