new to the forums. Looking to get a smoker

[thekap2]

Let preface this by saying i have never owned a smoker and the closest to smoking i have done is i have a 4 burner propane grill that i use about 4 smoke boxes on and have to monitor about every 20 mins to use.  Not to say that i don't get a large amount of blue smoke using this method but having to check so often is a pain.  Also having most of that smoke escape due to the fact that normal grills are not sealed probably isn't the best. 

With that small amount of back story i will move onto what i have looked into.  I Started by looking into the weber SMC.  They have a nice price point even for the biggest ones and seemed like the way to go when i started looking into stuff about 6 months ago.  Recently though i have started watching some of the BBQ shows on tv and saw the heavy use of the off set smoker.  After seeing this and doing some research i decided i wanted to go in this route.  Originally my budget was around $600 max and in the world of offset smokers this means a ok joe from lowes.  Looking into these it seems like the barrels are welded sheet metal and the doors and the barrels are formed seperatly as they always seem to have different curves on them.  So given after going to 10 different lowes and not finding even one what i would consider acceptable speciman i gave up on the ok joe's.  

So like i said originally my budget was $600.  After doing research i decided i would be a good foolish american and increase my budget instead of lowering my expectations.  So now i am looking at the yoder cheyenne with a heat management plate.  The problem here is i have no real way of looking at one so i am here to ask about it.  So my main questions are is how is heat control with these?  How well do the doors seal? My assumption is these are actually made from pipe so my hope is that the dorrs should be at thr proper curve for the opening.

So if anyone has any experience with this and can let me know that would be great.

Thanks

Also i would love a wicheta loaded but i am going to cut myself off at 1200'ish.

 

[drewed]

I'd actually try to steer you back to the WSM.

The "pros" go with offset because of the amount of meat that they smoke at one time.  Unless you are going to cater a huge party you wont ever need anything that big.

 

[rich p]

Maybe check out the Lang patio model which is reverse flow. I just ordered one myself and they are built real nice. Heavy steel and good seal on the doors. I was looking at the Yoder cheyenne too but decided on the Lang instead.

 

[thekap2]

i was looking at the lang but it would end up being around 1600 for the base model when you factor in shipping.  The yoder is around 1150 after shipping.

 

[danbono]

Soo did purchase either one? I'm between the same models. Love the Lang, but shipping is way up there.

Thanks Dan

 

[muralboy]

The good news is with a WSM you can get into to one with minimal investment. My very first smoker was an ECB (el cheap on Brinkman - electric) for $70. Similar concept in that it was a stack smoker. It lacked a lot but I was very successful with ribs, brisket, whole turkeys and shoulder. It got me hooked on smoking

Now I'm using a pellet smoker. Investment was a little over your original budget and under your top $. It holds temp well within 5 degrees of where I set it. I also added a cold smoker which allows me to smoke things like cheese.

Lots of options out there. Happy hunting