kyleb76
06-01-2017, 04:06 PM
This is going to be a long post so I'll go ahead and summarize for those who do not like to read through long posts:
Stephanie with 270 Smokers is awesome and they have an equally awesome product!
I first got the BBQ bug around 10 years ago and went out and bought a cheap CharGriller offset firebox smoker. It only took one rack of ribs for me to realize that it would be near impossible to successfully smoke a rack of ribs on this smoker and I never tried smoking anything else on the CharGriller ever again. I kept it for years using it as a grill until it finally rusted out but I never tried smoking on it again, it’s a great grill but a terrible smoker.
About 7 years later I got the bug again but still was not ready to spend what it takes to get a good quality smoker. I did some research and came to the conclusion that the Weber Smokey Mountain was the best lower priced smoker on the market so I went out and got the 22.5 inch model. By this time I had been to a few BBQ competitions where my brother-in-law was participating on a team and I saw that they used the Gurus to maintain temps in their competition smokers (Stumps), so I also ordered the BBQ Guru PartyQ with the correct adaptor for the WSM. This was a mistake. The first several smokes on the Weber with the PartyQ went terribly wrong. The problem with the WSM is that it is not sealed so when the Guru fan stops running, air is still able to get to the fire. So the fan kicks on and stokes the fire but even after it kicks off the fire keeps getting hotter and hotter because it still gets air and it is damn near impossible to get the temp back down again. It seemed to work fine until the first time I would take the lid off to mess with the meat and it would all be downhill from there. Eventually I quit using the Guru and learned a few techniques for building the fire so that only so many coals could ignite at once and changed some other things I was doing and eventually I was able to get decent results but I was never 100% satisfied. You have to do everything perfect on the WSM to get good results and even then I was not completely happy with the results. Even when family and friends would swear that the ribs were good, I knew that the tenderness I wanted just wasn’t there.
After 3 years of frustration and getting so close but not quite there, I decided I would just have to bite the bullet and spend the money for a nice, competition level smoker. I did a lot of online research and the name that kept coming up over and over again was 270 smokers. I had actually seen a 270 Smoker at my local BBQ supply store but didn’t pay it much attention. I thought it was a little funny looking and it was at a price point I still was not considering at the time I first spotted one in the store. But after reading dozens of reviews on this site and a few others I decided that I wanted a 270.
After deciding the 270 Sumo was the one I wanted, I made a trip to the local BBQ supply store only to find that they no longer had one in stock. The owner was happy to talk to me about them and sing their praises and even showed me his demo model that he had in the back of the store. He assured me that they would be ordering more soon. I continued to check back over the next 9 months or so and every time he would give me a new date of when they expected to have more in stock and in each instance that day came and went without them restocking any 270 smokers. I even offered to put down a deposit to let them know I was serious. At one point he offered to order one specifically for me but he was going to make me pay the shipping and then pay an additional $100 drop ship fee. I declined, I told him if I was going to pay shipping I might as well order directly from the factory.
This is when I initially reached out to Stephanie at 270 Smokers, I work for a shipping company and hoped that I would be able to work out something where I could have the company I work for ship it using my employee discount. When it seemed like this would not be feasible I didn’t follow up and instead decided to wait to see if the BBQ supply store would ever actually order more, I also thought there might be an outside chance that 270 Smokers might come compete in the big World Championship BBQ contest that is held in my hometown every year.
Once the BBQ contest was approaching and I didn’t see it listed on 270’s competition calendar that they have on their website, and the BBQ supply store still had not re-ordered, I decided to go ahead and follow up with Stephanie. Stephanie was absolutely fantastic to work with and came up with an alternate solution on the shipping that worked for me.
Now here is the good part.
The smoker came in last week just in time for Memorial day. I smoked some chicken wings on it Saturday just to get used to the new smoker but the main event was to be ribs on Monday. I had planned on buying ribs from the grocery store but the wife said they were not on sale and I should go to Sam's instead. I hate Sam's ribs. They come in a pack of three and you don't really know what you are getting until you get home and open the package. Usually they are 3 different size racks that will never finish at the same time and whoever cuts their racks leaves so much loin meat on them that if you are relying on the bend test to check for doneness you will overcook these ribs because they are so thick even when they are done they don't bend much.
