offset smoker

[cowboy54]

Have been using an ECB this past summer which I did some mods too. Had some pretty good results on ribs and chicken wings done in it.

Thinking about changing to an offset as I found the ECB hard to keep control of the temperature on and couldn't keep it above 230 much.

I would be running it on charcoal with chunks of wood for the smoking, what are the drawbacks of an offset, and off course advantages compared to bullet smokers

any other tips?

[robgunby]

I was seriously tempted with one because I had exactly the same problem, a leaky, temp spiking modded ECB. I'm glad I got talked out of it.

Advantages to offset - huge cooking area, can also be used as a large grill.

Disadvantages to offset - usually have a wide range of temp in the chamber (apart from quite expensive, well made models), decent models cost quite a bit, also they can be quite hard beasts to manage temps (so I'm told)

Advantages to vertical smoker - Smaller footprint, still large cooking area (especially if you stack grills). Well built models with good seals are quite easy to control temps on.

Another one to consider is building a UDS. Very fine grained temp control on a sub £100 cooker. Win.

[robgunby]

PS Cyderpig has an offset for sale in the members sales section if interested. Although I asked about buying it and he talked me into building a UDS