# Smoke Daddy or A-Maze-N smoker???



## jwsailor

I am thinking I want more smoke and something that will take less filling of the chip box on my MES40. For low temps like smoking sausage I would like more smoke and for the long smokes(ie brisket) something that will not require adding more chips every 45 minutes. I have been reading about cold smokers and from what I have read the above sound like the best two for what I have in mind. I am leaning toward the A-Maze-N smoker because of the simplicity of it. I would like to hear from folks that have used one or both.


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## scarbelly

Here is my very biased opinion. I looked into the Smoke Daddy and it was not something I wanted to invest in. The comments were that you had to load every few minutes and that there were issues with creosote.  I did not pursue this product based on that issue alone.

I was asked to do a test run on the AMNS and I fell in love with it on the first smoke,  It performs very well on both hot and cold smokes in my SmokinTex and I have helped lots of folks improve their smokes with the AMNS. I have helped no less than 10 folks improve their end product using the AMNS and am seriously in favor of this product over the competitior


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## les3176

I can not say anything about the smoke daddy because i have never used one.I do have a amns 6x8 for my mes30. i have only hot smoked with it and afew batches of snacksticks. In my opinion the amns is VERY easy to use,just load it up lite one or two ends and place it in your smoker. And depending on how many rows you fill you can get up to 8 hrs without having to reload it at all! You don't have to drill holes in your smoker,check chips,set your air flow,just lite it put it in your smoker and walk away. There's lots of threads on the amns so if ya want more info use the search feature and i'm sure you can get alot if ya want to read more.


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## beer-b-q

I use the AMAZE-N-SMOKER in my MES 40 and love it... I have the 6x6 and a 6x8.  They are cheaper and from what I have read of the Smoke Daddy the AMNS works better and is definitely cheaper...


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## fpnmf

I have not used the chip box in my MES yet, just the amazen.

Here's about 175 threads to read about them.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/search.php?search=amazen+  

 Have a great day!!

  Craig


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## Bearcarver

I have a Big Kahuna Smoke Daddy & a couple different sizes of A-MAZE-N-SMOKERS.

IMHO-----The A-MAZE-N-SMOKER is only about 10,000 times better than the Smoke Daddy.

Bear


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## porked

I love the a-maze-n...ordered the 6X6 and 3 lbs. of dust, 3 weeks later ordered the 6X8 and 15 lbs of dust. The thing works like a charm and I use it in a MES 30.


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## pineywoods

Its my understanding that the Smoke Daddy has been redesigned to work better but I have never used one so I couldn't say how good they work. I have an AMNS and it works well.


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## Bearcarver

Pineywoods said:


> Its my understanding that the Smoke Daddy has been redesigned to work better but I have never used one so I couldn't say how good they work. I have an AMNS and it works well.




Tried mine both ways---Same problems.

Maybe I'm just too dumb to use the SD.

I proved any idiot can use an AMNS.

Bear


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## bluefrog

I've only used the amazn smoker but I will never be without it.  It works great hot or cold smoking .


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## SmokinAl

One more vote for the AMNS.


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## smoke king

The A-MAZE-N-SMOKER. So easy, even a caveman can do it!


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## jwsailor

Well I just ordered my A-Maze-N and five pounds of pecan. Now if I could just convert my pile of pecan to sawdust, since I don't think I will be using my Char Grill offset as often.


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## flyweed

I got both.....the plus for the smoke daddy..is that it can mount anywhere on your smoker, and take up virtually NO room inside your smoker...it does an OK job a smoking and I never had an issue keeping it going......the pluses of the AMZNSMoker is it's stupid simple to use....but it does take up some real estate in your smoker.

I like both, but I think I do actually prefer the AMNS!

Dan


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## porked

Looks like the score is like 13-0 a-maze-n.


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## jwsailor

Yes it was looking a little one sided, so I ordered one, wish I had it now, I have 13 pounds of brisket in the smoker now.


