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What to buy??? Stick Burner vs Charcoal vs Pellet

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    What to buy??? Stick Burner vs Charcoal vs Pellet

    I am looking at getting into trying some competitions, possibly food truck-style and maybe a little catering-type things. I am looking for a larger smoker and I am looking for some advice.

    I am thinking about a larger-sized stick burner, a Backwoods cabinet charcoal smoker and the Rec-Tec RT-2500. As everyone has stated above, the Rec Tecs are great with great customer service. Does the RT-2500 live up to those Rec Tec expectations?

    - Stick burner: It seems to be a traditional, eye-catching way to smoke. Upside: once I figure out the temps, with a quality smoker, it should be easy to keep the temps where I want them and the meat would have a stronger smoke flavor. Downside: where to get the wood and the space to store the wood. I have a truck for towing, so that's not an issue.

    - Backwoods/cabinet smoker: I have a WSM so I don't think the learning curve would be too steep. They have a lot of space and good reviews. Haven't heard anything about their costumer service, though. I really don't have anything on the downside, except for needing a trailer for it.

    - Pellet: I am leaning towards a Rec Tec. I am familiar with pellet smoking since I have a Traeger and a GMG. Obviously, the RT-2500 is exceptionally larger so I don't know how the size difference affects the basics of a smoke. The downsides would be weaker smoke flavor, needing a power source and needing a trailer for it.

    I am looking in the $3,000-$5,000 range.

    Any thoughts, ideas, pros, cons, etc. would be appreciated.

    Thanks!!!!!

    #2
    Welcome to The Pit. I don't have any experience with any of those, so just be patient - someone will be along shortly that can help.

    Comment


      #3
      First welcome from Maryland. We have members really into competition who will give you some solid opinions as they come across your post. Wish Candy Sue was more active right now but she has her hands full as president of the KCBS. She is a wealth of knowledge.

      Comment


        #4
        Since this is your first post let me welcome you to the Pit from the mountains of NC. The 1st thing you have to determine is the quantity of people you will be feeding. Then how you will power your pellet smoker. Then maybe go if you are serious about getting into competitions, going to some and talking to the teams that are using what you are thinking of using. I will be honest I have not seen many pellets at the competitions but that just may be me. They tend not to produce as much smoke as other systems. But the guys on here can point you in directions or to ones that provide more smoke.

        Comment


          #5
          Yup, all three of em’ll be just fine.
          Welcome BTW.

          Comment


            #6
            There is no answer, I'm sorry. I am still struggling with this myself. My best advice is for you to divide your budget up and get one of each. You will want or have them all eventually anyway. True story.

            Comment


              #7
              Welcome from Virginia. I am personally a fan of charcoal...

              Comment


                #8
                Three very different types of smokers. How much work do you want to do? Stick burners require you to babysit the fire and add wood every hour or so. Cabinet smokers can be set up to do low and slow without adding fuel for long periods of time. I have a Humprey's and it is rock steady for hours and hours. Pellet Smokers are almost set it and forget it.

                Stick burner more work better smoke flavor (according to most people)
                Cabinet Smoker Charcoal and chunk wood great smoke flavor and once you learn it easy to use.
                Pellet Easiest to use but people say smoke profile does not come through as much as the other two cookers. More prone to failures due to mechanical and electrical parts.

                I say get one of each...lol.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Welcome to the Pit from Dallas​​​​​! Here’s a thought. How much sleep do you need? Some cookers require more monitoring and require adding fuel. I don’t know about the Backwoods cooker, but I am pretty sure the stick burner will require lots of temperature monitoring throughout a long. My assumption would be that the kind of cooks you are describing would be overnight cooks.

                  Comment


                  • Red_Deck_BBQ
                    Red_Deck_BBQ commented
                    Editing a comment
                    ☝️☝️ This is good advice! It all comes down to how involved you want to be with the cook and how much time you want to invest monitoring it.

