I have, and absolutely love, my Camp Chef Woodwind Pro. HOWEVER, getting parts and service over where you are will be a significant consideration, and for that reason I cannot encourage you to go that route. I believe you will have better odds with the other manufacturers if/when the time comes that you might need their help.
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I absolutely love my Smoque XL. I've been very happy with the results from it. I still have my Weber Smoky Mountains and plan to use them when the cooking capacity warrants it, but for smoking, the primary has been the Smoque XL. I did 4 pork shoulders in it 2 weeks ago and I might have been able to squeeze in 2 more and with the upper grate a few more. I use the SmokeBoost setting, which runs at 180 degrees, for a couple hours at the beginning of the cook then move it on to the standard cook temp 225 - 275 depending on what it is. I've not noticed too big of a change from charcoal on the WSM with wood chunks at the beginning of the cook to the Smoque.
I don't think you can go wrong with any of the cookers you have in mind. It really is just a question of service and responsiveness considering you're in the UK.
I was looking at a much more expensive grill and I ended up getting the smoque and a new Weber gas grill for almost less than half.Comment
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Oooh, now you are a man I need to speak to. How far below the lower grates are the flavorizer bars on the Smoque XL? Think you could balance a water tray on them?
Perhaps use a half sheet or quarter sheet with the foil tray on that? -
dotcodotuk I don’t think there would be enough room for a foil tray but I’ll have to do an actual check with a foil tray. The thing is, you can remove grates on one side and have plenty of room for a foil tray filled with water and the other side can hold the meat on the grate.
Another thing, I haven’t used a water tray on my smoque once since I got it. I stopped using one on my WSMs too. I read Harry Soo didn’t use them in his WSM so I figured I’d give it a shot and haven’t looked back.
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I'm torn, I'd say weber since you have access to service... but the UK weather absolutely destroyed my supposedly stainless US brand grill after 4 years of living there.
I'd probably lean towards Yoder or LSG and do the annual rust mitigation, I'd also pay extra to have an ignitor or two on hand. I assume you'd be using an inverter or whatever for the power if it was a 110 device, is there a way to get a 220 Yoder? Thise boxes can cause issues long term for electronics.
I'd be shocked if there wasn't a UK made custom pellet grill manufacturer, they are popular enough to warrant a couple being in the market amd the country is small enough that wherever they might be could be visited in a day or so of travel to see hands on?Comment
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Weber products do seem to hold up well - my one complaint is their covers don't last as long as I feel they should for the money, but that's a minor gripe in the overall scheme of things.
My issue with Weber's support seems to come with them not holding much stock in the UK for products that are a little bit niche - but they do get them eventually and usually offer a small discount for having to wait. -
Oh, and the Yoder apparently runs off a standard UK plug, no inverter needed. But I'll double check, just in case I can sell a kidney on the black market and feel the need for a YS640s in my life!
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Didn't Louisiana Grills go out of business?Comment
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Yes and no... their parent company, Dansons (which also owns Pit Boss) *appears to be* retiring the Louisiana Grills brand, but they (Dansons) are still in biz. Hence everything being sold out on LG's site. But I can't find anything officially confirming this other than anecdotal connecting-the-dots.
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Okay folks, I have a concept of a plan. Feel free to pick it apart!
I'm not saying the Yoder is out out but unless I can sell my slightly-damaged left kidney for good money (long story how it got that way) it's money I can't justify spending, even though there seems to be very decent and responsive support over here in Europe for them.
If I was in the US and could get my hands on one for what you pay it would be on my deck as I type this, but it's a minimum entry price of $4,400 delivered to my door, albeit with a whole bunch of accessories thrown in - cover, shelves, pellets, thermometers, grease guard. Mega money for some idiot who has never owned a pellet smoker before.
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I'm not saying the Searwood is 100% out... but it's 75% of the way there as I feel the Smoque is just as good at what I want it to do, for less money. I can get a Smoque XL with a cover, bottom shelf, some foil trays and a whole load of pellets for the same price as just the Searwood XL.
