Franklin Pits email

[16Adams]

Friend called as he was leaving a hands on inspection.he bought $80 in Oakridge rubs. He also looked at the GMG Pellet. Said the Franklin was $5100 then laughingly stated that was 2X what he paid for his son's first vehicle. Couple of GMG dealers locally and plans to shop for price, delivery, pellets etc

 

[smokeisgood]

Sorry, when I look at one of his pits I just do not see 5100 dollars worth when you compare what you get from other high-end manufacturers. I like Franklin, but he's way overpriced.

 

[16Adams]

He's a strong pellet guy. OG Traeger strong. His current GMG is 8 and wanting a newer biggest GMG. He's going to buy something, but not the offset

 

[SonVolt]

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[SonVolt]

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[16Adams]

See post #21

 

[luv2smoke]

A little insider trading here... Steel prices are about to plummet.

Wished I had a dollar for everytime I've heard this.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Maybe summer of 2023? I heard a few weeks back from some future owners who paid the down payment to get on the waiting list still don't have an ETA on production or where the production site will actually be. That could have changed in the last few weeks though.

This was pretty much my point : people are saying they're better than the Franklin pit but so far (outside of a prototype for Jeremy Yoder) they don't exist. So it's quite presumptuous of people to declare anything in terms of value or function at this point.

 

[SkaterSmoker]

This was pretty much my point : people are saying they're better than the Franklin pit but so far (outside of a prototype for Jeremy Yoder) they don't exist. So it's quite presumptuous of people to declare anything in terms of value or function at this point.

They're doing raffles too. For example, if you prepay in full you get x entries into a 500 gallon raffle. If you donate pay x amount extra you get extra entries and a lifetime membership to their learning archive or something like that. I know a few got nervous and gave up their spot and bought a Moberg backyard or a Workhorse.

 

[SonVolt]

This was pretty much my point : people are saying they're better than the Franklin pit but so far (outside of a prototype for Jeremy Yoder) they don't exist. So it's quite presumptuous of people to declare anything in terms of value or function at this point.

I didn't know they weren't readily available. Btw, some of us are not saying it's "better", we're saying the Franklin is very expensive for such little usable cooking real estate. It's tiny.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

I didn't know they weren't readily available. Btw, some of us are not saying it's "better", we're saying the Franklin is very expensive for such little usable cooking real estate. It's tiny.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but your comment was "better value." My issue with this comment (and it's all my own opinion) is that this smoker does not exist at this point in time. So we have no real concept of what this smoker will be when it finally comes to market (ie is available). To declare a yet to exist product as having better value than a currently existing product isn't very reasonable.

This being said if FatStack sticks to the same price point, and the smoker is the same size / capacity as shown by Jeremy Yoder in his video, then I would agree with the sentiment of your comment. When I saw that video I was VERY CLOSE to buying the FatStack 120, but when I saw the delivery date as "end of 2022 or spring of 2023" I lost all interest. I have no patience and instead ordered a 250 gallon from Johnson Smokers and I'm happy as hell with that cooker.

As others have discussed that Franklin smoker does seem very small for the price point, but you get what you pay for. There's quite a few of those pits out in the wild and I've not heard a single complaint about fabrication, airflow, or design. It's a backyard pit and for a lot of people it's a perfectly sized pit : will fit a brisket or two and that's what MOST people are going to cook at any given time. It's also at a certain size where you don't have to burn a lot of wood to put out a good product. So I can see why Franklin chose this specific size as it meets the needs of a ton of people.

For reference this is the video I'm utilizing as my source.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spz0Pe8Mn_s&ab_channel=MadScientistBBQ

Also note the date of this video : Sept 2021, and the estimated date for smoker delivery was end of 2022, or spring of 2023. He we are at the end of 2022 and I haven't heard anything from FatStack (nothing on social media or their website) about these pits actually coming to market.

 

[16Adams]

Purchasing because of brand name is perfectly normal in retail. It doesn't reflect on you as an individual. It's mindset in some. Marketing with your name I find awesome. Someone gave you that name, relatives have that name. It takes about a second to find when that's gone sideways in retail, as well as through the roof sales. Confidence in your product enough to put your Family Name. I like it in the business side. Buying Name may be the best place, or not. With any offset, once it settles in you have to hang around to manage the fire. My highland gets me about 1.5 hours free time at the beginning and thereafter I need to be around evy 40-60 minutes to add a mini split often around the 4-5 hour mark I need to add a chimney of coals. It's thin, it takes some work and dedication to the cook timewise. Same with SOB34 and internal firebox.

With all the headwinds facing businesses in general and cooking specifically, Pretty dang awesome these came to market.

Link to golf article about purchasing brand names just replace golf equipment with BBQ Equipment. Same applies to jewelery, cars, you name it ;--))

https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1140584-buying-because-of-brand-name/

 

[harrybbq]

interesting, no mention of the Workhorse 1975 along side here? Starts at almost half the price of the Franklin, and on paper a huge upgrade in both size (larger cooking area, larger fire box) and steel thickness. Curious about folks' thoughts on that one alongside Franklin and the Fatstack 120?