Adam aka DocAutomatic
New member
Question for those that went from 18" up to 22" or 22" down to 18"
A friend of mine turned me on to this whole smoking business over the last year and I'm a terrible person to gift shop for (so I'm told.... Expensive hobbies) and my wife brilliantly took note of my interest in my friend's brisket and I received a 14" WSM for my birthday in March. She thought the 18" looked too big (I'm 99% sure she was only looking at the sizes of the boxes) and I didn't even unpack it, drove straight to the store to exchange for an 18".
I'm loving it, I'm a tinkerer of all things so of course I've already done a number of improvements but I'm really wanting to do some things to it that would go beyond the point of no return in terms of being able to sell it for even pennies on the dollar used. Basically, before I invest more time & money, I want to feel comfortable that I'm starting with the right sized smoker. The one nagging thing for me is having to squish full packer briskets in there between the handles or having to chop a rack of ribs a little short to fit... Just feels dirty to me. I know you can twist/contort meat here & there to fit but I just like things to lay naturally. But, I'd also hate upgrading to 22" just to find myself using ungodly amounts of extra charcoal and have too much extra space (feels like meat should be somewhat cozy to fit) to cook for myself, wife, and 2 toddlers (who really can't make that big of a dent in the food), which in all honesty is 95% of the time (I'm not hosting big gatherings much).
Can anyone who's moved up or down in size relate their experience and lessons learned?
A friend of mine turned me on to this whole smoking business over the last year and I'm a terrible person to gift shop for (so I'm told.... Expensive hobbies) and my wife brilliantly took note of my interest in my friend's brisket and I received a 14" WSM for my birthday in March. She thought the 18" looked too big (I'm 99% sure she was only looking at the sizes of the boxes) and I didn't even unpack it, drove straight to the store to exchange for an 18".
I'm loving it, I'm a tinkerer of all things so of course I've already done a number of improvements but I'm really wanting to do some things to it that would go beyond the point of no return in terms of being able to sell it for even pennies on the dollar used. Basically, before I invest more time & money, I want to feel comfortable that I'm starting with the right sized smoker. The one nagging thing for me is having to squish full packer briskets in there between the handles or having to chop a rack of ribs a little short to fit... Just feels dirty to me. I know you can twist/contort meat here & there to fit but I just like things to lay naturally. But, I'd also hate upgrading to 22" just to find myself using ungodly amounts of extra charcoal and have too much extra space (feels like meat should be somewhat cozy to fit) to cook for myself, wife, and 2 toddlers (who really can't make that big of a dent in the food), which in all honesty is 95% of the time (I'm not hosting big gatherings much).
Can anyone who's moved up or down in size relate their experience and lessons learned?