Gas Smokers, who has one and what do you like or dislike

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Smokin J's PIts

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Ok, so at the moment I am currently without a smoker other than my Mini. I have a small trailer pit but its being loaned out to a friend to try his hand and doing competitions. I honestly thought he would have already brought it back but he is still going strong and cooking 3 to 5 briskets a week trying to work out his schedule and flavor profile. Anyhow I just got my first Thermapen in the open box sale; I know I am a late bloomer. So Thursday I was running around the house checking the temps of everything, Friday I cooked a pork shoulder on the mini, but it wasn’t satisfying. My in-laws have wanted to buy a gas smoker for some time now and I keep telling them don’t I will make one, so this got me thinking, and I headed to my local Academy and ended up getting one of the cheap Masterforge gas smokers their 40” model. I had a total of 260 dollars’ worth of gift cards, of which 150 of it came from my in laws so I figured why not at a minimum it would give me the opportunity to run it see where its strong points and weaknesses are. This thing is a total pile of crap, looks like construction is about 22 gauge, temp gauge was off by 120 degrees, but it is laid out very efficiently. I ditched the “wood chip tray” and used the water tray to hold my wood chips to generate the smoke, I used mesquite chunks. I wrapped a cast iron griddle in foil and it went on the bottom rack to help even out the temp, and the brisket went on the second from the top rack and I put a disposable catch pan between the cast iron and the brisket. First note, you cannot cook low and slow with this, with a 7-13 mph wind, and a temp of 53, and set at the lowest it would go I could not get it to go any lower than 311 degrees, so hot and fast it is. I hate to say it but this was the best brisket I have cooked yet, and all three of my neighbors agreed that I need to ditch all of my other ways of cooking and build a good solid version of this. Game day one of my neighbors brought over three boxes of burgers from the A&M Meat Market, and asked if he could use the gasser. Put a catch pan on the bottom and cooked 33 burgers on the first go around and 27 on the second, we cranked it up to run at 500 degrees which was about ¾ of the knob and again we used mesquite chunks. I really think I like this style of cooker. Does anyone else have any experience building one, lessons learned kind of thing?
 
Smokin J's PIts said:
Ok, so at the moment I am currently without a smoker other than my Mini. I have a small trailer pit but its being loaned out to a friend to try his hand and doing competitions. I honestly thought he would have already brought it back but he is still going strong and cooking 3 to 5 briskets a week trying to work out his schedule and flavor profile. Anyhow I just got my first Thermapen in the open box sale; I know I am a late bloomer. So Thursday I was running around the house checking the temps of everything, Friday I cooked a pork shoulder on the mini, but it wasn’t satisfying. My in-laws have wanted to buy a gas smoker for some time now and I keep telling them don’t I will make one, so this got me thinking, and I headed to my local Academy and ended up getting one of the cheap Masterforge gas smokers their 40” model. I had a total of 260 dollars’ worth of gift cards, of which 150 of it came from my in laws so I figured why not at a minimum it would give me the opportunity to run it see where its strong points and weaknesses are. This thing is a total pile of crap, looks like construction is about 22 gauge, temp gauge was off by 120 degrees, but it is laid out very efficiently. I ditched the “wood chip tray” and used the water tray to hold my wood chips to generate the smoke, I used mesquite chunks. I wrapped a cast iron griddle in foil and it went on the bottom rack to help even out the temp, and the brisket went on the second from the top rack and I put a disposable catch pan between the cast iron and the brisket. First note, you cannot cook low and slow with this, with a 7-13 mph wind, and a temp of 53, and set at the lowest it would go I could not get it to go any lower than 311 degrees, so hot and fast it is. I hate to say it but this was the best brisket I have cooked yet, and all three of my neighbors agreed that I need to ditch all of my other ways of cooking and build a good solid version of this. Game day one of my neighbors brought over three boxes of burgers from the A&M Meat Market, and asked if he could use the gasser. Put a catch pan on the bottom and cooked 33 burgers on the first go around and 27 on the second, we cranked it up to run at 500 degrees which was about ¾ of the knob and again we used mesquite chunks. I really think I like this style of cooker. Does anyone else have any experience building one, lessons learned kind of thing?
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Haven't built one, but I've been using Smoke Hollow gas smokers for 20 years or so. Had 2 30inch smokers for most of that time, then picked up a 44inch 2 years ago and another 44inch last year.

