British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all

so my birthday is vastly approaching and was going to treat myself to a pro q frontier as I feel an upgrade from my UDS is now required. However for the price I was wondering if paying the extra £50 for the 37cm WSM would be worth it?
I'd also like to know in food terms what this thing can cook in one go...I.E. my UDS can hold three racks of ribs and and nice chunk of belly pork. Im not great at maths so the 37cm really doesn't give me any idea what im looking at in terms on meat on to the smoker?

Anyone that owns one I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the WSM.

Many Thanks
Marc

It's quite a lot smaller than your UDS assuming you used the standard 55 gallon, 57 cm diameter drum.

I can put three whole pork shoulders on a single grill on my UDS. With a second grill I can do six. That's about 100lb of meat. By comparison, I have an old Brinkmann smoker which is about the same size as the WSM 37, and I can only fit a single pork shoulder on each rack (granted I can squeeze some chicken legs on there too).

Hope that gives you an idea of the size difference. Personally I'd go larger, if I'm doing an overnight, 18 hour cook, I want a lot to show for it at the end!

I've been trying to ascertain from people on here whether WSM / ProQ Excel are actually any better than a UDS. My UDS is so steady and reliable, I'm not sure it really would be an upgrade moving to a WSM. Can anyone on here who has used both comment?

If you're talking about a comparison between the frontier and a small wsm, both will allow you to cook great food but i would go for the wsm. It has a better finish, is made of thicker steel and will look like new for years where the proq will age quite quickly.

I don't own one of the small wsm's but Steve from Guerrilla Grillers has one and i know he's been very impressed with it.

Capacity wise you'll be able to fit a few racks of ribs using rib racks and a pork butt although i'd recommend keeping your UDS as backup for when you need to cook more

robgunby wrote:I've been trying to ascertain from people on here whether WSM / ProQ Excel are actually any better than a UDS. My UDS is so steady and reliable, I'm not sure it really would be an upgrade moving to a WSM. Can anyone on here who has used both comment?

I think it depend on how you have your UDS set up as if you use a heat deflector, it will be very similar to a bullet smoker.

If you don't it'll be much better for cooking things like brisket and chicken as it creates a great bark but not so good for cooking ribs and pork which benefit from a more gentle cook.

But aside from how they cook, looks wise bullet smokers are much prettier than on old oil drum.

Thanks Ed, good to hear something authoritative on this. As it happens, the first thing I cooked on my UDS was the first brisket I managed to turn out good - and boy was it good. I hadn't thought of using a heat deflector for pork but I guess yeah it couldn't hurt it - and may help prevent things sticking to the grills I guess?

As to the OP's dilemma, I guess there is a gain in fuel efficiency using a smaller cooker? I don't have a smaller airtight smoker, just kettles and the ECB, so I find my big UDS to be the most efficient. Is there much benefit in a smaller cooker?

dobba1988 wrote:Hi all

so my birthday is vastly approaching and was going to treat myself to a pro q frontier as I feel an upgrade from my UDS is now required. However for the price I was wondering if paying the extra £50 for the 37cm WSM would be worth it?
I'd also like to know in food terms what this thing can cook in one go...I.E. my UDS can hold three racks of ribs and and nice chunk of belly pork. Im not great at maths so the 37cm really doesn't give me any idea what im looking at in terms on meat on to the smoker?

Anyone that owns one I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the WSM.

Many Thanks
Marc

Thank you for your reply mate!

My UDS was just a cheap bullet smoker bought off Ebay. Had it nearly 3 years now but its starting to fall to bits even tough ive looked after it very well. My last few cooks have cost me fortune in fuel as the heat retention just aint what it used to be!

I want something that will last 10+years if im going to be paying decent doller haha!

I was set on the ProQ but then after reading some recent reviews and watching a few videos I don't like the set up of the smoker.
Everything on the WSM looks great and is built with the pitmaster in mind! It was more the size I was concerned about. My little UDS I can get 3 racks of ribs on (In racks) and maybe some chicken wings. I don't do big cooks, normally just a casual affair with friends in the back garden with cold beers etc...

Ah so not a traditional airtight uds? Consider building one of those, cost you less than a ton easily and feed a small army

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