Gravity Feed Decision

Curious on your decision to go gravity feed. With the large capacity charcoal baskets on the insulated reverse flow verticals what would the advantage be of the gravity fed unit?

Congratulations on narrowing it down. i have the Assassin 28 and love it! While most don't use the water pan, I find it to be a great benefit. I recently got a 22 + hour burn using 17# of Royal Oak ridge briquettes.

The ease of ash clean up is great with gravity cookers. I think you will be pleased!

I just got a stumps baby and love it so far. What really made me decide on the stumps was after I called and tried to order a rebel and they told me they wouldn't have any for months if they could get even them, then tried calling a couple of the other ones I liked and they never even answered the phone. I had called Stumps last because of the long wait times and alleged bad customer service. I should have not believed everything I read about that on the Internet. I have zero complaints about stumps customer service. They always answered the phone for me, Thad took the time to call me back and answer all my questions, told me the wait time was 7 weeks and it was 7 weeks spot on, and Alana answered every email I sent them on the same day I emailed. So I couldn't be happier with my smoker or the service I got.

I'm happy with my Assassin 28 , I don't know much about the Vulcan accept that Myron Mixon doesn't make them. I've had several Stump's over the years and he makes a good solid smoker. I went with The Assassin because of price and wait time , also Assassin, Stump and Superior smokers are all made within 20 miles of where I live so I was able to check build quality and it was there.

SimcoBBQ said:

I went with The Assassin because of price and wait time , also Assassin, Stump and Superior smokers are all made within 20 miles of where I live so I was able to check build quality and it was there.

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They would hate having me live that close.... I'd be there all the time!:heh:

Assassin 24

I have the Assassin 24 and I love it. I've had it for about 4 months and have numerous cooks on it and I'm really satisfied with the results.

I got a Stumps XL Baby and Classic. I like not having a water pan actually. I can't speak for the others but moisture is not a problem with mine... my glasses sometimes steam up when I open the door to check things. I put 4 butts in the XL a couple of weekends ago and about 15 pounds of Kingsford Blue in the chute. It ran all day at 225... didn't even bother with the guru... then the next day on Sunday I still had enough charcoal left to do a few racks of baby backs.

I'm not sure how the Assassin or the Vulcan compares but I'm certain they're both very comparable in quality and results. I will say that I've been looking at those Myron Mixon gravity feeds lately though. They look pretty darn nice, but I'm also super happy with the Stumps I have.

Been considering a gravity fed myself mainly Assassin and Stumps. Looks like Stumps just increased prices ~15% on their models. Was considering XL Baby, vs Assassin 24 or 28.

Smokey Lonesome said:

Been considering a gravity fed myself mainly Assassin and Stumps. Looks like Stumps just increased prices ~15% on their models. Was considering XL Baby, vs Assassin 24 or 28.

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I tell you what... going from my first smoker, my (what I used to think was big and heavy when I got it) Brinkmann Wagon-wheeled Cimarron to the XL Baby pretty much changed my world.

I love the old offset... it was a lot of fun learning Q on that thing... but you do have to babysit the heck of it which made it more of a pain... especially when cramming 4 big butts in there which really killed what little efficiencies that may have been there.

In the XL Baby... I've put 12 butts in there with NO issues. It ran all day with barely a noodge here or there to the valve and in 11 hours we were done. I will admit that my pulled pork was certainly raised to a new level. It's just better.

The think I love about these smokers.. especially the XL baby is that you can do two butts or 12-16 (depending on size) and it doesn't make a difference. The time and the amount of charcoal really doesn't change all that much. I think it's the perfect size for home if you like to have decent sized amounts of guests over. It's nice being able to throw 4 butts on, then later on... toss several racks of ribs and/or some sausage or chickens in it. It's not just about total capacity, but more about versatility of the capacity. Being able to do all that during the same cook is a huge deal for me. With the old smoker, even if I had 2 butts in there, there really wasn't any room for ribs. It just wasn't big enough so it was either two days of bbq or just either/or... not both.

I just added a Stumps Classic which is just huge to me. That thing runs just as good as the XL Baby, however. When you do cram them up, they do run a bit better with a Guru though. It's not needed for good results... not a must have... but does make things easier. But for a lighter loaded cook where things are not all squashed in there... say just 6-8 butts maybe on the XL Baby and 12 on the Classic... they just hum along without much of a fuss either way.

I have visited assassin smokers and they put a lot of pride in their units. Cant go wrong with Jeff and his crew. I have their assassin grill and it is the best grill in that price range by far.

Smokey Lonesome said:

Been considering a gravity fed myself mainly Assassin and Stumps. Looks like Stumps just increased prices ~15% on their models. Was considering XL Baby, vs Assassin 24 or 28.

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Get the biggest you can afford! You can always get something smaller for little cooks. Almost everyone who buys a cooker ends up wishing they had bought something larger.

Good choice. That extra capacity is nice to have and it wont make any difference when you just want to one or two butts or just a rack of baby backs. Itll run just the same.