What is the best upright/water smoker

[AlabamaGrillBillies]

That may well be true but I can tell you from experience that when the electric goes out at 4:30am that an FEC is dead in the water. That is, unless you plan to take a generator where ever you go. I cooked on an FEC and it relying solely on electric was the only thing I thought was a weakness. I'm not sure if they would be able to run on DC or not. They most likely require too much juice for the heating element to run on DC, but that is just a guess.

Ya that is the only downside IMO, but its really not that big of a deal in the big picture. With all the stuff we haul to a comp, a small generator for just a FEC backup wouldn't be that big of a deal. I THINK (dangerous word) that you could use a car battery and an invertor to supply the 110AC it requires. Don't know how long it would run on that setup, its too early in the morning for the math, but I'll look into it.

 

[Mo-Dave]

MoDave, can you elaborate a bit on what oyu found to be in the learning curve? temp managememnt? what was the answer to the issues you were experiencing? Seriously considering a SW for the next summer. Scott

sorry for the late reply. first thing you have to know is every year I have cooked on a different smoker sometimes two or three different ones in a year. All have been a junk mans dream. Let me put it a different way. If your used to driving an old beater ford that you have to baby to make it run everyday, then switch up to a brand new ford and try to drive it the same way you will have problems with the new ford until you let it drive its self.

the Sw cookes faster, needs a lot less attention than any other cooker I have had, including my WSM. Instead of fighting to get and keep temps up I have to struggle to keep temps down but I think I have that under control now. I was leaking air around the seals but they seam to be seating better now that I have used it all summer. Another problem I had in the beginning was not being able to get the smoke flavor I wanted since I am now cooking with charcoal and chunks of wood, instead of just logs of wood. The answer to that was using more wood chunks and lately soaking them in water, which has been considered a no no by a lot of cooks but I fined it works great for me on my Sw.

In conclusion I would not hesitate to recommend one or buy one again. But if the Spicewines where not out their I would consider the Backwoods which was my first choice. And I don't care what you have cooked on in the past or what choice you make in the future there will be a learning curve, just depends on how much you cook and how fast you learn.
Dave

 

[The_Kapn]

Lots of good info and ideas in this thread.
Great!
But, this needs some clarification to make it accurate.

That may well be true but I can tell you from experience that when the electric goes out at 4:30am that an FEC is dead in the water. That is, unless you plan to take a generator where ever you go. I cooked on an FEC and it relying solely on electric was the only thing I thought was a weakness. I'm not sure if they would be able to run on DC or not. They most likely require too much juice for the heating element to run on DC, but that is just a guess.

The FEC does not use a heating element for cooking. Period.
There is a heating element that comes on for a couple of minutes when you first light it off to get the fire going.
But, that is the end of it.
The heat produced would not cook a marshmallow and the cycle is over in just a few minutes.
Even if that fails, you can put a bit of gel starter or a tiny piece of paraffin/sawdust stick in there and get her going just fine.

The FEC 100 requires well less than 3 amps of AC power to run the controller and the step-motor for the auger.
I run my FEC with a charger to battery to inverter setup all the time.
One fully charged auto battery will keep her running for 20+ hours.

So, if event or home power is interrupted, the battery keeps everything working fine :lol:

Side benefit is that it provides stable and filtered power that is free from spikes or brown-outs.

No need for a generator for the FEC.
Now, ya need a generator for the marguarita machine, the wide-screen TV w/satelite, the Karoki machine, and some of the rest of the toys we carry :lol:

Just some facts.

TIM

 

[Lakeside Smoker]

This one's OK...but the guy who makes them is an ASS!! :-D