OT BBQ Smokers

[Jen841]

Any advise? Our friends have a great one and DH loved it. I would love to surprise him with one for father's day. I am thinking $100 or less, so not the grand thing they have. Any experience? I am all about kitchen gadgets, but this is a whole new ball game.

[kozachka]

Since nobody else chimed in, let me try to help you. DH is really into grilling and smoking so we've had one before. There are basicly two types of smokers, charcoal based and electrical. My DH was dead set on getting a charcoal one so we bought him one from a hardware store for about $100 plus tax. He assembled it himself, it was not too difficult or time consuming. DH used it a handful of times but was disappointed at how long it took to smoke things. Since it's done by inderect heat and smoke, things took 2-2.5 hours and lots of coals. The thing was still useful as a gril so not a complete waste of money but when we moved DH decided to leave the smoker to the new owners. The guy who bought our house was very excited. In a nut-shell charcoal smokers look better than they function and any guy who likes to BBQ would be excited to get one for father's day but I can not really recommend it based on utility ;).

Have fun shopping and ask your friends more questions about their smoker. Sometimes it's just easier to get what your DH saw and liked and what worked for someone else. HTH!

Here's a link for the smoker that looks very much like the one we've had, maybe even the one: http://tinyurl.com/prjtq

[Jen841]

Thank you! I bought an electric one at Ace for $65 on line. I was sleepless and impatient.

Heck, I have enough kitchen gadgets that get limited use, now we he can have one.