electric or propane smoker?

Electric is less hassle than propane. I have a Masterbuilt 30" electric that has been trouble free for over three years. I've smoked a little bit of everything in it.

I had the madrebuilt electric for two years until it started to rust away. Bought a propane smoker at Lowes. Love it. Big things to look for... designed to keep drips out of your chip and water pan, burner isolated from drips, adjustable racks (use foil, less work) , top ventilation as well as bottom air, and separate doors for meat and chips and water pan. Hope this helps.

Strong believer in a double walled quality stainless steel box with simple controls. Smokeintex fits the requirement. Electric is easy to control and maintain temperature.

http://smokintex.com/ProSeriesSmokers.html

+1 on Rembrandt. I have a Smokintex 1400. Insulated stainless steel. I've smoked in MN all winter long. Top notch unit and an excellent warranty and customer support. Check their website then do a search for "best price Smokintex" or pm me for the website of their distributor for a better price. I have no stock or ownership, just a very satisfied customer.

I have worked for two years with my Masterbuilt propane smoker. If you want one please come and get the damn thing out of my backyard so that I don't have to throw it away. The hose and regulator burnt up and had to be replaced twice because they are not airtight and the manual didn't suggest sealing with teflon tape which I finally figured out. The last issue is that the flame became slightly misadjusted and cause a huge thick layer of carbon to build up on the burner which then ignited and cause great flaming chunks of carbon soot to roll across the patio which all the grandkids in and dragged into the house.:banghead:

On the other hand its easy to add more woodchips. Use an additional pan on top of the one they give you as its too thin. Also, use your bottom rack to put a full size aluminum baking pan to catch all the grease or else your dog will eat that too when it leaks out onto the ground. Otherwise, it holds the temp well. My buddy has the electric version and its much easier to use. However he doesn't get a long enough smoke time and its too hard to reload.

They came out with a two door version last year that may make reloading and refilling the water pan easier.

MAN - I just wanted to cook some darn ribs...

When I lived in Western Washington I smoked 100s of pounds of salmon in a couple of Luhr Jensens electric smokers. They did a great job and are cheap'

Honestly, I really prefer having a separate electric cold smoker and just a regular propane grill. I have the cheap Luhr Jensen Little Chief that I use to flavor smoke meats, but it just smokes and doesn't really get hot enough to cook unless you do it in the dead heat of summer.

I usually smoke with one pan of chips and then either finish cooking in the propane grill or in the oven in winter. The way I look at it everybody needs a regular old grill anyway, so adding a <$100 cold smoker adds a lot of versatility without adding a lot of cost.

I also ended up with a Brinkman electric cooking smoker that belonged to my dad. It does a good job in the summer but I don't know if it has the heat output to cook in winter. As it was free, I don't think I can complain.

I have PID controlled wood smokers I have built that take all of the work out of maintaining temp.

If I am looking to smoke over night like curing jerkey I use one of my homade pellet smokers.

For years I used an old refrigerator which I drilled holes around the top with a 1" hole saw. The metal racks held the venison strips and I placed a large hot plate in the bottom with a cast iron skillet on top holding water-soaked mesquite or hickory chips. It made jerky just great but it would take 6 or 7 hours. It never got hot enough to cook with though.

Ive got a pretty basic electric and have been delighted with it. Granted Im a novice - prior to buying the thing I had never smoked anything in my life. Ive not done any jerky, yet, but have smoked brisket, pork shoulder, ribs, salmon, chickens, turkey, and jalapenos with a little help from my buddy Google.

I went electric so that I could essentially set it and forget it, not needing to worry about regulating the temp. I bought from Lowes, around $200 IIRC, Masterbuilt, I think.

I use a masterbuilt 40o and added an amazing pellet smoker for smoke. I'm not sure their propane smokers will run a low temperature.

I have a propane Masterbuilt, works great. I built this cabinet for it to elevate it to a more comfortable working height, to shield the burner flame from breezes, and make the whole rig moveable. I can wheel this thing around on the patio with ease. Also has storage for two gas tanks plus wood chunks.

I still need to finish it by adding a door and painting it, but it works very well. You can't see it here, but the top chamber has a plywood back panel too, to close it off. There's an opening/gap at the top to let smoke out and access the sliding vent on the back of the smoker. If I turn the burner all the way down, it'll stay around 200 or so, I try to keep it around 225.



That's eight pork shoulders (butts) in there. Yum!

i've got a simple Brinkman electric and it's awesome, trouble free. But, it's just me and the wife. We don't do 500 lbs of meat at a time, just a few sausages, perhaps, and maybe a rack of pork ribs to go with it for supper. It's not what you'd wanna use for jerky, either, don't go low enough temperature.

If I smoked 8 pork shoulders at a time, I'd be eating the left overs next year this time.