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## jwsailor

Well I bought the A-Maze-N and after smoking sausage this morning I can tell you it truly is amazing. I filled the A-MAZE-N about 2/3 of the way and lit it. I smoked for almost eight hours and never had to add dust. I did not use the chip tray in my MES40. I had beautiful light smoke for the entire period. As I sat looking at my old stick burner all I could think about was now I have a set and forget smoker. Thanks for all the people that helped with information. For all the other newbies if you have an electric smoker and don’t have an A-MAZE-N you really should get one. I love mine.

Kind of blurry but you can see the A-MAZE-N in the lower left corner











And the finish product:


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## tyotrain

Love my maze


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## Bearcarver

As far as taking up space in the smoker, can anyone look at where "jwsailor" put his AMNS (same place I put mine), and tell us what he would put there if he didn't put the AMNS there?

Almost like Masterbuilt should put a sign there, "Put A-MAZE-N-SMOKER Here".

jwsailor,

We all knew you'd love it !

Thanks,

Bear


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## porked

Darn nice looking pan of meat JW, nice job.


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## jwsailor

Thought I would post a better pic of where I put the A-MAZE-N. There are two metal rods that go across the bottom of the MES40 which seemed like the perfect place for it.n So here are this mornings pictures.


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## johnswa

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!  I can't wait to try out my new Amaze n smoker!  What an awesome idea for a perfect steady smoke!  I'll be ordering mine in the next few minutes!


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## johnswa

Done deal.  I just bought a 6x8 amaze n smoker and a 5lb bag of hickory and a 5lb bag of cherry!  Let the smoking begin!!!!


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## coffee_junkie

So can you use the luhr jensen wood chips in the AMNS? Or are you pretty much stuck ordering the "dust" online. That is the only drawback I can see so far, ya just cant run to the store if your out.


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## Bearcarver

JohnSWA said:


> Done deal.  I just bought a 6x8 amaze n smoker and a 5lb bag of hickory and a 5lb bag of cherry!  Let the smoking begin!!!!




You made a wise decision!

You're gonna love it!

That 5 pound bag should last a long time.

I'm not sure about a 6 X 8, but I would guess about 15 full loads.

Maybe 120 to 160 hours total.

roughly an average of 4 hours per smoke, could be up to 40 smokes.

Let us know how you like it,

Bear


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## Bearcarver

coffee_junkie said:


> So can you use the luhr jensen wood chips in the AMNS? Or are you pretty much stuck ordering the "dust" online. That is the only drawback I can see so far, ya just cant run to the store if your out.


That's an easy one to solve:

Get 10 pounds of dust.

Put 5 pounds in a different place.

When you run out of the first 5 pounds, go to the other place and get the other 5 pounds (kinda like going to the store to buy 5 more pounds). Also a good time to order more.

Saves on gas too. The only real drawback is shipping costs, and Todd does the best he can on that.

The more you get, the cheaper it is per pound.

I hope I'm not sounding rude coffee, but it reminds me of when I worked at Beth Steel. 

They originally paid us every two weeks.

Then they changed it to every week.

A whole bunch of guys complained, "Now what am I going to do? I have my whole life, bills, and everything set up for getting paid every other week!!!"

I told them something similar. "Put one check in a safe place. Then when you get the next check, cash the two of them together, just like you would still be getting the two week check."

Bear


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## lexoutlaw

just got my AMNS yesterday....have some bacon ready to go for the weekend. i wanted something just like you, and the AMNS seems to be the overwhelming choice.


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## i is a moose

I live by, and will die by, the saying: "Keep it simple stupid".

If it's more complex than I need, I will not own it, and if I cannot fix it on a length of plywood stretch across a couple saw-horses, then I would never buy it.

That rules out automatic smokers, and automatic transmissions.

The Amaze-N-Smoker is the perfect embodyment of "KISS", no moving parts to fail, no ridiculous timetables, and smoulders on its own cool enough for cold smoke.


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## tjohnson

coffee_junkie said:


> So can you use the luhr jensen wood chips in the AMNS? Or are you pretty much stuck ordering the "dust" online. That is the only drawback I can see so far, ya just cant run to the store if your out.


Coffee_ Junkie

Sorry, Luhr Jensen wood chips are just a little coarse to burn in the AMNS

I try to keep sawdust prices as fair as possible.  There's a lot to sourcing, shipping, grinding, drying, mixing and bagging sawdust.  This all takes time and costs money.  I can't go to my local cabinet shops and load up my truck with sawdust.  Their bins may contain hardwoods, pine, MDF, laminate and other nasty stuff.  Cabinet shops are in the cabinet business, and not in the sawdust business.  Much of this sawdust is used in heating pellets and animal bedding, but not good for smoking food!!

Many guys are ordering 5# of sawdust with their smoker, and this gets the price down to $2.60/lb.

Some customers have a buddy who supplies them with sawdust, or they may do some woodwork themselves.  Sawdust from a table saw or miter saw is perfect.  A 5 gallon bucket goes a very long way.  You may know of a local cabinet shop that will let you have a bucket of sawdust for "FREE"!

Or, you could go to a certain website, and pay $10.79 for about 12 oz. of "Gourmet Sawdust" that most likely has flavor oils added to plain old maple or oak sawdust!!

Todd


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## Bearcarver

I is a moose said:


> I live by, and will die by, the saying: "Keep it simple stupid".
> 
> If it's more complex than I need, I will not own it, and *if I cannot fix it on a length of plywood stretch across a couple saw-horses, *then I would never buy it.
> 
> That rules out automatic smokers, and automatic transmissions.
> 
> The Amaze-N-Smoker is the perfect embodyment of "KISS", no moving parts to fail, no ridiculous timetables, and smoulders on its own cool enough for cold smoke.


That's funny, that's the same work table I use for everything!

Bear


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## beer-b-q

A lot of us order lots of different kinds of dust and running out would be a real rare occurrence, we would always have some flavor as a backup. 

Also with the AMNS you have a great assortment of flavors to choose from, using chips it is not always easy to find some of the flavors Todd offers.


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## scarbelly

I agree with the others. Buy the genuine dust from Todd. It is so inexpensive that you can really buy almost every flavor and have plenty of dust on hand


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## i is a moose

Beer-B-Q said:


> A lot of us order lots of different kinds of dust and running out would be a real rare occurrence, we would always have some flavor as a backup.
> 
> *Also with the AMNS you have a great assortment of flavors to choose from, using chips it is not always easy to find some of the flavors Todd offers.*




that's very true. My favorite grocer has mesquite or apple chips only. The nearby Barbeques Galore has mesquite, hickory, apple, pecan, cherry and whiskey barrel, and quantities are far from guaranteed.


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## johnswa

The wait for the shipping is killing me!  My amazn smoker isn't supposed to show up till late tomorrow and I'm dieng for it to get here today!  I have some baby backs in the fridge waiting for the christening of the new amazn with some hickory dust, or maybe cherry.  I just can't decide.  I feel like a kid on Christmas eve!


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## i is a moose

JohnSWA said:


> The wait for the shipping is killing me!  My amazn smoker isn't supposed to show up till late tomorrow and I'm dieng for it to get here today!  I have some baby backs in the fridge waiting for the christening of the new amazn with some hickory dust, or maybe cherry.  I just can't decide.  I feel like a kid on Christmas eve!




then you'll have to wait some more until those ribs are done!


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## johnswa

Amazin is cured and doing it's job in my MES with two MOJO marinated babyback racks with two huge fatties and a stuffed lamb burger!  I love this new toy!  This thing is just amazing! (uh, yeah I know... that's its name)  I love the even smoke.  I had such a hard time maintaining an even smoke out of my MES.   If I didn't see smoke, I'd add more chips until I had a billowing heavy white smoke coming out of the vent.  No more!  Problem solved!  No more acidic heavy smoke flavor!  I can't wait to try the flavor from the Cherry dust!


