The Best Pit Advice for Choosing A New Smoker & Grill

[STEbbq]

I think a lot of folks here love helping others spend their money on new toys, myself included. Here's some thoughts on the best questions to consider as well as links to old threads for relevant discussion:

Key Questions (thanks Old Glory ) that buyers should consider and share their thoughts on so we can provide the best advice

1. Budget - Smokey Joe to Komodo Kamado
2. Other existing cookers - What do you like/dislike
3. Intended use - Grilling/Searing/Smoking/Griddle Direct/Indirect Multi Use
4. Skill Level of Pit Master - Ease of use a factor
5. How much work do you want to do? Stick Burner to Pellet Cooker Scale
6. Cooking Space - How many people are you feeding?
7. Cooking Area - How much Outdoor space? Covered/Uncovered? Cooker Durability
8. Climate - Cold Need for Insulated cooker / Windy / Near the Ocean/High Humidity
9. Portability?

Of course, the standard advice is to be sure you have read over AR’s reviews for any relevant smokers.


Relevant threads:

Charcoal:

Help me Spend My Money!

Might Be Upgrading Need Input

Advice on a smoker

DaveD 's thread on buying a smoker @DaveD

Weber versus SNS

Buying a new charcoal grill

Looking for charcoal smoker

MCS charcoal grill time

Pellets:

Which pellet smoker to buy?

glitchy 's epic decision making process for high-end pellet smokers/grills @glitchy

Please talk me out of getting a new pellet grill

Pellet smoker: advice needed

Best pellet smoker under 1k?

Choosing a pellet smoker


Gas:

Gas burner advice please

Help me choose a new gas grill

Option for new gas grill

Multi-Fuel Discussion (charcoal versus pellet versus etc.)

Help me pick a new smoker

Pellet versus charcoal versus etc

Choosing a Smoker

Why We Need Multiple Grills

Stick Burners:

Four Stick Burners Enter One Leaves

Need help narrowing down an offset @Baltimorelger

Franklin Pits Review

Choosing a stick burner

Barrel Smokers:

OKJ Versus PBC

Advice on a charcoal smoker

Need help deciding on a barrel smoker

Relevant Decision Trees:

[Alan Brice]

1. Ease of use. 2. Learning curve, (consult fzxdoc's threads) 3. Cost, right there with a new Weber kettle. You Just can not beat the PBC with a club! If you did the lid would not fit right. This is quite possibly the best priced charcoal smoker in the entry level market. 28 pounds empty. You have to gut it to set it up anyway. Easy peasy, and the smoke flavor is truly unbelievable. Keep it clean inside n out ( also easey) and out of the weather, it will be a family heirloom.

[Panhead John]

“You Just can not beat the PBC with a club! If you did the lid would not fit right.”

😂😂

[LA Pork Butt]

Frequency of cooking, size of cooks both regular and special occasions, type of cooks (grill, roast, bake, low and slow), charcoal flavor or not, budget, how much do you want to be involved in monitoring the cook, what add ons will you need to achieve all of your cooking goals, and probably a few more things to consider.

[Old Glory]

Some initial questions:

1. Budget - Smokey Joe to Komodo Kamado
2. Other existing cookers - What do you like/dislike
3. Intended use - Grilling/Searing/Smoking/Griddle Direct/Indirect Multi Use
4. Skill Level of Pit Master - Ease of use a factor
5. How much work do you want to do? Stick Burner to Pellet Cooker Scale
6. Cooking Space - How many people are you feeding?
7. Cooking Area - How much Outdoor space? Covered/Uncovered? Cooker Durability
8. Climate - Cold Need for Insulated cooker / Windy / Near the Ocean/High Humidity
9. Portability?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I think you hit them all except climate, climate can be very important especially for gassers and pellet grills at least.

