Vision
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2011
- Location
- Baltimor...
Congrats. I'm interested in your journey with it.
Congrats. I'm interested in your journey with it.
I also liked the P&S hybrid but with that gas starter thing it looked to me like the firebox was kinda short. I don't really understand why folks want gas starters. A twist of kitchen roll with cooking oil on it under a small pile of charcoal will work pretty fast for most situations.
For me, its two fold. The gas will keep my logs burning, and also work as a heat assist, ....
Yes, that makes sense! Takes a bit of load off from fire tending.
That looks like a nice unit. Very corrosion resistant. Lots of food space. Hope the cleaning chores don't grate on you.
Can't work out if this in reference to how nice I am going to have to be to my wife for letting me have such a big budget or what needs to be done to keep the stainless looking good!8)
Scuttlebutt on the modular grate system is that the inserts are MUCH easier to clean than the expanded metal grates. At 22+" they are probably too big for the dishwasher but you can for sure put them in the sink and use barkeepers friend on them. Definitely part of my motivation to get them.
She sure is!Your wife sounds like a keeper!
The cleaning challenge for most pellet cookers (not the Outlaw brand mentioned above) is access to the area below the drip pan where ash and other crud accumulates. For most pellet cookers, to prevent grease fires and assure proper operation, you have to constantly remove the grates, the drip pan, and the heat shield to get to the ash/crud. These parts will themselves be covered in carbon, grease, etc. and will tend to mess up whatever you set them on while vacuuming out the chamber and fire pot.
I think LSG has solved this problem - I believe the burn chamber is below the cooking drum and is accessible.I don't know why more pellet cookers don't have an ash clean out door or some other easy access to the area below the drip pan.
Mak has been a innovation leader for a long time. One of the reasons I like the Mak's are the grate size, they're unusually deep at 22" so you can fit ribs in front to back. I do think Mak should have been the one to come up with the wood chunk burning idea. Instead it was camp chef.
Mak's put out a lot of smoke but on meat it's that light, sweet, blue smoke taste. If you want smoky I'd check out a smoker that allows you to burn wood chunks in it like the camp chef woodwind pro or a pitts and spitts with the wood burning cage.
I think LSG has solved this problem - I believe the burn chamber is below the cooking drum and is accessible.
I've had my Mak2* for four years now. In general I'm quite happy with it. Except for a much-needed cleaning it would appear this will last as long as I live -- thank you, stainless steel. Just some general comments: