# New Smoker.  Charcoal vs. Electric?



## zack

Hi my name is Zack and i am a smoke.
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






 Anyway i was trying to find some opinions from some real smokers on the charcoal vs. electric issue before i go out and buy, since nobody at the store can tell me the difference. I'm looking at the Brinkman's and i would be great if anybody can point out witch has the advantage over the other. I dont really mind tending to the charcoal, unless i am doing it all the time. Does the charcoal have a considerably better taste to outweigh the ease of the electric? And so on. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks alot, Zack.


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## gypsyseagod

you can add a charcoal brick or wood chips/chunks to an electric in the pan. there are plenty of preferences & opinions here. you just have to find out whats best for you. try the smoking meat store to your left & sign up for the free 5 day ecourse on smoking basics to help you decide.


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## zack

Thanks for the help, i don't know if i can give up that charcoal taste


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## deejaydebi

Zack -
WWHere you from? That can make a difference IMHO. If your from the cold North I wouldn't go electric, I'd go charcoal or propane - easier to keep the heat up in the winter.

I like the taste of charcoal. I even add a few coals to my propane smoker sometimes just because I like it! It's more work but if those are your two choices I'd go charcoal!


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## zack

I live in Oklahoma.  How much to you really have to tend to a charcoal smoker?  Once an hour, twice an hour?  Is it really hard to keep the temperature steady?  Thanks.


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## deejaydebi

Once you get the feel for it once an hour is more than enough (but you'll want to peek in anyways - hehehe). I started on a charcoal water smoker and lovedit but it was to small for my addiction! I upgraded to a propane vertical by Camp Chef and Love it!


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## zapper

I would venture to say that the order of authenticity (SP) goes like this

Wood burners

Make your own or store bought lump charcoal

Charcoal briquettes of a high quality (some may say that there is no high quality) 

LP and or NG

Electric



I am an electric man all the way!
Why?
Set It and Forget It!
No fuel to worry about, logs to split, charcoal to contend with, LP tanks to swap and so on. Maintaining the temp is automatic. And for about $70 bucks the Lowes down the road has the Brinkman electric bullet (Some assembly required) After the charcoal unit, I think that this is the cheapest store bought unit that there is and a great way to at least get a taste for smoking.

If money were no object and I was buying just for home use I would go with one of the semi commercial to commercial electric smokers out there. I figure that cooking at home for the family is a domestic task and I have a thousand other things to be doing. Thus, the smoker is just like an oven, Stick the food in and with minimal fuss it does its thing.


Now if you ar gonna make a party of it, then wood is where it is at. Playing with fire is a past time of its own.   


What you choose (and most choose more than one it seems) depends on your comfort level, pocket book and personal taste. I wont knock any method that creates great food! Well, if I do knock it, keep in mind that it is all in good fun!


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## deejaydebi

I don't think you need to worry about real cold in Oklahoma do you?


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## peculiarmike

$.02 worth - charcoal.


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## ajthepoolman

I'm in Kansas and have a hard time in the summer maintaing a low temperature.  Oklahoma is no less forgiving regarding weather, so I would lean toward a propane, or an electric with a temperature knob.


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## gypsyseagod

ks & okla bth sweat to death & freeze... question is ... do ya want something a tornado can't carry away?? lol.  it's all about budget,time, & do ya got wood... right? personally for me i'm sipping w/ 1 hand & tending sticks w/ the other...get an extension cord for the tv & cable box & tend yer pit on nice day. just my .18senseless worth.


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## zack

You say you have a hard time keeping the temp down on your charcoal?  I haven't heard many people tell me that around here.


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## hawgheaven

Go with the charcoal! Half the fun of smoking is tending to the fire and keeping the temps stable. 

I am not a set n' ferget kinda guy... if I were, I'd just use the oven.


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## trece

First of all , I am new to smokin, verrrrrrrry neew. But! I have jumped in with both feet,made 5 new BBQ sauces in the last 2 days just 2 try. We borrowed a charcoal ECO Brinkman from a friend a few weeks ago and was hooked. I however, have a "Tim Taylor" husband that kept "CHECKING" the meat. Well that makes for a very long smoke in charcoal. So I bought a $300 Masterbuilt electric and frankly I love it. Controled , constant temp is a must for me and mine. He can still fiddle w/the wood without opening the door and I can feed my clan on time. Everyone's happy. We're in Colorado, so we have about the same climate and we're having a really hot summer. In fact I have house guests this weekend from Oklahoma :)
So, I have learned there are many ins and outs based on your lifestyle. Also, I have LOTS of wood here, big deck and shake roof and wasn't comfortable with charcoal. I can say that I can't tell the difference in taste between charcoal and electric. But if I did I could put charcoal in my electric smoker, no problem mon.
Hope that helps, and Welcome!
Trece


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## shellbellc

I agree w/Trece, I have an electric and gas, both have temp control knob, both have wood thrown in there...I think what you'll be looking for is more of a smoked wood taste than a charcoal, but as Debi stated, if you want some charcoal taste, you can throw some in the wood box in either electric or gas.


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## cheech

First of all it is something that you need to decide for your own personal oppinion. 

For me I enjoy the messing around with the fire to get just the right temperature.

It is tough to get a nice smoke ring with an electric smoker.

I also think (may be in my head) that the charcoal smoked meat tastes better.

That being said I will still use my electric smoker when I do salami for the easiness of it


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## bigcab

Newbie Chiming in here, I just got a charcoal smoker (bge) that prides itself on being able to sort of "set it and forget it" 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





 but i have found that I really still need to babysit it once every half hour...just to make sure the temp's do not vary too much. Never used an electric.


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## deejaydebi

Charcoal can be a PITA at first until you learn your smoker. 

My ECB doesn't like more than 10 or 12 coals at a time all lit or 20 on the bottom with 8 to 10 lit or it gets to hot (unless it's 20Â° or less outside and windy), but it lasts about 2.5  hours using the minion method. 

For cold smoking I only use one chunk of wood and one coal unless it really cold then 3 coals and one chunk of wood. Just add a few coals at a time and you don't get much of a change.

I do like charcoal in my smoke I can taste it, but I throw a few coals in with my wood and I'm happy!


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## smoked

my opinion is if you go electric get a decent insulated one such as the bradley or the masterbuilt.  I use a masterbuilt and love it, very versital and pain free.  The other nice thing is that the masterbuilt (or cookshack or bradley etc....) can also double as a slow cooker for doing fantastic roast beef......I do that myself, granted I still use apple wood for the initial portion of the cook......


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## zack

Alright guys, I went with the Brinkmann Gourmet Charcoal,  just as a starter.  Have yet to use it.  The one thing that worries me, that i didn't relize when i bought it, there is know vents to alter.  My question is for anyone who has experience with this smoker.  How are you supposed to alter the temperature?  Thanks alot for your help guys and gals.


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## smoked

tough question there, it all depends on the vents with a charcoal unit like that, honestly you will have to experiment with it.....but the first thing you gotta do is season it, and with a couple of potatoe's and therms, you might be able to toy with it while seasoning to figure out how to set the vents for 220 to 250....... remeber, it's all about loving the smoke....and each smoker is different, so learn it and love it....


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## deejaydebi

I have a Brinkmann All-In-one and use it almost exclusively with charcoal. 

There are mods that can be done to help control the temperatures. I just control the amount of fuel. I drilled a few holes around the top of the lid and a few around the sides and that's it. 

When it's cold out I use a wind break and I'm good to about 5 degrees.


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## zapper

I don't know exactly where the thread is, but there are some modifications that you could/should make to your unit. Someone will most likely be along to point you in the right direction if you don't find it with a little searching. 

The basic jist of controling heat with charcoal, is controling the number/amount of charcoal in the fire pit. Pick a good brand that you like for whatever reasons that you like it for (No one brand is best for everyone). Some folks may like the long burn time they get with one brand, some may like the flavor it leaves, some may like the price and some may just be stuck with the only brand in town. The thing is to try and be consistant so that you are comparing apples to apples and you can repeat your efforts once you think you have a system down that works for you and your cooking style.




To be continued....


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## deejaydebi

Great post Zapper!


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## zapper

Thanks Deb, it means alot coming from you.


....Continued

I was going to do a little research and post back my findings, but even the best laid plans...

Well basically I was looking to get the right terminology, but I gave up and will try to proceed with what I think I know in my own words.

From the get go you will have to decide if it will be lump charcoal or briquetts or a mix. Either is fine in my opinon with lump being the purest choice and just slightly more difficult to work with. I think that briquetts of a high quality are more forgiving to work with and yeild more consistant even burn temps and times. (Let the wars begin, but I stated my mind).

Start the fire! OK, everyone knows that using petrochemicals is a thing of the past, they leave a bad taste, are potentionally dangerous and not cost effective. Nothing new here so lets move on. You can, I don't. There are also dedicated or not so dedicated devices that can be used to light your charcoal like the plug in electric starter or one of the propane leaf burner torches. I have neither, I suppose they work, but have never tried them. On a side note, a plumbers propane torch is great for lighting gas appliances that have a pilot light that requires that the "Knob" be held down untill the thermocouple heats up, the torch will do the heating in a hurry in those subzero situations (Providing you can get the torch lit) But for charcoal, I reccomend the charcoal chiminey type device.

There are a handful of manufactures I am sure, and I don't have a favorite that I can remember by name, but I will try to sell you on the concept. Basically a six to nine inch diameter cylinder of sheet metal about foot to 20 inches tall depending on the make. A ring of air holes around the bottom few inches just below a grate that is sometimes hinged for dumping. Some units have fancy handles and heat sheilds and some don't. If there was a feature that I would reccomend to look for it would be that the unit was tappered to allow stacking of the units. This is a rare feature that may not even be on the market today, but well worth the quest if you found them or made one this way.

The operation is simple and straight forward in concept. Fill the top portion of the starter with charcoal, put a couple of crumpled, balled up peices of newspaper in the bottom section, light the paper and wait until the charcoal is fully lit. Maybe ten minutes. The truth for me, has been that the news paper does not always stay lit and is not always enough to do the trick. Just for this reason I use a little 2 x 2 inch peice of wax soaked ceiling tile as my fire starter. Any simular store bought or homade starter will work and I think is more reliable than the newspaper, but the paper can still be made to work, it just may take a little tending to.

Further more, if you are doing a long cook and it will soon be time to add more charcoal to your smoker or dutch ovens or what have you, you can place a couple of pre-lit charcoals from your existing fire into the charcoal chiminey and top off the chiminey with un-lit charcoals. The shape of the chiminey will draw air into itself and quickly light the new charcoal. This kind of leads me into another aspect of things and back to the tappered units that will stack. Stacking an un-lit unit atop of a lit unit will start the top unit FAST! So fast that you will almost be wasting fuel. I have in the past done this leap frog method for starting large quanities of charcoal stacking three units together and pulling out the bottom unit and dumping it as soon as it was lit, refilling it with un-lit charcoal and putting it back on the stack. This works very well when you are cooking with many dutch ovens and are starting them up. By the time you can place the lit charcoal around the ovens and have the third chiminey full and back on the stack the bottom chiminey needs to be dumped.

The last tid-bit that I want to share about the charcoal chiminey is that it can boil water fast! When I was in Scouting we used alot of charcoal in part because it is proper not to pick up hummus and disrupt the natural order of the the forest regeneration, it was easier to haul charcoal than wood and it is easier to control temps with. But boiling water with charcoal takes the blast furnace effect of the chiminey. Our chimineys came with a metal bale that could be used like a grate/spacer atop the chiminey to allow setting a pot on top of the chiminey and this would boil water for clean up very fast. I no longer would reccomend balancing two and a half gallons of water atop a charcoal starter chiminey, but if the pot was hanging from a tripod it would be much safer.



To be continued.....


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## johnd49455

Ditto & welcome to the SMF.

You just hit on one of the hottest discussions.

Mans primal nature is to play with fire. I get my fix by smokin with charcoal & wood.


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## zack

Thanks for all your help guys!  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





  This has definitely been the most helpful forum i have been on. I am now in the process of looking for a vent i can install on the top of my brinkmann.  Also, one last question,  do i just burn a bag of charcoal and some wood in it to season it?


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## coleysmokinbbq

Hi Zack!...Welcome to the SMF!...
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





...We're glad to have you aboard!!...

Sorry it took so long to welcome you, but I've been offline due to ISP/computer problems since 2 July...
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Until later...


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