Brinkmann smoker????

[Foccaciaman]

Was stolling though my local hardware store this morning looking at a new fridge and chest freezer and wandered by the smokers they had.

I saw this Brinkmann model which was a gas smoker, charcoal smoker, grill, ande deepfryer all in one.(99$)
Now I am the first to tell anyone that if it does that many things it is problably not very good at any particular one.
However since I do not know beans about smokers in general I figured I should ask here first.

How bad could this model truly be? Would it be worth it to purchase it? Do you still recommend that I purchase an electric smoker to start with?

Bingo

[Steve]

Was stolling though my local hardware store this morning looking at a new fridge and chest freezer and wandered by the smokers they had.

I saw this Brinkmann model which was a gas smoker, charcoal smoker, grill, ande deepfryer all in one.(99$)
Now I am the first to tell anyone that if it does that many things it is problably not very good at any particular one.
However since I do not know beans about smokers in general I figured I should ask here first.

How bad could this model truly be? Would it be worth it to purchase it? Do you still recommend that I purchase an electric smoker to start with?

Bingo

I believe that would be the Brinkmann All-In-One smoker. I have one and I like it a lot (I keep it down at the river). It's good at smoking, but it eats propane... I use almost a whole 20# bottle to smoke a pork butt. And I use the 150,000 gas burner to steam crabs. I've never used it as a grill.

[JameZ]

So...in other words...an electric smoker would definitley be more economical.
Unless you like the scent money has when it smokes.

Keep on Smokin'

JameZ

[Foccaciaman]

Thanks for the heads up on the propane. New it was to good to be true. 
It is also a charcoal smoker, as I said and I am sure you know since you have one, but how much charcoal would you go through with a butt in it .

Oh yeah Jimmy and you should know how much I like to burn the cashola.

Bingo

[Steve]

Thanks for the heads up on the propane. New it was to good to be true. 
It is also a charcoal smoker, as I said and I am sure you know since you have one, but how much charcoal would you go through with a butt in it .

Oh yeah Jimmy and you should know how much I like to burn the cashola.

Bingo

My first smoker was a charcoal water smoker (very similar to the All-In-One). Charcoal smokers require LOTS of TLC. I found that I had to stoke the coals and add new hot coals every 30-45 minutes to keep the temperature up. By hot coals, I used a chimney starter to get the charcoal started then transferred the hot coals (using tongs) to the smoker. All I can say is that it was a royal pain having to do this. And forget about smoking a butt for 15 hours... you'd have to stoke/add coals 30+ times to keep the temperature up!! 

I gave my charcoal smoker to a friend and purchased the All-In-One. Propane is so much easier to work with. The only drawbacks to the propane unit are cost (of fuel), having to add soaked wood chunks every couple of hours, and the fact that the unit doesn't work too well when it's cold, rainy, or windy (the unit cools off really fast).

I now use an electric smoker (a Cookshack Smokette). The Smokette uses about $1.00 in electricity to run it all night, it's impervious to cold and windy weather, and it's "set and forget". Just set the smoker to 225 degrees, close the door, and wait. 

[Randy]

Here is a great amount of information in the form of FAQ that has been put together over the years by the bbq mailing list.  It is an excelant source of information and downloadable.
http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/index.html

Randy