Smokers / Grills

Falxy-US said:

Recommendations for a grill < $200 that can be left at a rental property for guests to use?

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The only thing that you can get at that price that won't be a complete piece of shit is a Weber Kettle. Maybe charcoal isn't an option but $200 gas grills are worthless.

Erronius said:

OK, somebody sell me on a fucking smoker.

The weather is getting nice. It's time.

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What do you want to do with it?

Lanx said:

the renters would burn down his rental property

hell, i still remember just recently, idiots in texas were cold and wanted bbq in their house and burned downed the block.

Fire sparked by charcoal grill erupts in Houston apartment

A fire flared up in a west Houston apartment early Friday while a family tried to stay...

www.houstonchronicle.com

thats why he should also get a grill w/o wheels, cuz renters would probably move that grill around and melt his wall siding

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I used to live in a second floor apartment that didn't allow charcoal and my next door neighbors set their balcony on fire with a Weber Smokey Joe. They got kicked out but I thought it was a great idea and got one myself since the balconies had concrete floors and solid railings so no one can see what is on your balcony. I'm not a retard so it worked out fine. The people across the alley from my grandmother's house burned their house down with a gas grill by pushing it up against their vinyl siding so gas grills aren't retard proof either.

Erronius said:

I'd like to be able to smoke up to a turkey, but after looking around that seems like it might be asking too much for a homeowner-level smoker. Especially when I doubt I'd ever actually bother with turkey at all.

I was looking at some that were rectangular and had several shelves, which seemed like they'd be good for pork butts or similar.

Things some friends and I have talked about has been stuff like sausages, brisket, pastrami, etc.

I thought wood pellet brought a lot of convenience.

I don't really need one that is also a grill (we have a grill), but if there is one of the offset ones that can also be used as a grill, I don't think I'd balk

EDIT: my friends and I aren't BBQ snobs, like some folks in KC are. We're really wanting to try our hand at "Texas" style BBQ, which I guess is to say: we're wanting to focus on stuff that can stand on it's own, w/o needing sauce on it.

We've joked about getting a BBQ trailer, but we're also realistic and want to start out small to learn WTF we're actually doing. (and right now, none of us wants to park a trailer in the yard)

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It doesn't take an exceptionally large smoker to cook a turkey. I did a 36 lb bird in my Yoder YS640 a couple thanksgivings ago but lots of smokers could hold a regular sized bird. Electric, propane, and pellet grills can all be "set it and forget it" to some extent. Wood or charcoal smokers used to be more difficult to regulate but these new gravity fed charcoal smokers with a built in fan and temperature controller are pretty good at taking care of themselves as well.

I'd say think about what your price range is and what appeals to you. I think propane is probably the best bang for the buck but pellet grills are great (I use one) and electric smokers put out great stuff too and are pretty inexpensive. Don't get those stupid Bradley electric smokers that take the special little hockey pucks instead of wood chips unless you love paying 10x as much as you should for wood and having to find a bradley dealership every time you run out of them. Pellets or charcoal will cost you more than electric or propane for cooking as well as when you buy them. A bag of pellets costs about $15 and a long cook can use the whole thing. From what my brother has seen the gravity charcoal is similar.

This website has great guides and reviews of almost every smoker in existence. I've posted it in this thread many times already but I stand by it. Pretty much everything you need to know about BBQ you can find there.