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midwestray

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 8, 2014
11
10
Southest Iowa
Trying to decide between a propane or electric smoker. I keep reading that electric models do not produce a smoky flavor. Why is that?. Can you not place wood chips above the heat?

Thanks for your info!
 
Most of the MES and similar type electric smoker guys on this site use a smoke generator like one of the A-MAZE-N products pellet trays or tube to generate smoke. Reason being the more you have to open the door to reload wood chips the more time it takes to get your stuff smoked. I do know you don't get a lot of smoking time on a load of wood chips in either. I hear these devices work really good and burn for a real long time at the perfect thin blue smoke. I don't have a dedicated electric except for my little chief which I keep around for fish and stuff. In this manner the electric element is mainly used for heat and the other device does the smoke. I have heard propane smokers have similar problems burning up wood too fast and running too hot but I have no experience in that either. I burn wood and charcoal. I would really like to try one of those auxiliary smoke devices one of these days for cold smoke.  Hope this helps. One final note, I am a Weber guy and highly recommend a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. For the price, reliability, function and customer satisfaction you can't beat Weber.
 
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Trying to decide between a propane or electric smoker. I keep reading that electric models do not produce a smoky flavor. Why is that?. Can you not place wood chips above the heat?

Thanks for your info!
I think you are mishearing/misreading that comment, it is actually that the electric models do not produce a smoke ring, which is just for show anyways. They do, however, produce a smoky flavor, and I don't think anyone would argue this. 
 
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Thanks everyone for your input!. I had it narrowed down to a MES digital and analog, they was only $10.00 difference. Felt I needed the stand for $50.00 to go with digital to raise it up. Just before I hit the buy button on Walmart website I thought I wood look around one more time and found the analog for $99.99 so went that route. Looking forward to getting started.
 
Even with just wood chips the MES puts out plenty of smoke, which unfortunately, is a common newbie error. But with practice and experience you can produce great-tasting smoky Q with the best of them. The analog model will work fine but it's a different animal than the MES 30 digital Gen 1 (wow--that's a handful!) which is what I own. I thought the analog model came with legs; that's how I see them displayed online and in stores.

I went with an electric smoker because I didn't want to hassle with either charcoal or with propane. I already have a charcoal kettle grill so I wanted a different fuel type and I didn't want to fool around with refilling jugs of propane either. An electric power source gave me unlimited, constant fuel for my smoker and I haven't regretted the decision. I'm guessing you went with the electric analog model.

The analog model has a smaller cooking space than the digital but it has a more powerful heating element because of the design. $100 was a great deal
on it. Enjoy.
 
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great price on the analog, except....

the thermo is the dial on the cord/heating element.  very hard to adjust and the thermostat on the door is WAY off.

the exhaust hole is 1/2"-3/4" diameter- too small....fixable-drill 3" hole, add 3"pipe stack

the intake hole on the bottom is too small....fixable-drill holes

leaks around the door...sealable

only smokes when the heating element is on(more or less)....

a few mods and better thermo controller is needed and a separate smoke generator is recommended-almost everyone here      recommends amazen pellet tray

BTW... I have one and I've overcome most of it's deficiencies. 
 
I chose the digital because I knew it would be easier to use. The other thing about the analog is that the controller works differently than on the digital model. I won't go into now because other guys can explain it much better than I can but it's important to know how the controller on your model works when heating up to and maintaining temps.
 
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