Yoder Smokers

grubby said:

Wanted to know if anyone out there has a Yoder Smoker and if they like it before I make the investment on one.

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gotta link? yoder? amish?

I saw two of their pellet cookers this weekend and they were pretty nice.

Buster Dog BBQ said:

I saw two of their pellet cookers this weekend and they were pretty nice.

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Do tell....

Mike Davis seems to do really really well with his.

I will never buy a smoker or a pellet smoker , but if I did I would look at these very close , the pellet was a nice looking smoker for a pellet , their other cooker look like top of the line stuff with a good price.

their fire pits are pretty neat too.
dont know about their smokers, but i'm sure they're great.
if ya wanna come down to columbus, you can take my stumps or dp fat 50 for a test drive
anytime!

Gore said:

Do tell....

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It was two levels heavy grates like you would find in a backwoods or offset.
Very heavy construction. The one drawback was maybe airflow. The exhaust was on the top to the right from the pellet chamber. Just curious how food on the top row will cook. I didn't take the grates off to look underneath. Unlike the Fast Eddy Pellet Cooker, this one didn't have direct over the fire cooking. It was big enough you could do 2 butts and a brisket.

Those off set are nice looking. But all off set are basically the same , the main thing is the thickness of the fire box and cooking chamber, if you have these two factors you can make that sucker cook.

I would recommend my Midnight Smokers, but I am a little Biased. Yoders are made here in KS and my cousin knows the family that owns the company. I have owned one and its not a bad smoker at all. BUT, air flow is a bit of an issue, at least with the one I had. When I went through the design process of mine I tried to resolve that issue that curses most offsets. Like I said they do build a quality smoker (but so do I). Enough with the sales pitch. I think you would be happy with a Yoder just depending on what you want out of your grill. Every smoker/grill has its own quirks and you just have to learn to use the one you own, they all work a little different. Talk of pellet in this thread? Are you in the market for a pellet or a stick burner, just wondering. I would always recommend stick burners, but it depends on your preference. I am actually in the process of designing a pellet myself even though I would probably always choose a stick burner over the pellet. Pellet smokers are awesome for the ease of use but I feel it takes a lot of the fun out of it. And stick burners make better food in my opinion.

Yoder builds great pits and the ys-640 is built like tank. There is still some learning and software tinkering being done on the ys-640, but that just impacts higher temps. Call and talk to Don, he is the owner, and a great guy and will answer any questions. They also own a store here in Wichita, and you can contact him there too @ www.atbbq.com

The stick burners are very similar to Horizon, but have small differences that make a big difference.

Although I currently do not own one of these babies, I happen to live about 8 miles from where they are made.

And this will tell you how clueless I am, until the other day, I didn't even know about them. I happened to be walking through their showroom on business and noticed them. Let me just say, I am somewhat of a newbie when it comes to the various types and kinds of smokers (I currently have a WSM and a Hasty Bake), but I was absolutely taken back at how well these things were built. They are extremely heavy and extremely well-sealed. Any dummy can look at them and know that they are extremely well made. I personally, would be that dummy.

Yoder is an true Amish community that is highly regarded for their craftmanship in making things with their hands. They have several small town shops where people travel from miles around to buy their well made products. I have no reason to believe that the smokers would be any different.

Again, although I have been around some offsets on many occasions, these stood out to me as a high quality product. As far as how they work operationally I can't comment, but if it was half as good as the product was made it would be a "can't miss".

They did seem proud of their product from a price standpoint, by the way.

Good luck Grubby, I don't think you can go wrong with a Yoder Cheyenne. I just got off the phone with Don (one of the owners at Yoder Smokers). He is a great guy. I'm considering one of their trailer rigs for the future.

While I am impressed with the quality of build with these smokers, I am not impressed with the salesmen. I was looking at them this year at the state fair because they had a Bandera style. I opened it to inspect the baffle and there was none. I asked the salesman about this and he replied that it didn't need one as the temps were the same all throughout the smoke chamber. I call Bullsheet!! No farkin' way Jose. Who the hell do they think I am? Sheech.:roll::crazy::tsk:

I'm thinking about buying one. Obviously they are well built. I'm holding out a bit to hear about airflow and if there is anything buggy about it.

I am buying a ys-640 and talked to Don today and there are some mods coming to it, that will make it a high temp hero too. Bigdog, you must have not talked to Don, he will tell you temp levels down to the degree on every smoker. That bandera looking one is pretty sweet but nothing like the MOAB.

Thought I would chime in, very new to post here but read the site a lot.

i bought the YS-640. It is truly a work of art, I think. I love my old offset smokers of years gone by - but, seem to value my sleeping all night more than I used to:becky:.

It was 70F today, little to no wind. I set the pit for 180F. It equalized at 191F on the right and 187F on the left. Firepot is under the left end of the heat deflector.
Used a Maverick ET-73 and set the 2 probes at 4'' in from each end, and in the center fot he grate as measured front to rear.

4 degree differntial stayed constant for 2 hours. A couple of times the temps were 193-189F, but that is good enough for me.

I have never experienced this kind of stability. It is going to take me some time to explore all of the temp ranges this thing can give me.

T