£100 ish for my first smoker

[strathamp]

Hi all,

I've just found this excellent forum while researching my first smoker... Hopefully you can provide some useful advice to a complete novice.

I'm looking for my first smoker - around the £100 mark. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I briefly looked at the Landmann 11094 Charcoal Tennessee Smoker but luckily spotted some shocking reviews suggesting there were holes everywhere.

Then I spotted the Brinkmann Gourmet Charcoal BBQ Smoker which seems to have solid reviews. Anyone with experience of this one out there? Is the ProQ Frontier (which seems to be regularly spoken about on here) £80 better?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Ben

[keith157]

Hi Ben and welcome. From reports on here the Brinkman needs some mods to make it work properly the ProQ range are all good value for money but IMHO it depends on your needs and expectations. If you are just starting out and don't expect to host a banquet then the Frontier is a good place to start (although with practice and good time planning you can generate a prodigious amount of food on one).

[Tiny]

Ben, welcome to the forum, with the budget you have I think the best option is to build an ugly drum smoker. Many here have forsaken expensive purpose built smokers in favour of the UDS they have built.

They can be put together for about £80 and some modest DIY skills.

If you read the forums I think a couple of folk have links in their sig blocks as to how they built theirs....I believe smokerbuilder.com or somethink like it is also an good source of info,

Happy smoking!
Cheers
Tiny

[strathamp]

Thanks for the replies.

It sounds like spending a bit more on the Frontier might be the best route for me to start out. I'm quite keen to get something off the shelf to begin with. Building a UDS might be something for the future when I know a bit more about everything.

[YetiDave]

A UDS will kick the ass of the Frontier on the temp stability and fuel consumption front. If I were to start again I'd just build a UDS and be done with it

[stretchie_]

Hello

My UDS build is linked below if want to have a look at what was involved in mine