However, until I can see and touch one for myself, I'm wary of buying blind and then regretting not getting the Searwood. But I'm also wary of all the wannabe influencers out there on who seem to fawn over the Searwood*.
Is anyone doing that for the Smoque? I've not seen it... but please correct me.
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Where I'm leaning is the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 36. Hard to find here, but I do have a line on an ex-display model from a BBQ School who only ever had this one model for promotional purposes and it would come with the cover, the insulated blanket and 2-years warranty for a pretty solid price.
In my mind, and this is where you can all tell me I'm being daft, there are three big pluses about the Camp Chef.
- Huge amount of real estate on the top racks for smoking, which would allow me to start cooks off there and then wrap and move to the lower racks while I add more to the top to make my 'perfect platter' cook**.
- The Smoke Box just feels cool as heck and I want to believe it will make a difference. I envisage being able to run the smoker on a 'standard' pellet and then add different wood at different stages of the cook to add flavour to the meat I'm smoking for my so-called perfect platter**.
- I have seen some in-depth reviews and cooking demonstrations using the Camp Chef that I feel I can trust enough to be objectively sound, where I'm struggling to do the same with the Weber or even the Yoder. Mad Scientist BBQ being the main source here, so this is probably the time where someone needs to tell me he's absolutely full of it and I shouldn't trust a word the guy says...
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All that being said, if we're talking just price and price alone, I could get two Smoque XLs or a Smoque XL and a Searwood XL for not much more than the Camp Chef WWP 36. And as I said before, I could get all three for the same as the Yoder!
*One thing I want to say is I am not dismissing any of the opinions offered here with my comments above about reviews or similar, that's purely based on the amount of people on YT who seem to be willing to fawn over a particular product in the hope they'll get sent some free stuff or get one step further along to becoming Internet Famous.
**I will have to create a dedicated thread for this whole 'perfect platter' idea as I could do with people who know what they are talking about to give me some guidance on whether my plan is even doable or if I'm just wasting my time... perhaps that is needed before I do spend some money.Comment
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The CampChef design is very old school. All of that smoke has to go around that giant drip pan and only from the front and back then has to somehow make its way to your food. The exhaust is high and the smoke is already at the edges of the grill and being blown upwards towards the exhaust. So only a little smoke is going to likely hit your food. This design is why a lot of people say pellet grills have a very light smoke profile. -
Some manufacturers do things to make smoke circulate better like using low rear vents. Traeger has made a ton of changes the last 5 years to drip tray and/or exhaust designs on many models. The Smoque is probably better than most old school designs too, I just haven’t seen one yet in person and my past experience tells me the Searwood would still out-smoke it as smoke should be fairly freely moving up the center as well as getting blown around hitting food from top and bottom. -
Anyway, that’s not scientific, but just my experience after 16-18 years and over a dozen pellet grills. The grills with rear exhausts, drip pans that don’t look like a giant upside down cookie sheet, and possibly more open style fire pots seem to produce better results. The Smokefire did all three and produced the best results all around out of all the pellet poopers I had when it worked right (Weber was brand new at the software game then, they’re much better at it now).
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I can’t help with the product lineup. I have a small grilla chimp pellet grill that I use a lot, but it is nowhere near big enough for what you want to do. I think pellet grills are great additions because of the ease of using them. And sounds like you have the charcoal cooking covered.
But in that fine print in your post about people here that know what they are talking about, well, just be careful. Some, like Uncle Bob and Panhead John and texastweeter, well, just beware. And that WI Bubba guy is suspect.
I am editing this list to add jayjordan. He is a little shady too. And even though she is a moderator and may kick me off the site, SheilaAnn. I am not afraid of the truth.Last edited by klflowers; August 22, 2026, 08:30 AM.Comment
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Put a deposit down on an XL Searwood today... will make a decision in the week ahead whether to pay the balance and have it delivered, but couldn't resist the price on offer and felt it might force my hand into making a final decision.