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## Bearcarver

JohnSWA said:


> Amazin is cured and doing it's job in my MES with two MOJO marinated babyback racks with two huge fatties and a stuffed lamb burger!  I love this new toy!  This thing is just amazing! (uh, yeah I know... that's its name)  I love the even smoke.  I had such a hard time maintaining an even smoke out of my MES.   If I didn't see smoke, I'd add more chips until I had a billowing heavy white smoke coming out of the vent.  No more!  Problem solved!  No more acidic heavy smoke flavor!  I can't wait to try the flavor from the Cherry dust!


LOL----Another happy AMNS owner !!!!!

Bear


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## tjohnson

I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

Todd


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## roller

I agree with the majority although I do own a smoke daddy.


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## biteme7951

TJohnson said:


> I LOVE MY JOB!!!!
> 
> Todd


You should Todd...that thing is awesome.


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## Bearcarver

Roller said:


> I agree with the majority although I do own a smoke daddy.




Don't feel bad---I got stuck with one too.

Bear


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## rogerdodger

I'd like to know the saem thing..

I'm in South Korea and having a hell of a time smokin pork butt on a contraption i put together from a hibachi grill (with no lid) tin foil, and a commercial casserole pan. what a pain.. noone sells smokers here and i'm not going to buy a weber for $300 US.  

I'm ready to build something.. probably out of an office cabinet.  

I was almost sold on the smoke daddy until i read enough reviews about the AMAZEN.

thing is.. untainted saw dust is impossible to find here.... but i can get wood chunks and chips and I want to know if they will work very well.  I'm concerned the chips will die out if they are not fine enough.

please take a look at the photo in the link bc these guys seem to be the largest  (possibly only) supplier out here..  

http://smokechips.co.kr/index.php?s...oods_view&ctpose=AAF&ctno=320&page=3&otype=6&

Any advice on this would be great.

thanks!


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## tjohnson

Hey rodgerdodger

The chips in the link are too big for the AMNPS

Before you invest in anything, why not build your smoking cabinet first, and then worry about smoke production??

You can make foil packets with chips inside, for smoke production, or a cast iron pan on a hot plate works too.

TJ


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## mikeh

My vote is for the A-maze-n pellet smoker.  It doesnt get any easier to get great smoke and Todd provides the best support that you will find anywhere if you have issues or need any assistance with his units.

Mike H


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## frosty

MikeH said:


> My vote is for the A-maze-n pellet smoker.  It doesnt get any easier to get great smoke and Todd provides the best support that you will find anywhere if you have issues or need any assistance with his units.
> 
> Mike H










   Love mine, and will use it again this weekend!!!  I agree that building your own is a great idea, check the forums for home builds.

Good luck!!!


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## pearlheartgtr

I got the AMNPS and used it for the first time last week with my MES 30 on a pork butt. It worked well but it went through the pellets within 7-8 hours--but that can be on account of the high winds and I kept futzing with the chip loader, so there was just a bit too much air circulating in there.

I had gotten it after cold smoking some bacon with the tin can/soldering iron contraption. I can't wait to get some more belly and use the AMNPS. Also, the Pitmaster pellets are awesome.


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## sprky

The AMNSP has my vote. That thing is the bomb. I have been smoking a LONG time and I must say I got the best smoke flavor I ever have using it. It's so simple to use my 12 year old niece who has never smoked a thing in her life could use it and get good results. On top of all that, Todd's customer service is the best I have come across in a VERY long time, you just don't get customer service like he provides any more.


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## ironhorse07

I have the AMNPS and have never used the chip tray on my MES. Can get a good 10 hrs of smoke. Have cold smoked cheese in my Weber kettle that turned out fantastic. Never had a problem, usually I burn Traeger pellets in it because I own a 075 and they are easy to come by around here. Simple, reliable, inexpensive, foolproof My best smoke generator, And I am not a paid endorser. Great job Todd!!


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## wildflower

take a peace of screen and fold it into a M, put your dust in the V and for about $2 you got it, burn the screen off first


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