About 3 years ago I purchased a small 6" smoke daddy, the smallest of the line, as I wanted to try it before investing in the "Big Kahuna". When I received it, I was very impressed with the quality of the unit and it's ease of useage.
My first project was smoking some Lox, or smoked salmon.... it took several tries to get the brine to where I liked the flavor, also other parts of the inital prep had to be modified to achieve the desired results, but the smoke daddy performed flawlessly. It delivered a nice stream of smoke for about an hour, was easy to refill and relight.
I then started smoking cheeses, experimenting with all different kinds.... I would suggest that you might try looking at your local Aldi store for blocks of cheese to smoke. The 1/8 lb blocks are perfect size for easy smoking and the prices are great!
So.... after using the smoke daddy for a while I started see where it could be improved. That cute wooden handle on the top had charred and broken off and I replaced it with a ceramic knob from home depot which does tend to get hot, but is indestructable. The smoke chamber MUST be cleaned thoroughly between uses.... otherwise the residue will clog the needle valve, and will seal all the parts together so you have to take a hammer and chisel to the unit to pry everything apart.... The biggest problem I had was that after I had used all of the pellets that had come with the unit and I started using wood chips, I found that unless I put the wood chips in the blender and chopped 'em down to a size similar to the pellets, they would hang up in the unit and the fire would go out. Additionally, this unit comes with a battery powered aquarium pump... it works well for what it is, but I was replacing batteries every time I wanted to use the smoker.....
So..... the cure.... after having this unit I realized that my mistake was basically buying the cheapest in the line.... so with a parts list I put together from studying the smoker I had, I ran down to home depot and picked up (most) of the parts I needed to make something similar to "the Big Kahuna") I bought a decent quality aquarium pump from the internet and viola.... I had a cold smoker that was very useable..... By the time I was done buying parts, I had approx $35 invested in the larger smoker, a fraction of the price smoke daddy is asking, but..... I did have to do some drilling, some running around, and some assembly to build the larger unit.....
The lesson to be learned here: either dont cheap out and buy the small unit, pony up the $$$ and get the BIG KAHUNA model, or..... buy the el cheapo smoke daddy and be prepared to either buy or make a larger unit.....
My first project was smoking some Lox, or smoked salmon.... it took several tries to get the brine to where I liked the flavor, also other parts of the inital prep had to be modified to achieve the desired results, but the smoke daddy performed flawlessly. It delivered a nice stream of smoke for about an hour, was easy to refill and relight.
I then started smoking cheeses, experimenting with all different kinds.... I would suggest that you might try looking at your local Aldi store for blocks of cheese to smoke. The 1/8 lb blocks are perfect size for easy smoking and the prices are great!
So.... after using the smoke daddy for a while I started see where it could be improved. That cute wooden handle on the top had charred and broken off and I replaced it with a ceramic knob from home depot which does tend to get hot, but is indestructable. The smoke chamber MUST be cleaned thoroughly between uses.... otherwise the residue will clog the needle valve, and will seal all the parts together so you have to take a hammer and chisel to the unit to pry everything apart.... The biggest problem I had was that after I had used all of the pellets that had come with the unit and I started using wood chips, I found that unless I put the wood chips in the blender and chopped 'em down to a size similar to the pellets, they would hang up in the unit and the fire would go out. Additionally, this unit comes with a battery powered aquarium pump... it works well for what it is, but I was replacing batteries every time I wanted to use the smoker.....
So..... the cure.... after having this unit I realized that my mistake was basically buying the cheapest in the line.... so with a parts list I put together from studying the smoker I had, I ran down to home depot and picked up (most) of the parts I needed to make something similar to "the Big Kahuna") I bought a decent quality aquarium pump from the internet and viola.... I had a cold smoker that was very useable..... By the time I was done buying parts, I had approx $35 invested in the larger smoker, a fraction of the price smoke daddy is asking, but..... I did have to do some drilling, some running around, and some assembly to build the larger unit.....
The lesson to be learned here: either dont cheap out and buy the small unit, pony up the $$$ and get the BIG KAHUNA model, or..... buy the el cheapo smoke daddy and be prepared to either buy or make a larger unit.....