Still more than you pay in the US, but was a hair under $1,300 as an ex-display model (comes with warranty) which is about $330 less than the cheapest price for a new one I have seen so far.Comment
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I changed my mind! Bought a Smoque XL instead... should hopefully be here for the weekend along with a bunch of CookinPellets Perfect Mix and some other goodies.
Ended up seeing a Smoque and a Searwood side-by-side and there's something I love about the Smoque's internals - feels more solid and conducive to smoking, plus I can get a water pan under the main grate which I cannot with the Searwood.
I do have something else random on the cards as well... long story and will explain more when I figure out if it will even happen, but as a teaser it can take a Fireboard controller and it's from the US!Comment
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You’ll probably find the water pan unneeded. I never use one in my pellet grills. I tried it a few times years ago and never could tell any difference in results. I’d think over the years if pellet grill users found it would do much all of the pellet grill companies would offer them to sell more accessories. Traeger would have a custom one for every model because they make a billion unnecessary accessories already. Weber is the only one I can think of that has. -
I am curious what, if any, difference a water pan/tray/thing makes to a cook... but the Smoque affords me that option, which the Searwood doesn't. Well, it has that weird balancing act thing, but it's not really much use.
Science suggests it should, practice may well show it doesn't - but we shall see.
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Another one to the dark side......Comment
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I think you will enjoy the CookinPellets, and congratulations on finding your new cooker. Looking forward to seeing your cooks.
I guess currently having 19 40# bags of CookinPellets makes me a fan.Comment
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On top of one bucket is a vacuum cleaner with a hose. Besides using it on an empty bucket to clean up ash from the cook chamber I can also attach it to buckets I use for pellet storage and quickly empty the cooker’s pellet bin back into the bucket for drier storage. (I live surrounded by saltwater bays on three sides so dry storage between cooks is important to me.) -
Manxman - sorry, keep forgetting to acknowledge and thank you for commenting as someone from this side of the pond! What do you store your pellets in? -
No worries. I use a "20L Pet Food Storage Container with Flip Top Locking System" which are airtight and hold a nominal 9 KG.. think the brand I use is DIVCHI but there are a load of them available on Amazon under different guises. There are bigger ones available but these sit nicely in a B+Q storage box that sits alongside the Traeger and ensures everything stays dry.
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Happened to be passing the place that had the Searwood XL I put a deposit down on and popped in to see if they had any Weber accessories on their end of summer sale - drip pans, covers, stuff like that.
They still had the Searwood XL display model for sale, but had knocked off another $300 as they needed the space for the Halloween store.
So I did something stupid, but at least I'll be able to do a thorough comparison review of the two models!Comment
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I have a post ready to go, but can't work out how to insert multiple pictures - says I can use a max of one per post?!
Couldn't see that being a restriction in the FAQ section... any way around it other than to make multiple smaller posts with a picture in each? -
dotcodotuk Not sure what’s going on but you’re able to put up to 12 pictures in a post. -
Panhead John - was very weird, kept bugging out on me with the 1 image error. Had to delete cache and reload to get it to play ball and looks like we're good!
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Right then - first cook on the Smoque is done!
I had planned to cook some bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs a-la Mad Scientist as a simple test with the aim to run my Fireboard at the same time to monitor the temps in the chamber, but I picked-up a discounted boneless pork shoulder joint from my local grocery store that I'd usually end up making carnitas from, so pulled pork was the aim.
I took it out of the fridge, unwrapped it, trimmed some of the gnarlier fat/skin off and then liberally coated it in 50/50 pepper and salt (course pepper and kosher, for those wondering) and ended up with this - about 1.2kg or 2.6lbs, unevenly coated but not bad when done by hand.
Note to self: find a proper shaker for the rub.
That went on the middle of the upper rack of the Smoque, probed gently but firmly with a Fireboard sensor (you can see the two ambient probes either side) with a foil tray underneath with a little water in.
The Smoque was set to run at 180ºF for an hour with the Boost setting enabled, then I bumped to 220º after an hour and watched the graphs on the Fireboard app to see how things were going after another hour.
Interestingly, temps on the left ambient were around 13% higher than the Smoque was set to and around 20% higher on the right, which sits above the firepot...