[jhapka]

True I picked a kamado because if how cold it is here

[Old Glory]

Added climate

[WillTravelForFood]

Some questions we'd throw out to the crowd (even though Old Glory typed it up faster and better)

• what is the person doing the cook trying to achieve? (Different homes may have different requirements -- speed of cook, ease of fuel, available space, primary type of food being cooked, etc
• What is your current cooking equipment -- what do you like/dislike about it, why are you looking for a change?
• What is your cooking interest level -- we're all trying to be "better", but some are more interested in being more better than others.
• Budget, budget, budget.
• What have you been considering, and why?
• What's the meal/dish you're most interested in preparing/duplicating?
• How many people are you cooking for on a regular basis

[Oak Smoke]

Wow, that’s hard to come up with. It’s like trying to pick out a car for someone you barely know. Do they want all the latest options wrapped in a beautiful package. Or perhaps a bare bones sports car with only a great engine, gears shift, steering wheel , and the necessary pedals to go have more fun in the curves than the law allows, literally. I would be in the latter camp by the way even though I’m high mileage.

[ofelles]

Bring on the curves! 😁

[captainlee]

I would do some homework searching on some different units. Narrow your search down to a few then come back and ask questions and opinions. You'll get lots of good responses here from users of those particular units.

[Alan Brice]

I must say the PBC is not conducive to grilling. You can, but get a kettle.

[TripleB]

All of the above and instruct them to avoid pellet smokers.

[mrteddyprincess]

I tried splitting wood for a pellet smoker and I was up all night to get enough of those tiny, short little splits to do a cook!

[RonB]

On another non-bbq forum I visit they have a questionnaire to fill out when asking about buying something. The questionnaire includes a lot of the questions above. The question is, do we want to make people fill out something like that to get recommendations? Or would it be better to say go here and read this, then come back and ask questions providing the relevant info?

[Panhead John]

ecowper Posted something a while back that a lot of people thought was spot on. He included a list of questions the prospective buyer should include his answers to, when asking us about recommendations for a cooker/smoker/grill. I’m pretty sure it was ecowper ….Eric, can you chime in?

[ecowper]

I did and now I don’t remember where I posted it. GOing to have to go find it, I guess

[Rod]

Great idea! I suppose you don't want it to be too overwhelming either. You don't want newbies to get overloaded with info to a point of losing interest. Maybe it can be made a sticky? A member recommended starting point kind of thing?

[Texas Larry]

There are some fairly comprehensive buying guides on the free side FWIW—

Rating, Reviews and Buying Guides From AmazingRibs.com

[nunyaz]

I, for one, started there (@ the buying guide, that is) but still had specific (for me) questions regarding specific (for me) cookers which the Pit peeps were GREATLY helpful with ... keeping in mind the old saying about "Opinions" - cuz I was opinion-ed to death regarding the SnS for my Weber kettle! (Bought one, tried it - didn't work (for me) returned it; thank you Amazon )

[WillTravelForFood]

Biggest hurdle might be how to encourage those who only know The Big Names That Are Advertised that there are numerous options that are just as good (or better) at potentially lower (or equivalent) price points

Giant Avocado vs Big Tomato
BIG T vs any other pellet
Dads 1950s Kettle vs Some New Style

The list goes on. You get the idea

Trying to convince those with preconceptions (and misconceptions) to buy one cooker vs another could be tough. Which brings up a clarifying question:

Is the purpose to point in a direction of a specific style of cooker (perhaps in a fun infographic flowchart), or to point to a specific brand/model?

[STEbbq]

To directly answer your question, the purpose would be both! We want to help direct them towards style and brands depending on the specific situation!

[STEbbq]

A big underlying goal here though would be to perhaps get enough information upfront (so many times we are asking the same questions of all new posters) and maybe direct them to some good threads/background so they already have a lot of good information to work off.

[Spinaker]

I love this idea! Thank you for putting this together.


When people ask me for advice, I ask them how much time they want to put in while making their BBQ. I think this is key to helping someone choose the right smoker for them. Then you can work on price. There is so much out there, that it helps to narrow it down to what you really want first.

Do you want to tend the fire a little, all day? Do you want set and forget? I feel like these are the two questions I ask people when they ask me what to buy. For me, BBQ is so much more than just the meat getting done. I love to play with the fire, making sure it is burning hot and clean etc. Along those same lines; I like to ask how involved they want to be. With stick burners, you have to source or cut your own wood, let it dry etc. Charcoal rigs like the PBC, Kettles etc are much easier, but still kinda hands on, pellets, electric and gas are by far the easiest. Then I mention that in IMHO, I would say the best flavor goes in that order, so there are trade offs.

The other thing to consider is capacity. No one ever said I need a smaller grill. That being said, not everyone needs a trailer rig either.