British BBQ Society Forums

basically what it says in the title! I am UK based (durrrr) but the item would have to be delivered. So...does anyone have any suggestions and/or recommendations to what I should buy? why I should buy it? do you own one? etc etc etc

Cheers

For £200, I think your best bet for a smoker would be the ProQ Frontier - Highly rated "bullet" smoker with flexibility and some nice features.

For a little bit more and the right deal, you could get the new Weber Smokey Mountain 37cm - WSMs are the top rated bullet smoker, although this is the smallest of the bunch and despite the better build quality, won't give you nearly as much cooking area as the ProQ.

Another popular option would be to get a Weber OTP 57cm - A superb bit of kit - Although it's a traditional "Kettle" BBQ, it'd give you the option to grill as well as cook indirectly/smoke. Well built and you'll probably get one for about the £150 mark - Possibly even less if you find a deal.

The final option and cheapest of all, would be to build an "Ugly Drum Smoker" or UDS, using an old steel barrel - There are some seriously seasoned UDS builder's on here and this would give you the largest smoker of these options, customisation of design as well as the satisfaction of having built it yourself. A well built UDS is a brilliant, reliable, fuel-efficient smoker and there are plenty on this forum to guide and advise you through your build.

I hope this helps.

+1 for the UDS.

I cooked on a kettle and then a cheap smoker for a long time before building a UDS and the difference is unbelievable. Using the UDS is a complete pleasure. Using my kettle and my ECB was a pain.

I am not a handyman, in fact it's safe to say I am cack handed, but with advice from the wonderful folk on here, building one was easy and relatively cheap. If you have the right tools and are lucky with the bits and pieces you need, you can build one for around £50 - £100.

Mine cost me just over £100, but that was because I needed some tools which I will be able to use for future jobs. I reckon if I built another today, it would take me about 3 hours and cost about £70.

If you can squeeze an extra £80.00 on to your budget then you will not regret buying a weber smokey mountain 47cm.
Found a link here:
http://www.birstall.co.uk/products/webe ... tAodTn8Arw

With the advice of the people here, I was convinced to spend that little bit more. Fantastic advice and my WSM has been a very reliable and consistent bit of kit.

I would hang out for a second hand WSM, keep and eye on ebay, for example this may go for £200 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Weber-Smo ... 2587dfa592

It might be like comparing chalk and cheese, but is there anyone out there with experience of both WSM (or similar smokers) and a standard UDS to give a comparison out of interest? Woud like to know what I'm missing!

pretty simple comparison, if you dont want to build one buy one. I think its fair to say any bullet smoker has a similar performance as long as you dont have leaks everywhere. For example, the little brinkman and the pro Q amigo (if they still build them) have holes everywhere. Pro Q is ok but has more joins to leak through than a WSM and my skills wouldnt allow me to get seals on a UDS as good as any of the aforementioned

Ok, so do you mean they are fairly comparable in terms of performance? Just interested as I've never used a bullet smoker.

WRT seals on a UDS, I'm not sure what you mean - mine has no seals as such. The holes for the pipe nipples I just drilled using a holesaw then threaded them in, and the lid seals on nicely using the clip that came with it. Whereabouts would you need a seal?

Sorry for going slightly off topic!