I fired the smoker up mid-morning on Monday and let it get up to temp. My Maverick got left out in the rain a while back and stopped working and I have not yet replaced it so I was relying on the thermometer on the smoker. Got the meat on and everything was humming along fine until time for the first baste(I quit wrapping ribs because on the Webber it would cause me to have the lid off too long and the temp would spike and I could never get it back down again). I opened her up and quickly basted all three racks and then shut the door again and watched the thermometer like a hawk to see how it would recover. These old analog thermometers react a lot slower than the digital ones and the recovery seemed to stall at 200 degrees, I got impatient and decided to open the vent a little more. The needle started moving again but it shot passed the 225 that I had started at and got up to around 240-245. I think I was just being impatient and had I not messed with vent it would have eventually recovered to 225 on its own. Since 240-245 is still an acceptable temp for smoking I just left it there. I basted 2 more times before the smallest of the three racks was finished and the temp recovered to 240-245 both times with no issue. I brushed some sauce on to the smallest rack and let it go another 15 minutes before taking it off.
I was inside cutting up the first rack when my wife came running in in a panic, I asked what was wrong and she said she smelled sugar burning and told me I needed to check the ribs. I thought to myself, that’s impossible I just took off the only rack that had been sauced. I went outside and sure enough, I could smell burning sugar too. I checked the other 2 racks and neither one was burnt so I just let them ride but I noticed that the temp did not seem to be recovering this time. Well long story short I had not been checking the water pan and it had dried up and there were some drippings in the bottom that were burning causing the bad smell, it did not affect the taste of the remaining racks once they finished though, thank god. And on the lack of temperature recovery, when I cooked the wings 2 nights before I only filled the firebox up about 2/3s full since I knew I would only be running for an hour and a half. At the end of the cook it had barely burned any of the fuel so I left the remaining coals in it after shaking out the ashes and on Monday I just fired it up without adding any more coals. By the end of my rib cook I had burned up almost all the fuel in the firebox and that is why the temp was not recovering. I opened the vent up all the way and there was just enough fuel left that it got back up to around 225-230 and stayed there long enough to finish the other 2 racks.
Let me tell yall something, these were by far the best ribs I have ever cooked. The tenderness which is where I had always fell short before was absolutely perfect. My wife had not been too thrilled with the money I spent on the smoker, she kept asking “whats wrong with the Webber, you just got it, the ribs you cook on the Webber are fine, there’s nothing wrong with them it’s all in your head, etc…”. She took one bite from a bone off the first rack and said “oh my god these are so good”! I said “now can you look me in the eye with a straight face and say the ribs I cooked on the Webber were as good as these?” She just dropped her head and mumbled a very quiet “no”. Do you guys realize the significance of this?! These ribs were so delicious I won an argument with my wife over money she felt was spent unnecessarily. I’m not sure a stronger endorsement for this smoker is possible. I WON A MONEY ARGUMENT WITH MY WIFE BECAUSE THESE RIBS WERE SO GOOD!
My wife’s best friend had come over to hang out. After sampling that first rib, my wife asked me to cut some more up and put them on a plate to bring outside so her friend could get a taste. Between me, my wife, her friend, and my oldest daughter, we destroyed that first rack before the other two were even finished and without any of us fixing any plates or touching any of the sides the wife had prepared. Once the other 2 racks were finished we all made up plates and ate until we were too stuffed to even stand up.
So to recap:
Second time ever smoking on brand new smoker and first time smoking ribs on said smoker
Used questionable quality ribs with 3 different sized racks
Did what you are absolutely not supposed to do and chased temps
Relied on the smoker thermometer and did not use digital
Did not wrap
Let the water pan dry out
Let the smoker run out of fuel
Still produced the best ribs I have ever cooked, ribs that were so good my wife conceded an argument about money. Finally found the tenderness I’ve been looking for for 10 years.
If you are on the market for a new Smoker and are ready to step up to a real, competition quality fully sealed insulated smoker that is easy to use and get great results, look no further than 270 Smokers.
