It really depends on what you want to get out of your BBQ. If you're mainly grilling standard fayre with a little bit of smoking on the side then choose a product more suited to that. If you really want to get into smoking and cooking at low temperatures then you're better off with a dedicated unit.
A lot of people recently have been buying kettles because they offer you the ability to do both although they don't do low temperature anywhere near as well as a smoker.
With a gas unit, you can use wood chips in a foil parcel over your burner or a product like smoke in a can.
just get the thing that fits your usage needs best I guess. However if you buy one of these oversized George Foreman E-Grill type things then I will laugh at you
While not wanting a dedicated smoker, as everyone wants is the machine that will do everything
I want get into using charcoal ather than gas and do more indirect stuff ie low and slow and trying a bit of smoking that's why I liked the look of the maverick/trailblazer. It seemed to fit the bill but not sure of the quality of it and haven't been able to find many reviews. Plus it fits my price range.
Now I'm only repeating what I've heard, which could well be wrong, but the Pro Q offsets are apparently the same units as some of the cheaper offsets you can find.
I think if you don't mind doing some modding, then one of these cheap offsets might fit te bill. What's your budget?
Budget could be about £300-350 not including a starter
So what mods could I expect to do bearing in mind I would be going from a gas grill to an alien substance called charcoal.
Also how does the thickness compare with other BBQ's ie landmann, Webber etc.. Also if there are other generics out there where can I have a look at them?
Could be configured for indirect cooking as well as direct. It's not the kind of thing I'd buy personally as I feel my seperate units do a better job individually.
I was fairly well made though, I wouldn't feel ripped off if I dropped £350 on one. If you have a costco near you, they may have them in.
I won a ProQ Maverick delux on the weekend, but i wasn't overly impressed with it.
They are different to the el cheapo's that you see on ebay, but they are the same as the chargriller units that i saw some of the other teams using.
They use quite thin metal and although the look nice i would recomend buying a bullet smoker for the budget as you'll get a much better cooker.
Although it was interesting to find out about a new range of what looks like good offset smokers from a company called Smokyfun, they use 5mm thick steel and pricing starts at around €750, although they're only available in Germany but i'm sure you'd be able to get one shipped over quite cheaply.
Unfortunately my budget won't stretch that far i.e. above £350, I don't think I could get away with spending too much, what with wanting a new mountain bike as well.
Can't help with a BBQ/Smoker but have a word with your local Police HQ with regard to the mountain bike, they auction them off on a regular basis, leaving more money for the essentials
Unfortunately the bikes I've seen at our local nick are not up too much good.
My aim is to buy an entry level bit of kit get hooked and then spend even more as I did with my bike. Fortunately I can upgraded my bike with out her indoors cottoning on to what I'm up to . A new expensive Q would stand out a tad
. A new expensive Q would stand out a tad