Advantages of the upright drum smokers?

[rovster]

Been seeing a lot of these pop up. Some looked really tricked out. You know, those upright 55 gallon drums people hang ribs from? Any advantages to this style cooker aside from the obvious portability. Those Cotton Gin smokers on IG caught my eye they are works of art!

 

[Jason TQ]

Love my hunsaker portability and with the hybrid rack you can cook a full brisket and hang 6-8 racks of wings. Can feed a lot of people at once with just one drum. Pretty cool. They also give a real great flavor that is distinct to those type of cookers as the drippings hits the coals or baffle and sizzles.

 

[thirdeye]

Very easy to operate, food has great "open pit" flavor, very durable, a hanging rack can triple capacity (for example 4 racks of rigs on the grate, but 10 or more racks hanging) and they are very portable. I've been cooking on drums for 14 years and still love 'em.

 

[rovster]

Do the ribs cook evenly? There are no heat deflectors correct? I would think having the fire directly under the meat would dry them out but all the YouTube videos show otherwise! Would these be on par with a WSM? Or is that a different beast altogether?

 

[thirdeye]

Some use a deflector, I don't. It's weird, but there is a convection swirl of heat. When hanging, the heat is not striking a major face of a rack of ribs.