In all the time I've been smoking, I've only had complaints one time and that's when I accidentally doubled the amount of brown sugar when whipping up a batch of rub.

Some people say that you don't get as much flavor as you would with a WSM or a stick burner, but I'm not so sure about that. Most people I know use maybe 5 or 6 little chunks of wood mixed in with their charcoal when smoking a butt. I'll go through 1/2 a large bag or so of the same chunks during a butt smoke. 20+ pieces at least.

If you want to try and lower your heat a bit, use your cast iron pan as the chip pan if you can and fill your water pan with water or sand. That will help hold down the temps (the water more so than the sand). Also, you might try adding a needle valve to get better control of your gas feed.
 
I like the ones I've used. I like the ease obviously, plus I like that I don't worry about fuel. I keep propane on hand anyway so no worrying about running out. Plus I like the cost
 
I converted an old fridge into a gas burner. Works like a champ , holds a steady temp all day long . Recovers quickly when I open the door. Toss a few chunks of wood in the cast iron pan every few hours burns the perfect thin blue .
 
We replaced our gas grill with a Smokin Cajun grill, and have it hooked up to our big propane tank that supplies the house. It has a chip tray, and you can cook hot or slow on it. The heat is indirect and piped through the bottom of the pit. It give meat a great flavor and retains moisture since thre is no open flame.

R&V works builds them.
 
I use a cheap propane cabinet and get great results from it. Cast iron pan on top of the factory chip tray elevated with some bolts and with a few additional holes drilled in it. Big hotel pan filled with play sand and covered in foil keeps anything from dripping to the bottom so the whole unit stays clean. You can throw in a good chunk and it will burn for 1-1.5 hours. Mine runs best now at 230-250 but once the pan gets elevated more it should burn clean a little higher. It has some disadvantages, but flows a lot of air and has a huge amount of capacity.
 
I got a Smoke Hollow for Christmas from Sam's club. It has the glass door which is nice for 2 reasons. Yes you can see the meat, but more importantly, the door doesn't warp/flex. Yep, it's cheap, flimsy sheet metal, but the idea is to smoke, right? I'm not using it as armor! Since I'm a hobbyist, and I'm not competing, this was a great choice. The temp control is very easy and the door seals up nice and tight. I bought a digital thermo and tested it. The factory thermo is accurate believe it or not! I bought some gasket expecting it to leak like crazy, but it's not too bad! I put the gasket between where the top and bottom bolt together since I bought it. After using the thermo with the wire going in the door, I'll put the gasket around there too. The door closes tight and doesn't leak, but I don't want to pinch the wires of the thermo, so I loosened up the door. Now some smoke gets out, so I'll gasket the door. So far I did bacon, ribs and cheese on it. All came out delicious, though I didn't test the cheese yet as it's vacuum packed for a couple weeks.
 
I have a Smoke Hollow and have gotten good results. You may want to try this to get your temps down, it works on Smoke Hollows. Our propane control knob goes clockwise from off to high then to medium then to low. If I turn mine to high then very slowly turn it to off I can turn the flame down to whatever I want. It basically acts like a needle valve. I hope this helps.
 
I have a small Masterforge from Lowes and 2 Smokehouse XLs from Masterbuilt. I use the bigger smokers all the time and I love them. I have lava rocks in one of the chip trays and I just pounded the chip tray shut on the other. I cut 6 inch log peach wood splits and use those for smoke. I always keep a few splits in the smoker so they can preheat then throw them in the tray when the first one is done. Works really well and I get thin blue all day long.
 
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