Tuesday, January 17, 2012

CharGriller Smokin Pro 1224

So my buddy Dave is a smokin purist and I'm honestly a little intimidated by him. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and doesn't have a snobbish bone in his body. But he's been grilling and smokin for 40-some years and I know I'll never be able to match his skills. The best I can hope for is to not embarrass myself around him. So if I can't beat him, I'll at least try to get him to join me. Now I know guys and there's nothing a guy likes better than to be seen as the expert in something. So I ask every dumb question I can think of before I bought a smoker to get his take. And Dave is happy to oblige. He loves cooking over fire and gets pumped just talking about it. He's like that with computers and music too. Some guys are like that with cars. Dave's like that with barbecue. And music. And computers. And brewing beer. And trains too, now that I think about it. And being a Boy Scout leader. Man, I thought I was busy. It helps that Dave has three kids, we go to church together, and our wives are close. And we both like beer.

So I sought out Dave's help early. I had some Amazon gift cards to use and decided to put those toward my smoker. Not that Amazon has the best selection, but there's isn't bad. And I thought the prices would be the best. (More on that later). I looked at a variety of smokers and Dave thought I should get an unrated one from a company called Omaha Distributing Co. Inc. I did some more research (I'm a research nut) and found that Omaha Distributing Co. Inc. is actually in Omaha, but they chiefly import tools (unclear from where, I'm thinking China) and then sell them with their name stamped on them. I thought the barbecue karma gods might smite me for buying a Chinese-made smoker (although I think a lot of the cheaper smokers are probably made there anyway, but I was at least trying....).

I looked at propane smokers -- they seemed easy to keep the temperature consistent and almost bought one of those that a guy on Amazon spoke very highly of. His name is the same as my pastor at church, so I was thinking that must be a good sign.

I also looked a some vertical water smokers including the Weber Smokey Mountain which a lot of folks swear by. 

In the end, the bbq ghost of my buddy Dave visited me in a dream and told me....no, wait, he didn't. I think what actually showed up was the spectre of my unmanliness if I went with anything besides the horizontal offset smoker. That led me to the best-rated smoker in my price range in that category ($250ish) -- the CharGriller Smokin Pro 1224.




http://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-1224-Smokin-Square-Charcoal/dp/B0009NU5YY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326917910&sr=8-1

Here it is opened:



I found it on Amazon for about $299 and I was going to buy, but something led me to shop around a little and I found it at a number of lower prices on other sites -- like all of them. So I clicked on the link on Amazon to let them I know I found it cheaper elsewhere. By the end of the day, the price was down to around $230. So it's worth it to shop around and then let them know if you find it cheaper. That's the good news. The bad news is that I looked again a few days later and it was down to $217 -- and Amazon won't price match if you've already bought it. As of tonight, (1-17-2012), it's back at $230.

Within a week, my new smoker was in my dining room waiting to be assembled....

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