Stephanie with 270 Smokers is awesome and they have an equally awesome product!
I first got the BBQ bug around 10 years ago and went out and bought a cheap CharGriller offset firebox smoker. It only took one rack of ribs for me to realize that it would be near impossible to successfully smoke a rack of ribs on this smoker and I never tried smoking anything else on the CharGriller ever again. I kept it for years using it as a grill until it finally rusted out but I never tried smoking on it again, it’s a great grill but a terrible smoker.
About 7 years later I got the bug again but still was not ready to spend what it takes to get a good quality smoker. I did some research and came to the conclusion that the Weber Smokey Mountain was the best lower priced smoker on the market so I went out and got the 22.5 inch model. By this time I had been to a few BBQ competitions where my brother-in-law was participating on a team and I saw that they used the Gurus to maintain temps in their competition smokers (Stumps), so I also ordered the BBQ Guru PartyQ with the correct adaptor for the WSM. This was a mistake. The first several smokes on the Weber with the PartyQ went terribly wrong. The problem with the WSM is that it is not sealed so when the Guru fan stops running, air is still able to get to the fire. So the fan kicks on and stokes the fire but even after it kicks off the fire keeps getting hotter and hotter because it still gets air and it is damn near impossible to get the temp back down again. It seemed to work fine until the first time I would take the lid off to mess with the meat and it would all be downhill from there. Eventually I quit using the Guru and learned a few techniques for building the fire so that only so many coals could ignite at once and changed some other things I was doing and eventually I was able to get decent results but I was never 100% satisfied. You have to do everything perfect on the WSM to get good results and even then I was not completely happy with the results. Even when family and friends would swear that the ribs were good, I knew that the tenderness I wanted just wasn’t there.
After 3 years of frustration and getting so close but not quite there, I decided I would just have to bite the bullet and spend the money for a nice, competition level smoker. I did a lot of online research and the name that kept coming up over and over again was 270 smokers. I had actually seen a 270 Smoker at my local BBQ supply store but didn’t pay it much attention. I thought it was a little funny looking and it was at a price point I still was not considering at the time I first spotted one in the store. But after reading dozens of reviews on this site and a few others I decided that I wanted a 270.
After deciding the 270 Sumo was the one I wanted, I made a trip to the local BBQ supply store only to find that they no longer had one in stock. The owner was happy to talk to me about them and sing their praises and even showed me his demo model that he had in the back of the store. He assured me that they would be ordering more soon. I continued to check back over the next 9 months or so and every time he would give me a new date of when they expected to have more in stock and in each instance that day came and went without them restocking any 270 smokers. I even offered to put down a deposit to let them know I was serious. At one point he offered to order one specifically for me but he was going to make me pay the shipping and then pay an additional $100 drop ship fee. I declined, I told him if I was going to pay shipping I might as well order directly from the factory.
This is when I initially reached out to Stephanie at 270 Smokers, I work for a shipping company and hoped that I would be able to work out something where I could have the company I work for ship it using my employee discount. When it seemed like this would not be feasible I didn’t follow up and instead decided to wait to see if the BBQ supply store would ever actually order more, I also thought there might be an outside chance that 270 Smokers might come compete in the big World Championship BBQ contest that is held in my hometown every year.
Once the BBQ contest was approaching and I didn’t see it listed on 270’s competition calendar that they have on their website, and the BBQ supply store still had not re-ordered, I decided to go ahead and follow up with Stephanie. Stephanie was absolutely fantastic to work with and came up with an alternate solution on the shipping that worked for me.
Now here is the good part.
The smoker came in last week just in time for Memorial day. I smoked some chicken wings on it Saturday just to get used to the new smoker but the main event was to be ribs on Monday. I had planned on buying ribs from the grocery store but the wife said they were not on sale and I should go to Sam's instead. I hate Sam's ribs. They come in a pack of three and you don't really know what you are getting until you get home and open the package. Usually they are 3 different size racks that will never finish at the same time and whoever cuts their racks leaves so much loin meat on them that if you are relying on the bend test to check for doneness you will overcook these ribs because they are so thick even when they are done they don't bend much.
