New, need convincing and have questions


 
C

Chris Sully

TVWBB Member
Hello, I have been looking around the forum and it seems to be a great site, so I will pose some questions (some probably pretty lame) and see where I end up.

I am new to BBQ (cooking, not eating) and am in the market for a smoker. I went to a BBQ festival in Southern California and met a guy that was a Traeger rep. He almost had me sold, but I like researching. I posed the question "which smoker would be best for me?" on another forum and many said the WSM. so here I am.

I like the idea of the pellet grils, set it and forget it, but I also like the tradition of making fire and tending it.

Here are my questions for you.

1. Why the WSM over a pellet smoker like Traeger or Green Mountain Grills? other than price.

2. Is charcoal safe? I though it had a lot of chemicals and junk in it that could be bad for your health. or is the 100% natural better?

3. 18.5" or 22.5" I have a wife and 2 kids (3yr and 6 month). I will have friends over, but not all that many too often.

I am sure I will have more, but this is a good start.

Thanks,
Chris
 
1) A local BBQ store in my town is a huge Traiger pusher, every time I go in he wants to talk to me about them, but here's my thing - With the WSM you can adjust how much wood/smoke flavor you give the meat. With the pellet grill, the smoke and heat source is the same (pellets), and you can't really adjust accordingly IMO. Now don't get me wrong, I've had some food he's cooked off it, and it's wonderful. Secondly, even though they are set it and forget it, something about mixing electrical parts w/ fire, I dunno, a buddy of mine has one and won't leave it unattended in case malfunction (which happened to a buddy of his).

2) I'm assuming you are comparing briquettes to lump charcoal. Either way, I use lump exclusive, although I'm sure the answer would be as long as either are in well ventilated area you are fine.

3) 18.5

Pull the trigger, you won't regret it - I promise.
 
Chris, welcome. I almost went with the Traeger. My 2 concerns were that the hopper was small compared to the smoker, ie for over night cooks you will probable have to add more pellets. Second the cost of the pellets was a bit more than I had counted on. The WSM is pretty much good for about 10m hrs cook time before adding coal. Of course that depends on how much heat you use. The WSM is fairly portable and you can add a cart with wheels if you like. I use lump and it burns clean. If it were me with 4 folks to feed especially since the youngins will grow, I would go with the 22". I have an 18.5 for 2 people and wish I had either another or the big daddy. Friends and relatives you know.
Happy shopping.

Mark.
 
I can't speak to the pellet smokers but I can for the WSM's!

They are simply AWSOME! You can get Weber parts almost anywhere, the fuel (cc) is easy to find and the q is as good as you will ever have!

Agree with all the above post! If you have any doubt or you like to do ribs get the 22.5 WSM.

The way they are constructed they will last a very long time as well.
 
I Have no experience with anything but the WSM.
But, It has beena great, fun cooker to use.

As far as what size to get....the one you want of course after all its your money.

I started out wanting the 22.5" model.
But, I have a wife and a mortgage and a wife and 3 kids and a wife...you get the Idea
icon_biggrin.gif


You can cook a lot of food on the 18.5" and unless you have alot of 12+ people parties I think it is a wiser choice.


Quoting myself from another thread here.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> I chose the 18.5" after much thought.

I have no experience with the 22.5", but here are the reasons I chose the 18.5"

Key reasons were(purely based on what I read here because I had never seen in person or eaten from a WSM before.)

In no particualr order:

1.Smaller/takes up less space

2.I will rarely cook for more than 6 to 8 people.

3.Uses less fuel (and smoke wood I presume?)

4. At the time it was $160 cheaper hereAim to Find than a 22.5" so I could buy my maverick and other Accessories at the same time.

5. The 22.5" has not been out long. The 18.5" has been out for more than 20 years. If it(18.5") is good enought for everyone else for the last 20 years, it's good enough for my nooby backside too.

The only pro's to the 22.5 in my opinion were the larger capacity (which I had already decided I did not need), and the plain ol' impressivness of it size.

And, as a side note I was able to lay 3 rack of BB ribs from Sam's down flat on my 18.5" no prob. I would just roll 'em up like the 20 year veterans if I ever had to though.

Buy one or the other and COOK Brother COOK!
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am not sure if cooking with charcoal is actually safe but I am comfortable doing so.
I think I would worry more about the food itself being safe let alone how I am gonna cook it.
In my WSM I use mostly Stubbs natural briquettes from Lowes or lump. I like to use them both in my Performer Kettle too.
But, when regular old kingsford goes on sale I usually snag some for the kettle for grillin'.
 
Chris,I got my WSM two years ago. When I told my wife that I was getting a smoker,she was like,okay,if you insist. Now,she loves it almost as much as I do! I've cooked enough food for 30+ people on it,so it will hold a bunch of food! FYI-it's the 18.5. As far as charcoal goes,last year Kingsford came out with a new briquette that has natural binders. The few times I've used it,it seemed ok. I do use regular blue bag K all the time! I also use lump in it. Depends on your taste and budget. But remember,the WSM is also a set it and forget it cooker too. I've done several overnighters,and had no issues whatsoever. Let us know what you decide. PS- the WSM doesn't need extension cords,so it travels well.
icon_biggrin.gif
 
1 - I have no experience with pellet cookers but I have experience with offsets. You simply cannot go wrong with the WSM. You'd also have little trouble selling it if you wanted to trade-up.