Rembrant has good remarks in a double walled well insulated smoker. The other thing to keep in mind is you may want to cold smoke for, Salmon, jerky, country ham, sausages, scallops, or bacon to mane a few. I have always like propane for out door smoking in a professional setting. I have an electric Alto-sham smoker at work and love the thing. It does not need to be under a hood and is a great smoker/holder. I'll even smoke fresh summer tomatoes for pasta sauces in it.

I know you are looking for propane or electric, but i would highly recommend charcoal. (and wood) I hear a lot of "its too time consuming" or "hard to use". Charcoal will always give you the best flavor and most of the time is faster and easier. I have two Big Green Eggs (medium and large) at the house and would not trade one for 10 electric smokers. They are easy to control and ceramic is a far better than steel as an insulator. Something else to consider is when something goes wrong with electric or propane it is usually not and easy or cheap fix. My first egg is 13 years old with no issues. There are lots of good smokers out there. Have fun picking one out!

I have a cheapy electric smoker I got from Atwoods. It's easy to use and does great BBQ, ham, and even jerky. However it did not give a good smoky flavor until it had been run for about 10 hours.

Are you going to cold smoke or hot smoke your sausage?

I do all of my own charcuterie. Many times after making sausage I'll cold smoke them for flavor, then freeze them until I'm ready to eat them. After that all I have to do is toss them on the grill as the smoke has already been applied.

I've had charcoal and electric smokers. I generally do things like cheeses, sausages, salmon, venison, beef, venison pastrami, ham, jerky, you name it. It's been a mixture of hot and cold smoking.

I threw away my old charbroil charcoal smoker. I was tired of having to babysit the coals and keep up with adding more etc.

I also tossed my Brinkman electric smoker...it was just really old.

I replaced them both with a Bradley digital six rack electric smoker. It has been a very good machine.

You load it up with wood pucks, set your time and time for both smoke and heat...then walk away. Everything that it produces tastes delicious. I can't tell the difference in taste at all from my previous charcoal smokers, nor can anyone else that eats from it.

It's more expensive than the other electric smokers but it's more versatile as well.

I have a friend who has a masterbuilt electric smoker and he likes it a lot...it also produces great food...but I don't think he can cold smoke with it (cold smoke is where you aren't cooking the food with the smoke...just adding flavor. Cold smoke is less than 100 degrees...preferably a lot less).

I have 35 lbs of bacon curing in the fridge that will go on the smoker next weekend. Mmmmmmmm...

I'm still torn on whether a smoker is best for jerky or not. When I use the smoker for venison jerky I cold smoke it for 2 hours then transfer it to a dehydrator. You don't want to cook jerky...just dry it. Lots of ways to get that done...after years of doing it I'm still trying to figure out the best way.

Cold smoking can be done in a Masterbuilt electric with one of these:

http://www.amazenproducts.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AMNPS5X8

I used a Luer Jenson Lil Chief electric smoker for many years for smoking Salmon, burgers, chops. It worked only in summer. Had a brinkman charcoal water smoker, worked great but labor intensive. I love my new Brinkman gas smoker. It works great, is affordable, holds enough for my family, and allows me to smoke even in the dead of winter, plus I can fry a Turkey for Thanksgiving.

It really depends on how much smoking you do to warrant the purchase of a propane smoker. If you smoke enough meat to use up 25 gallon tanks by all means buy a propane smoker. If not the electric smoker would be your best option.

I do not smoke a lot of meat. I have a wood burning Weber smoker that doubles as a grill. I can easily pick up enough dry hickory and oak limbs that I don't use that much charcoal for smoking. I have been using the Weber for many years. I have had the Weber for so long I cannot even make an honest estimate of how long I have been using the smoker.

I have heard that propane smoker might not be healthy as burning propane might be producing CO2 or some other poison in the smoke, has anybody heard about that?

If its burning, it's burning oxygen and by-products include but not limited to H2O, NO, NO2, CO, CO2. Not all bad though, if we eliminated CO2 all plant life would die, then we would.

alko said:

I have heard that propane smoker might not be healthy as burning propane might be producing CO2 or some other poison in the smoke, has anybody heard about that?

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All burning of hydrocarbon fuels (propane, wood, gasoline, charcoal) produces carbon dioxide. It's not a problem unless you are in a closed room filled with the stuff. It's kinda like water: it's harmless unless you are surrounded by so much that it kills you.

Smoking involves burning wood, and burning wood releases a whole bunch of compounds, maybe hundreds of them. Some of them are probably carcinogenic at some level...but those are also probably the ones that produce the distinctive smoke flavor that is the very reason you are burning the wood in the first place. One of the reasons smoking has endured since antiquity is because of the presence of nitrate compounds in the smoke and the curing effect they have on preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. Nitrates in large quantities are known to be toxic, but smoking shouldn't even begin to approach those levels.

Bottom line: smoked meat probably has some bad stuff in it. Unsmoked meat has some bad stuff in it too. All meat is bad for you...but it tastes SO good! Smoked meat is even better!