I fired the smoker up mid-morning on Monday and let it get up to temp. My Maverick got left out in the rain a while back and stopped working and I have not yet replaced it so I was relying on the thermometer on the smoker. Got the meat on and everything was humming along fine until time for the first baste(I quit wrapping ribs because on the Webber it would cause me to have the lid off too long and the temp would spike and I could never get it back down again). I opened her up and quickly basted all three racks and then shut the door again and watched the thermometer like a hawk to see how it would recover. These old analog thermometers react a lot slower than the digital ones and the recovery seemed to stall at 200 degrees, I got impatient and decided to open the vent a little more. The needle started moving again but it shot passed the 225 that I had started at and got up to around 240-245. I think I was just being impatient and had I not messed with vent it would have eventually recovered to 225 on its own. Since 240-245 is still an acceptable temp for smoking I just left it there. I basted 2 more times before the smallest of the three racks was finished and the temp recovered to 240-245 both times with no issue. I brushed some sauce on to the smallest rack and let it go another 15 minutes before taking it off.
I was inside cutting up the first rack when my wife came running in in a panic, I asked what was wrong and she said she smelled sugar burning and told me I needed to check the ribs. I thought to myself, that’s impossible I just took off the only rack that had been sauced. I went outside and sure enough, I could smell burning sugar too. I checked the other 2 racks and neither one was burnt so I just let them ride but I noticed that the temp did not seem to be recovering this time. Well long story short I had not been checking the water pan and it had dried up and there were some drippings in the bottom that were burning causing the bad smell, it did not affect the taste of the remaining racks once they finished though, thank god. And on the lack of temperature recovery, when I cooked the wings 2 nights before I only filled the firebox up about 2/3s full since I knew I would only be running for an hour and a half. At the end of the cook it had barely burned any of the fuel so I left the remaining coals in it after shaking out the ashes and on Monday I just fired it up without adding any more coals. By the end of my rib cook I had burned up almost all the fuel in the firebox and that is why the temp was not recovering. I opened the vent up all the way and there was just enough fuel left that it got back up to around 225-230 and stayed there long enough to finish the other 2 racks.
Let me tell yall something, these were by far the best ribs I have ever cooked. The tenderness which is where I had always fell short before was absolutely perfect. My wife had not been too thrilled with the money I spent on the smoker, she kept asking “whats wrong with the Webber, you just got it, the ribs you cook on the Webber are fine, there’s nothing wrong with them it’s all in your head, etc…”. She took one bite from a bone off the first rack and said “oh my god these are so good”! I said “now can you look me in the eye with a straight face and say the ribs I cooked on the Webber were as good as these?” She just dropped her head and mumbled a very quiet “no”. Do you guys realize the significance of this?! These ribs were so delicious I won an argument with my wife over money she felt was spent unnecessarily. I’m not sure a stronger endorsement for this smoker is possible. I WON A MONEY ARGUMENT WITH MY WIFE BECAUSE THESE RIBS WERE SO GOOD!
My wife’s best friend had come over to hang out. After sampling that first rib, my wife asked me to cut some more up and put them on a plate to bring outside so her friend could get a taste. Between me, my wife, her friend, and my oldest daughter, we destroyed that first rack before the other two were even finished and without any of us fixing any plates or touching any of the sides the wife had prepared. Once the other 2 racks were finished we all made up plates and ate until we were too stuffed to even stand up.
So to recap:
Second time ever smoking on brand new smoker and first time smoking ribs on said smoker
Used questionable quality ribs with 3 different sized racks
Did what you are absolutely not supposed to do and chased temps
Relied on the smoker thermometer and did not use digital
Did not wrap
Let the water pan dry out
Let the smoker run out of fuel
Still produced the best ribs I have ever cooked, ribs that were so good my wife conceded an argument about money. Finally found the tenderness I’ve been looking for for 10 years.
If you are on the market for a new Smoker and are ready to step up to a real, competition quality fully sealed insulated smoker that is easy to use and get great results, look no further than 270 Smokers.