So.... I'm curious.... what do you all like best, when it comes to pellet smokers.... a vertical unit...??? or.... a horizontal unit...???
I've had the horizontal units before, but... it seems that a "Vertical" unit 'might' be more efficient... as heat rises, so should smoke... so, I'm curious... please enlighten me as to your thoughts .... Vertical vs Horizontal
It would also seem to have some bearing on the "footprint" of the unit... perhaps vertical units might take up less space.... but... are they actually "better"???
Last edited by IBMERCY; August 19, 2024, 08:40 PM.
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
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Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I am not a scientist or engineer, but I've always viewed it this way: picture that hunk o' meat on your plate after cooking it on one or the other such device. Will you ever be able to tell the difference if it was cooked on one or the other? I'd wager not likely, nearing impossible.
Vertical might seem more efficient, but what about the lower grates? Does heat rising make them cooler, or will they trend hotter since they're closer to the firepot? Does horizontal mean the entirety of the cooking chamber is more even since there are no low or high levels, but instead the heat moves uniformly across to the chimney? Hmm.
A pellet cooker is already set it and forget it, so there's equal ease of use on your part with either setup (no 'better flow' as with a stickburner, for instance). You add pellets, turn it on, set a temp, and walk away. I say get what you can afford and what you think will look great on your deck/patio!
My vertical isn't even, it's cooler at the bottom, BUT you can get more RADIANT heat from a baffle plate below or something. It's just not my favorite, my (admittedly pretty cheapo) cabinet doesn't give me the best cooking, and actually has less flavor with propane and wood chunks than my pellet pooper. I CAN get more SMOKE flavor, but not the other complex flavors I get from my pellet. Go figure. Tried it blind A vs B and everyone agreed.
If you're using a vertical cabinet, things drip on items below. Often, the heat is not truly all that even from top to bottom, etc. I like my horizontals the best, I can build them to get perfectly even heat from one side to the other on the lower racks. Nothing wrong with a cabinet, I have one of those, too, a Camp Chef Smoke Vault 24". I don't use it a lot, I like the heavier smoke from my offset, as the cabinet is a propane smoker that you use wood chips or chunks. Again, it's not bad. If you're doing LARGE amounts of the same foods, you can sometimes fit a lot of food in a small footprint, but I may season meats differently and I don't necessarily want the rub from one thing dripping onto another.
Others will also say don't put chikkin up above something else, lest it drip salmonella-laden juices on the items below, but I don't worry too much about this. Hot envinronment, as long as I'm cooking my food to high temps, I'm not worried about any salmonella bacteria surviving. If chikkin drips on my pork butt for a couple of hours, then I pull the chikkin, the pork is staying in MUCH longer and anything that drips on the surface of the pork is definitely already in the process of dying early in the cook and doesn't find a hospitable environment when it lands, then it continues to cook for more hours in the smoker. So, that's not a convincing argument to me. I certainly wouldn't want chikkin juices dripping on bologna or sausage, something I may not be heating all the way up to ~200ºF-ish temps over hours. I generally do bologna and sausages up to 140-150, so I wouldn't take that risk. Other stuff that is cooking for many more hours up to high temps, I just shrug. I'm more worried about the mixing of rub flavors.
Huskee... coming from an "Administrator".... I have to respect your thoughts....I used to have a Treager unit, sold it years ago when I moved....I just seemed to think vertical might be better.... but perhaps not... Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
Fast Eddy's Cook Shack PG 1000
Humphrey's Pint with Fireboard + Pit Viper
Hasty-Bake 256 Gourmet Dual Finish
Camp Chef DLX pellet pooper/sear burner/jerky rack
Broil King Keg Kamado
Charbroil Kamander
Original Pit Barrel Cooker
Barrel House Cooker
Akorn Kamado with cart
WSM 22 with Flame Boss
WSM 18.5 with Flame Boss
Weber Kettle Performer (with Slow n Sear/Drip n Griddle)
Weber Jumbo Joe
Weber Smokey Joe
Weber Q gasser with stand
Blackstone Griddle 22 with stand and lid
Blackstone Griddle 36
Akorn Kamado jr
I'm torn. My mind tells me horizontal: nothing dripping, access to everything in one shot, even temps across the cooking surface, and it looks cool. But in practice, I use my gravity-fed vertical the most. Sliding out racks and focusing on one protein at a time is fun...