                    There are also tricks to up the smoke profile on pellet grills which I am sure you have heard about since you have them (put meat on cold then start the smoker, a smoke tube, set some wood chunks on top of the heat deflector etc.).

                    But if time and sleep aren’t an issue, a backwoods smoker might have the best of both worlds for you!

                    Good luck!

                  #10
                  Welcome from N.J.! Here’s my 2 cents. Don’t get another pellet rig. Get something different. You’ll have a ton of fun learning your new rig.

                  Based on what you wrote, since you’re not sure where to get and store wood, I’d go for a cabinet cooker. I’ve got s buddy who’s got a Backwoods and loves it. Of course, if it was me, I’d look long and hard at Lone Star Grillz. Their cabinet cookers look amazing.

                  Lone Star Grillz offers a wide selection of quality stand up and offset vertical smokers for sale. If you are looking for a custom smoker we provide top quality work. Visit our website for more information.

                  Comment


                    #11
                    It appears as though you want to lean toward either comp or production cooking, not what you want for your family’s backyard.

                    As others have eluded to, you need to address it from a practical standpoint. That pretty much leaves a stick burner out. It’s not practical because it’s large, can be difficult to maintain and like others have mentioned, you have to baby sit it. If your in comps or catering you have other things to worry about, why not make cooking your meat as easy as possible?

                    That leaves a vertical cabinet or a pellet cooker. The main difference between those two is smoke profile. Pellet is light, verticals stronger. I personally don’t like the lighter results from a pellet, but that’s your determining factor between the two. Both are pretty much set and forget from the automated standpoint.

                    I’d lean toward the vertical, either a water type or maybe one of the new generation gravity feeds. Whichever one you choose, good luck with your venture and keep us abreast of your results.

                    Comment


                    • mountainsmoker
                      mountainsmoker commented
                      Editing a comment
                      Yep have been disappointed in the smoke profile of a pellet smoke and the judges are looking for a good smoke ring, a pellet smoker will not give you that.

                    #12
                    What Troutman said. I have been asking the same questions this year, and after a lot of research, have come to the same conclusion. A reverse flow cabinet is the way to go if you have the coin. Which I don't at the moment. So in the meantime I am going to keep rockin with my WSM 22.5 which turns out pretty good BBQ.

                    Comment


                      #13
                      I might visit a few competitions and see what others are using and talk with them about the pros and cons of each. Some that do both catering and competitions might not use the same cooker for both? Heck you can do some awesome competition cooking on a couple WSM’s and a 26” kettle!

                      Comment


                      • mountainsmoker
                        mountainsmoker commented
                        Editing a comment
                        No don't might, do visit a few competitions. It will add to your experience 10 fold. The pitmasters are all willing to talk to people thinking about getting into the game.

                      #14
                      Welcome from TN. Nothing to add to what these guys have offered, but keep us up to date on your decisions when you have time.

                      Comment


                        #15
                        I've competed, I'm a judge and I have a Jambo so here are a couple things.

                        1) stick burners are great, but you gotta watch them. Read an interesting article were a guy tested double-walled vs. Single walled fire box. Result was the single walled fire box produced better "smoked" meat. Jambo is double wallsd and the smoke flavor is mild. If I did it again, I'd go with a cabinet style smoker with a temperature control system. Watching a smoker for 18 hours gets old fast.

                        2) not a lot of pellet smokers at the comps (KCBS) I go to. There is also some additional rules that apply to them, but I dont know what they are.

                        Comment


                        • Murdy
                          Murdy commented
                          Editing a comment
                          Any idea why double walled produce less smoke flavor? Maybe they hold heat better so you use less wood? (I'm guessing here)

                        • TripleB
                          TripleB commented
                          Editing a comment
                          That's a good hypothesis. The author did not elaborate on why, just that in his opinion it did. Recently I smoked ribs on my Jambo and a chuck on my PK360 and I thought the chuck had a lot more smoke flavor than the ribs.

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