After about three hours the internal temp was reading around 150º so I wrapped it up in foil, then stuck it back on the Smoque for another 90-minutes and waited for the internal temp to reach 203º - at which point I let the Smoque go into its shutdown phase and I took the pork off and sat it somewhere nice and stable for it to rest for two hours.
The pork was probing nicely and seemed tender, so I did the rest of my weekend chores and started to figure out what I could pull together to make a meal of the pork - panic ensued when I realised I didn't have much in the house to accompany it!
After roughly 5-hours of cooking I was left with 700g/1.5lbs of smoked pork that looked and smelt fantastic, but I immediately realised that I had screwed up the cook when I started to break it down to use for dinner...
Where the same cut for my carnitas will be soft and tender to the touch with collagen that is meltingly soft making it very easy to flake into pieces, this was far tougher with collagen that had not properly rendered - clearly I had not held it at the correct temperature for long enough during the cook to break the internals down effectively.
It did shred, as you will see below, but it did not want to pull apart as I was expecting and hoping it to. You can see the long strands of meat, clear signs of the collagen not rendering effectively... such a shame!
On a positive note, it smelled and looked fantastic and for my first proper cook on a pellet smoker, I was blown away. And it tasted even better, despite not being anywhere near as tender as it should have been and was ultimately a failed attempt at pulled pork.
Ended up serving it on some milk bun sliders with pickled red onions, Blues Hog honey mustard sauce and some chicken skin dusted tater tots - well, the closest thing we have to tater tots over here anyway. Went down very well, although my GF found the texture of the pork to be a little too chewy for her and she ended up having to thin out the contents of her sliders and eat the rest separately.
So, what did I learn?
- Not sure I love the pepper and salt rub on pulled pork... will look for something a little sweeter/funkier that still allows for a nice bark/crust but has less heat and more astringency.
- The Smoque smokes really well. Definitely some variances in temperature in the cooking chamber, but that is certainly not a bad thing. I used 2.2kg/4.85lbs of pellets over the 5-hours of cooking, which felt reasonably efficient.
- I need to go back to cooking school and figure out temperatures and times to make sure I am holding things in the 'window' where connective tissue is being properly rendered. Schoolboy error but at least I know where I messed up and I can look on the Fireboard's session graphs to do some analysis.
- Speaking of which, I love the Fireboard! Really a nice piece of kit and very user-friendly. Glad I picked up a Gen1 for a bargain price, certainly do not need the added features of the Gen2 hardware... but would like to know it it brings any software enhancements.
- Clean-up on the Smoque is really nice and simple, just needed a couple of different styles of brush to get into the nooks and crannies but all the pellet ash was into the foil tray within about 5-minutes of work and after 10-minutes it was all looking like it had barely been used.
- I need to stop raiding the fridge as I've now snacked on half of the rest of the meat that I boxed-up and refrigerated. Tasted just as good today as it did yesterday, which was a surprise and a delight!
Last edited by dotcodotuk; September 6, 2026, 12:08 PM.Comment
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If anyone has any bright ideas as to the weird images issue, let me know - I'm still seeing them above but I take it nobody else is... -
This happens to some of us occasionally, we can see our pictures that we post but no one else can. Don’t know why it happens, some kind of a glitch. What I’ve had to do is to delete the pictures in the post and then re-upload the pics I want to use…..and then re-insert the pics again. Hope this helps, it is frustrating for sure. -
Very frustrating - won't let me upload all the images at once as getting the max 1 image error, can't do them one-by-one as it does the same thing.
Will keep trying... but may have to split the post up.
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dotcodotuk Quote: "Not sure I love the pepper and salt rub on pulled pork... will look for something a little sweeter/funkier that still allows for a nice bark/crust but has less heat and more astringency".
If you're looking for something different in a Pork rub, you might check out this recipe from Meathead.
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Oh, that sounds right up my street - thanks, Ace!
Looks like I'll need to source some cups for measuring... or dig out my old conversion notes to get the measurements into grams.
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