New member(s) from southern Arizona

[renegadex5]

Hello all! My name is Ben and I have been lurking on this site for a month or two and finally jumped in :) I am relatively new to smoking, and my wife (Shelly) is as well. She does the lion's share of the cooking...including grilling and smoking and what can I say...she's better at it! With that said, we are looking to upgrade our smoker situation. We started with a (small) rectangular charcoal fired smoker from Home Depot about 3 years ago and very quickly outgrew it, so we traded up to a Char-Broil charcoal grill that had a few more features (front loading door, air control on both ends, heavier construction) and a lot more surface area. Well, I was going to start modifying the Char-Broil to get better performance from it but the more I learned on this site the more sense it made to just invest in a better suited smoker first and go from there. I considered building one from scratch but I think I may not be quite ready for THAT leap...at least not yet.

We have since sold both smokers/grills and I am here to learn what the experts recommend for someone at my (our) skill level. We like to do briskets and pork butts, and occasionally a rack or ribs. I did not like the close quarters of the first smoker, it was a pain to get in and out of. We have been looking at the Char-Broil American Gourmet Deluxe 700 series...but I am not impressed with the construction, it just seemed a bit thin and flimsy, but that IS the right size for us.

I (we) look forward to hearing your suggestions and ideas, and I certainly am looking forward to smoking again!

~ben

 

[gary s]

[h1]

Hello and welcome from East Texas. This is a great site, lots of information and great people that are willing to throw in their two cents worth on about anything   ......... [/h1][h1]  [/h1][h1]Gary[/h1]

 

[pineywoods]

Welcome to SMF glad y'all joined us. You'll find lots of good info and some great recipes here. Have fun and happy smoking

 

[seenred]

Hi Ben and welcome to the forums! Glad you've joined our group. You'll find there are lots of friendly and knowledgeable folks here who genuinely enjoy helping one another. Looking forward to your input, and just ask when you need anything...someone here will surely have the answer.

Red

 

[bamasmoker77]

Welcome to the Forum!!!

You will love it here. Great information and advice to be had. So sit back and enjoy!!!