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.. Actually, I have no advice for you; sorry, they are both great.
Dog Faced Pony Soldier.... your comments are valued...different than others, but... that's what I'm looking for.... different opinions.... yours are certainly appreciated..... Thanks!!!
Tenphases..... thanks... your thoughts are valued and appreciated.... I'm looking for different views from different folks... and I'm getting them.... Thanks again for your thoughts...
The vertical I built runs a bit warmer on the bottom. My shorter, manufactured vertical, ran much hotter up top. I learned from that shorter vertical to give ample space between the ceiling and the top meat on the one I built. The shorter one was waaaay too hot up top. My vertical just cooks a bit faster on the bottom. Which is nice when you are cooking ahead of time and chilling stuff down.
Drippings don't negatively affect briskets and butts at all. A lot of smoke houses use rotisserie smokers, which are glorified verticals.
Verticals take up much less space. I can't imagine an offset under my carport that could hold 8-10 briskets.
I just found this thread! On point with my current case of MCS...I'm looking to buy a vertical pellet smoker. Years ago, I cooked competitions with an FEC100, which is the ultimate (my opinion) vertical pellet cooking machine. Usually, I cooked meat in pans, so the drip factor wasn't an issue AND the cooker stayed clean! It was an ideal cooker for mass production, think 12 turkeys at once or 14 pork butts. Once upon a time, I cooked a whole hog for Thanksgiving in it!
I think I'll go visit my two vertical cooker choices and take photos and measurements. Thinking about pan/grate sizes!
I would love a vertical cooker that could take full steam table trays/pans. Then it could double as a warming/holding oven for events. I will be curious to see what you end up with.
jfmorris, the FEC100 will easily take full size pans. I'm not willing to pay the cost of a new one. Half size pans will work just fine, I think. There has to be room on 4 sides for heat movement. I know someone down B'ham way that specializes in finding gently used FEC... if you're interested.
My vertical pellet smoker can handle 2x more than my horizontal pellet smoker, they both have temp differences with the vertical being hotter at the top, and the horizontal hotter to one side like a offset stick burner. I use the difference to my advantage by putting things that cook at a higher temp in the hotter area and things cooking at a lower temp in the cooler area.
I like the vertical in that it has a smaller foot print and I added cast iron skilled on top of the fire pot to hold hardwood chunks for a better smoke profile, which is much harder to do in the horizontal since I can't get smoke tube/tray to stay lit. I like the horizontal because I can add accessories like a rotisserie or pizza oven that I can't add to the vertical.
I wouldn't put as much weight to heat rising or going sideways or the footprint if you have space as I would other considerations you might get from one vs the other. Or, you could get one of each...
I don't have a vertical cooker at present. But I do have a great offset smoker, 30gal Gateway drum, PBC that's still brand new, 2 Weber Kettles, 14" WSM, Hasty Bake Ranger, 2 GMG Trek (one in the cart), an original Grilla, MAK 2 star and likely a couple of others. See, I need that vertical!!!
@IBMERCY Here's my Pit Boss Copperhead 7, I decided to try hanging some ribs to see how they would do and I will be doing them again like this in the future. The temp was a little lower at the bottom, but only a 5 to 10 degree difference from the top. Usually I have the shelves in and things are laying flat.
My horizontal pellet smoker is the Weber SmokeFire EX4, 1st generation. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones as I've never had any problems with it. The only thing I did was change out the pellet slide that Weber provided. I probably use the Pit Boss at a ratio of 5 to 1, for the Weber.
Copperhead 7
December 13, 2024, 01:17 PM
Porkalicious cook on the Pit Boss Copperhead 7. St. Louis ribs, pork butt and on the bottom some chef delights from the rib trimmings. Traeger Signature pellets in the hopper and Cookinpellets 100% Cherry in the smoke tube. Ribs were done in about 3 hours at 275-300. Butt is still going, will be about 8 hours when done.
We're hanging in there. Tried to have some fun this past week with some days off work, and caught a cold and gave it to Yvonne, but we are both on the mend. We had fun getting out of town for a few days, despite the cold.
She has scans again in January, so we are just trying our best to enjoy life as we don't know what is in store for us now with the scans every 12 weeks.
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