What smoker to buy? Pellet vs Stickburner

I have my eye on a backwoods fatboy with a guru, while you can't cook a whole hog on it there will be no problem cooking for 50 or more.

If you can hang on for a bit I'd highly recommend you attend some competitions and see lots of cookers up close. Friday night and Saturday afternoon after the turn-ins are good times to chat with the cooks. You've got some really wide-ranging questions and while internet research is fine, nothing beats seeing for yourself.

Hub

Stick Burners Rule. But any type of cooker works. In PA wood is easily available and fairly priced. A + for stick burners. Cabinet smokers would be my 2nd choice, and pellet poopers last. Just my preference.

I love my Spicewine and my Langs.
They are different animals and both are great.

No matter which type of cooker you pick, you will always want another type.
Just because they are all so much fun to play with.

Good luck with our choice and let us know what you end up buying.

jestridge said:

Where does those pellet trees grow at .Never seen one around my place.

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Right next to the briquette bushes.

Alls I know is I like the fact chickens these days don't even have feathers anymore (at least I've never seen any at the store where I get mine).

Here's an option that will only cost you some meat... that would assist you in your thought process?

If you desire to play with a stickburner... how about a live demo learning and burning on a Lang?
Drop me a PM to arrange a time to drive down, set-up, throw some meat on a Lang... and play with some fire.

TN_BBQ said:

Right next to the briquette bushes.

Alls I know is I like the fact chickens these days don't even have feathers anymore (at least I've never seen any at the store where I get mine).

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LOL amen

I would start looking for a used FEC100 - those can be had for under $3K usually. Outside of that, A wholehog is great. I have used one in competitons for several years now. I cook in mine no less than 100 times per side per year. And it has held up great over the years.

An insulated cooker of any type however will really help you with fuel consumption and time/temp mgmt. Spicewine has a model that will fit in that range I believe as well.

Good luck on your search!!! I'm happy to answer any questions about my pits.

I think, after 4 - 5 cooks on the Traeger and being a stick burner for eight or nine years, that if you have the time to burn real wood, do it. If you find yourself wondering if you really want to stay up all night nurturing an offset, or you just don't have the time, get something you can set and forget. I think BBQ should be a labor of love so stick-burning is my sweet spot, but when the wind's howling and it's cold as hell, I sure love the Traeger. A charcoal burner that will run for several hours is a great compromise to consider, too.

Arlin

but can you actually trust those fec 100 after all the fires been mention.

Had our FEC for over 2 seasons...No fires... Just great consistant heat and smoke.. you couldn't get it pried out of my hands and I use to make fun of pellet heads.

I have an FEC 100.

I cook briskets and shoulders mostly. Ribs come in second.

I do everything hot and fast with success.

I have never, ever, had a fire.

I line the shield with foil, and I clean out the ash every other cook.

You need to prepare yourself for very low smoke flavor because the pellets burn efficiently and the smoke exits quickly because of the airflow from the design. (But the heat holds well)

Some people like low subtle smoke flavor. Sometimes they will suggest that anyone who likes a strong smoke flavor is used to "over smoked" or "acrid" smoke flavor. It is their opinion, and yet they will assert it with great authority.

I like strong smoke flavor from post oak reminiscent of the famous bbq restaraunts of Texas. I began adding extra smoke with smoldering post oak in the space next to the firepot when I finally figured out how to do it.

Two things to keep in mind--

1. Shipping cost on pellets will eat your lunch, so start calculating the cost. A local dealer bag will be marked up too so look at that too. I went up to Ponka city and loaded up my truck with bags of pellets and saved money.

2. If you like strong smoke, you will need to figure out how to get it in there which takes a lot of enginuity.

Bulverde

I too am in the market for a new smoker. I've struggled with a COS for about 5yrs and by tweaking it and practicing a bunch I've managed to get it to turn out some pretty darned good food. It's worn out though.

I do (to a degree) enjoy the process of tending the fire but set/forget is undeniably attractive. I've read in a few places that pellet cookers impart a much much milder smoke profile to the food. Is this a truism? Urban Legend? Easily modded fix? Further I do have concerns that 5yrs from now a motor or controller might burn out that cannot be replaced if the vendor goes teats up. I can weld well enough to effect any repairs to a quality offset cooker.

Anyone with experience on both that can comment on the above concerns?

Thanks,

True

It's hard to beat the flavor of an offset but as you know they require more tending. The WSM has a real good smoke flavor but for some reason different from a stick burner but is almost hassle free, the pellet popper doesn't have as strong a smoke flavor as most are accustom to so they usually end up using a smoke generator to strengthen the smoke flavor but are stinking easy to use and yes they do require an electrical source how ever it doesn't have to be from a wall outlet, they will run off a 300 watt power inverter or at least a Traeger will. Now you have the fuel costs to deal with. You can find wood almost anywhere for your stick burner and a lot of times it's free, now the WSM can use lump or briquettes both are easy enough to fine and usually can be found on sale at certain times of the year which means you just have to find wood chunks for flavoring which can be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot or you can cut chunks from the free sources stick burners use which leaves us the pellet popper, they will only burn the rabbit food looking pellets and they can sometimes be hard to find and are usually more expensive than charcoal or wood and if you find a cheaper distributor on line you'll more than likely have to pay a shipping cost which can make you wince a little unless you buy , oh lets say, about a ton of them then you may be able to get a brake on shipping. I like all of them, each has a place or purpose depending on my mood.