Looking for a small electric smoker

[Bluegill]

Do you have any recommendations?

Anything I have to be aware off?

[captpierre]

I bought a small entry level electric unit. Only smokes for less than 30 min -then have to reload sawdust. A joke. if you are serious, get a good one that self loads.

[Fisherman]

All depends what you plan on using it for. I have the basic electric front door model, 2 grills with the pan underneath for wood chips. That smoker has probably done a 1000 pounds of fish over the years, mostly salmon. On an average load, I have only needed to put in 3 pans of chips, sometimes only 2 if it was a smaller amount of meat. One thing I changed out over the years were the grills, got replacement porcelain coated ones for a BBQ. Easier to clean and almost sticky free.

[ChrisK]

I have one of these and it works great

 

http://www.luhrjensensmokers.com/

[Twocoda]

the downfall to the lighter units is keeping a consistent temp during the winter....last fall i retired my true north unit that served me well for 8 or 9 years but winter time it sucked....you can smoke on your BBQ ya know....

 

its my intention on building a large unit as soon as i find the material i require...but ill never go back to electric....food for thought ...

[dave524]

With my old Luhr Jensen L'IL Chief in the winter, I slide the original box with the top and bottom cut off down over the unit, the insulation of the cardboard helps with the temperature.

[archer379]

i have a masterbiult 30 inch electric that i make jerky in mostly but have done a couple of chickens but i only got it for christmas so haven't used it that much. makes great jerky. 2 weeks ago sunday made 5 pounds of jerky gone by wednesday. works great

[Bluegill]

I have one of these and it works great

 

http://www.luhrjensensmokers.com/

 

Looks good for me.

How does it work in the winter?

[Billy Bob]

You could take a old electric heating element of some kind and make your own "small" smoker....you could even use a large cardboard box to do it....it's really up to your imagination if you only want a small smoker.

 

Small is limiting you too much......but I guess you need a small one for space restrictions or something....but if you can get a combo smoker/grill you are so much better off....here's just one of three of my grills on my deck and this one is also my smoker.

 

 

 

SMOKED RIBS

[tb4me]

look up ugly drum smoker on youtube! Those are real nice! Im going to build one.. Easy and cheap! UDS ugly drum smoker.. lots of how to's on youtube

[Spouph]

big chief good but crappy winter and summer. 15 deg 8 hours

Centrino good but need to open door too cool so burner comes on to produce smoke in summer. also hold moisure in so I drain the tray. 145 for 8 hours I run them both if I had to pick one it would be the centrino. I have only ever smoked fish. Done it for years.

 

 

[Bluegill]

Thanks a lot guys, very good helpfully infos!!

[Hud]

make one.... I made mine for really cheap. Works great. PM me and I'll share

[Fang]

Half the fun in getting into smokers is checking out all the crazy contraptions other people come up with. I had a blast checking out the you tube videos and peoples web sites. You'll absorb a ton of information and stumble onto some good recipes.

 

I put mine together on the cheap side. A $20 electric hotplate from CTC, A 12x12 ceramic tile goes underneath it. Three $5 grills from CTC and about $40 in cedar from home depot. Probably cost me more in beer sitting in the garage having a cold one while drawing up plans and putting it together. If you do build one try and make it as air tight as possible with a smaller air exchange hole and be extra cautious with any material that can give off fumes when heating. OBS plywood is not recommended!!!

 

Mine works fine for what I do which is mainly trout. With the hot plate on medium I add a small extra cup to the chip tray with 2 lit charcoal bricks. Takes my smoker up to 170-190F mark. A $10 BBQ temp gauge sits on the door.

 

 

In action

 

Visit your local BBQ stores as their selection of chips and smoker accessories is growing. I have a BBQ Galore right behind me so easy to pick up my favourite Black Cherry wood chips

[Big Cliff]

All I can say is WOW, that looks fantastic! Nice job Fang!

[Fang]

Forgot to add one thing. In this version the trays are too spread out. The bottom tray gets a fair bit more heat and smoke and about every hour I switch top and bottom racks. A better design for this system would be to move the racks closer together at the top. Gonna try and get it going this weekend if I can get out Saturday