British BBQ Society Forums

Had a brinkman offset which looked pretty much identical to that landmann, it was a right chew on, the metal is wafer thin and doesn't hold the heat too well, especially in winter. You need to make loads of mods too, smoke billowing out from everywhere. Couldn't comment on the webber for smoking, but they seem popular.

Chris__M wrote:

keith157 wrote:Don't buy a cheap chimney starter look at the handle, most of the cheap ones have no baffle or heat sink between the chimney and the handle supports and the handle support gets feckin hot and hurts a lot. The suave cool bbq cook turns into a screaming jumping running around demented idiot with a blister the size of a £1 coin on the ball of his/her thumb, well I did at least

Agreed, a Weber chimney is less than 20 quid, so why risk it.

On the other (unburned) hand, where were your gloves?

I got complacent, never needed them with the weber but that's what experience is or should be based on.

Make a horizontal smoker out of a 45 gallon drum. Should only cost about £90 leaving some dolla left for plenty of meat!! Get your scoff on mate

dobba1988 wrote:I bought a UDS (ugly drum smoker) from Ebay for £50 last summer and have had some great cooks with it i know the contridicts what i just said about you get what you pay for but it does have some major flaws. I use an awful lot of charcoal during cooks and still struggle with maintaining temps but its alot easier than the offset smoker...also the clean up is much MUCH more quicker!!! Hope this helps. Anymore questions just ask

You shouldn't be having such problems with a UDS. Mine (well until the bottom rotted out) was superb for holding temp and easier on the charcoal than the Pro Q I owned at the time was.

For the cash, you just can't beat UDS's.

As an all rounder I don't think you'll beat a 57 one touch premium and you can get them in your price range now if you hunt around.
Like the other guys said the premium does have the dust catcher which does make a difference on cleanups and hot ash flying around! The only other differences are the lid temp gauge and hinged grate ( you can always buy one separately though)
If you can bare to wait till end of season then you hit the bargains my last 57 premium was a display model ( unused) and got it for £125 with a cover thrown in as well.