2 - Always stick with name brands like Kingsford. Also, there's lump charcoal that's 100% natural and quality is assured if you stick with brand names.

3 - 18.5" would be just right for you. I've used mine to cook 32lbs of pork butt easily. You can also convert it to a grill by re-arranging the internal components.

Go to an ACE Hardware store in your area and compare the WSM's side-by-side. The 22" is huge!
 
I honestly dont know anything about Traegers, but it seems like the users on the other forums that have them are impressed with them. I bought a kettle first, and then a WSM a few months later. I was in love. Great cooker, and I found mine brand new for $175 so it just made sense. The Traeger seems like it is a lot more than that. From what I have seen in myself, and others around here, you will end up with multiple smokers/grills. I think the Webers are a good place to start. They have a phenomenal bang for the buck factor, and the food is every bit as good as some of the more expensive units. I have become somewhat of a Big Green Egg addict over the last year, but Webers own my original loyalty, and I would feel like I was cheating if I didnt still own a few. Get the 18.5 WSM and a cheap used kettle on craigslist, you'll love the combo. Then get the Traeger or other later if you still have that bug in you. Good luck either way, and enjoy the food off of whatever you get.
 
The WSM is also my first smoker... but I have 3 friends who have them and swear by them, so I got one and was not disappointed.

I cook for me and my wife and some friends at work. I have the 22.5 and it is more than enough.
 
Here is another reason: Price


I don't know much about the pellet grill options, but I had been looking at the ceramic/kamado/keg style grills, which cost $600 to $1200. At $250 the WSM 18.5 was a bargain.

I think that I will eventually get a ceramic grill someday, but at the price I think that the WSM is a great tool for the introduction and practicing of low and slow BBQ.

I have used all styles of charcoal, and I like the 100% natural K-comp that costs me 57 cents per pound incl tax. I have got to imagine that the pellets cost many multiples of that. Regular K cost me 27 cents/lb.
 
I don't know much about the pellet grills but looked at them long and hard thinking I wanted one. I eventually decided on the 22.5" WSM and am glad I did. I just got mine about 2 weeks ago but have been having a blast using it. Chicken, ribs, husker chops, brisket and pork butt. This stuff is fun. The WSM really does a great job of maintaing the temps. You really don't have to sit there and watch it. Did my first overnight this weekend on the butt - it took almost 15 hours and I never added charcoal. Tended it a few times, stirred them up etc.... but no worries on the long cook.

I only have the wife and 3 kids but like the extra space of the 22.5". I have the space if I need it in the future.

Good luck with your decision.
 
Chris -

I think that both are fine cookers. I have looked at possibly adding a pellet muncher to my family of grills. My concern is more the potential failure points during a cook on the pellet munchers. If the power goes out during your cook on a pellet muncher you may be in trouble. Also, if the auger gets jammed then you will have problems on a cook with the pellet grill. It just seemed to me that the slight amount of effort on the WSM (once I get it dialed into a temp it stays there for a long time) was easier for me...I am sure others see it differently. You might want to take a look at pelletheads.com to see the types of troubles that you may encounter and then compare those to the ones on this board. I have cooked on my WSM well over a 100 times and any problems that I have encountered have been due to me being a moron rather than any issues with the cooker.

-Don
 
As for charcoal, read All About Charcoal. Stick to a quality name-brand briquette (i.e., Kingsford) and you don't have to worry about anything being in the charcoal that is toxic or an unnecessary filler.

As for the pellet-pooper, don't confuse a pellet grill and a pellet smoker. I'll admit that that my knowledge of pellet-fed devices is cursory, but I believe that the Traegers are grills that you may be able to smoke on, but I suspect that it won't be ideal as a smoker/cooker. Someone has already mentioned the limited hopper size. Something like the Fast Eddy's Cooker (FEC) 100 is an actual pellet-fed smoker. I am not aware of a pellet-fed smoker less expensive than the $3800 FEC100 (not that I've looked that hard, but in reading/listening to BBQ media, I haven't heard of one that I recall.)
 
As for the pellet burners, I just never liked HAVING to buy a certain type of fuel. I have no local source for pellets and they seemed a little expensive to me. If I happened to let myself run out of pellets, I would remember it about the time the meat was ready to put on and I was going to fire up the smoker.

I can find charcoal anywhere and if I couldn't I could find enough wood to cook with.

Probably the most important thing is the WSM is a no-nonsense well built smoker. It can be what YOU want it to be. You can have the DigiQ to tend the fire for ya and make it pretty much a set it and forget it or you can practice the art of smoking all on your own with you being the fire tender. Even with you tending the fire it's not a big deal after you get the hang of it. Though I am thinking about telling the wife I want a DigiQ for my birthday for those times I'm going to be away from my beloved WSM for a while.

My WSM 22 is the 5th smoker I have owned. It is by far my favorite.
 
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