- Oct 31, 2015
- 30
- 10
Hi,
I've been using a propane smoker lately. I'm still learning it, but all in all I like it a lot.
But it sure does go through wood fast. Smoking a chicken with propane takes 3-4 times more wood than my Weber Smokey Mountain did and paying $6-$10 for those little bags of wood chunks at the big box stores got old fast.
Thank goodness for Craigslist. I found a new in box electric chainsaw for $50, a used, portable workbench with a vise (for holding wood) and a guy selling smoking wood, $20 for a big wheelbarrow full.
I brought a huge beer/food cooler to him and he filled it until we couldn't close the lid for $10.
The wood was thick oak wood splits between one and two feet long. Over the weekend, I cut them all vertically into good sized chunks. It looks to me like I have what would have cost me $200 or more worth of wood had I bought wood chunks at one of the big box stores.
The only other expense was a box of heavy duty construction bags to keep all those the wood chunks in.
The amount of smoking wood I have on hand now is worth (at big box prices) three to four times what I paid for the equipment and I can use the equipment for other things too!
I'm still very surprised at the amount of wood the propane smoker uses. I estimate that the cost of propane fuel is about equal to what I paid for charcoal to run my WSM. But wood? Forget it! The WSM is a wood miser compared to what this propane smoker uses.
I've been using a propane smoker lately. I'm still learning it, but all in all I like it a lot.
But it sure does go through wood fast. Smoking a chicken with propane takes 3-4 times more wood than my Weber Smokey Mountain did and paying $6-$10 for those little bags of wood chunks at the big box stores got old fast.
Thank goodness for Craigslist. I found a new in box electric chainsaw for $50, a used, portable workbench with a vise (for holding wood) and a guy selling smoking wood, $20 for a big wheelbarrow full.
I brought a huge beer/food cooler to him and he filled it until we couldn't close the lid for $10.
The wood was thick oak wood splits between one and two feet long. Over the weekend, I cut them all vertically into good sized chunks. It looks to me like I have what would have cost me $200 or more worth of wood had I bought wood chunks at one of the big box stores.
The only other expense was a box of heavy duty construction bags to keep all those the wood chunks in.
The amount of smoking wood I have on hand now is worth (at big box prices) three to four times what I paid for the equipment and I can use the equipment for other things too!
I'm still very surprised at the amount of wood the propane smoker uses. I estimate that the cost of propane fuel is about equal to what I paid for charcoal to run my WSM. But wood? Forget it! The WSM is a wood miser compared to what this propane smoker uses.