Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I had no illusions that I would be able to buy a decent smoker for this kind of price but I didn't want to spend $1000+ for one nor did I want to start from scratch and build one from surplus propane tanks or 55 gallon drums either.
I also wanted something on the smaller side as there is just the two of us to cook for usually. I don't usually cook for big crowds, church groups or the whole neighborhood. Not that I'm not good enough because I'm a pretty decent cook if I do say so and most people who eat my cooking say so too.
We got one of these at our local WalMart store. I got it home, put it together and built a wood fire in the fire box to find out what it would do, exactly what it's short comings were and what extent of those shortcomings were. There were many and it was indeed pretty dismal. I could see clearly this thing was, as I suspected it would be, a piece of junk the moment I opened the box.
After doing some research on the web and reading up on several modifications for this type offset of smoker grill, I took it to my garage and performed several modifications to it to make it function as it should. Mainly those consisted of moving the smoke stack to a location that made more sense for smoking and adding some thickness to the sheet metal so it didn't waste all the fuel put into it just to burn the paint off the outside but would use some of it for cooking instead. As it came it was only good for converting fuel to waste heat and as I said burning the paint off so it would soon soon dissolve into a pile of rusted overly thin sheet metal.
If you're the handy type and want to get one of these to use as a form to build a smoker around as I did, then go ahead and buy it. Just remember that you get just exactly what you pay for and this thing, as it comes, is just another piece of junk off the boat from China.
Don't, by any means delude, yourself into thinking you're going to buy a decent smoker for this sort of price. Buying this unit is just a start toward getting a smoker, you're not really getting a smoker. Not without some more effort on your part and spending a little more money for materials.
After I am satisfied I am finished with it and have a few more cooking sessions under my belt, I will detail everything I did to it and just exactly how on one of the sites dedicated to smoking meat. Till then if you are the handy type there are several mods detailed for the several units like this one on the web. I will just mention here that it is important to add some sheet metal if you want it to function well and last any amount of time.
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Char Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Grill
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