Smokers

As anyone might guess, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of different types and brands of smokers. The goal here is not to try and list every one on the market today, but rather to give a general idea of the basic types available, and recognize some of those creators who made their products icons in the smoker industry.

Jambo Pits

Jambo Pits are what's known as "Insulated Pits". This means the walls of the pit are two layers of steel with insulation sandwiched in between. There are very few manufacturers that build insulated pits. The big advantage of having an insulated pit is they hold their temperature extremely well regardless of the weather conditions. This is a huge advantage if you are cooking in competitions and are having to compete in different locations throughout all the seasons. Jamie Geer is known among pro circuit BBQ competitors as being one of the best pit builders in the business. Jamie started building his custom pits in 1989 and officially opened Jambo Pits in 2007. Based in, Fort Worth, Texas, Jamie builds his pits for enthusiasts and competitors on the BBQ circuit. They are held in high regard by many due to their well conceived design, features and finish, making them stand out from the crowd. If you have competed or attended a BBQ event in the last few years, no doubt you have walked past several of these and noted them for their unique design.
Jamie Geer's pits are constructed using special insulated fire boxes, torque flex axles, chrome wheels, white letter tires, custom coatings and paint, stainless steel hinges, handles and work surfaces. Jamie believes his pits are a true work of art! Jamie says, "Pull into a competition or your neighborhood with a Geer pit in tow and forget about going unnoticed. These pits will turn heads wherever you go. There is nothing else out there like a Jambo Pit". Jambo Pits are extensively used in competition, by himself, and by two other competitors on TLC's BBQ Pitmasters show, as well as countless others who have had a custom pit built by him. In case you haven't noticed, both Tuffy Stone and Johnny Trigg use a Jambo Pit, and get excellent results as you will discover if you have watched the show. Tuffy Stone's pit is finished in fire engine red while Johnny Trigg's is finished in a highly attractive baby blue color. Here are a few examples of Jamie's work. The finish and attention to detail are plain to see and you will also notice that the pits are almost all trailer-type smokers, with individual customization's designed for each customer according to their requirements.

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Lang Smokers

The Lang Smoker was the first pit to feature a "Reverse Flow" design. If you notice, the stack is on the same end as the firebox, where most smokers have the stack at the opposite end of the pit. This is because they are designed to pass the heat and smoke first under the meat and then return back over the top of the meat to the stack. This designs allows for very even and consistent smoking and cooking since your are essentially cooking and smoking your meat from the top and bottom at the same time. This has been a favored designed of many pitmasters over the years and is a testament to the loyalty of Lang owners everywhere. Since the invention of the Lang Smoker by Ben C. Lang II in 1988, their smokers have been a standard in the industry for over 25 years. As a family owned and operated business, personal care and pride of ownership has made the Lang Family, icons in the barbeque industry. Ben Lang's unique design featuring reverse air flow, an offset fire box and 1/4 inch welded steel provided consistent cooking results, attracting thousands of customers world wide. Ben's design gave BBQ enthusiasts exactly what they wanted and needed, consistently perfect barbecue. To this day, every smoker is hand made and hand crafted by the Lang BBQ Smokers team.

Myron Mixon Smokers

Myron Mixon Smokers are "Water Smokers". Water smokers have one big advantage over other smoker designs in the fact they have large water pans directly over the fire ( Shown in the middle photo below, #4). This displaces the heat from the firebox around the pan for better indirect cooking of food while at the same time, and most importantly, keeping a constant flow of steam inside the chamber. This helps to keep meats moist and tender even over very long cook times that are so common with large cuts of meat using the low and slow method of cooking.
Today, the company creates a wide range of BBQ grills and smokers, as well as most anything else you might need to take your backyard BBQ game to the next level. Their patented water pan design and automated water fill system give you the ability to cook fast or slow and still get the moisture content just right.

Pellet Smokers

Pellet smokers come in all different sizes and shapes. From small backyard units that will hold about one pork butt to commercial units that can hold up to 800 lbs. of meat at one time. Pellet smokers are fueled by small wood pellets, available at most home improvement stores, department stores and even larger grocery stores. They come in various types of wood such as hickory, oak, pecan, apple, cherry and several others. The pellets are loaded into a side shute leading directly down to the firebox. The pellets are fed into the firebox by an electric powered auger. The auger is controlled by the temperature thermostat. Any time the smoker temperature drops below desired set temperature, the auger automatically feeds more pellets into the firebox, thus raising the temperature in the smoker. Pellet smokers are allowed in most BBQ competitions, however, they are not revered as "Real Wood Smokers" by many BBQ pitmasters due to the amount of automation involved. True wood burners or not, pellet smokers offer the real wood burning aspect of a stick burner along with the simplicity and accuracy few other smokers can offer. For this reason they are especially suited for the backyard pitmaster who doesn't want to spend their whole day tending a fire.

Bullet and Kamado Joe Style Smokers

These types of smoker/cookers are very popular with backyard cooks as well as competitive Pitmasters. They are perfect for smoking small amounts of meat since they require less charcoal, are easier to use and take up less space than traditional smokers. The Green Egg and the Kamado Joe are ceramic style smokers. Although there are many others on the market, these two are by far the most popular. They incorporate a ceramic insert inside the cooker which vastly improves obtaining consistent temperatures and maintaining an even heat distribution throughout the cooker. This ceramic style of cooker designs dates back centuries in the Asian art of preparing food. The Weber Smoker is just one example of the simple bullet style smoker. They offer a no thrills approach to smoking smaller quantities of meats while at the same time offering superb cooking of food with a compact design.

Drum Style Cooker/Smokers
The drum style smoker is another design that has been popular with BBQ enthusiast for years. These smokers originated with the backyard cook using old 55 gallon drums to make smokers. The design of these smokers allow for meats to be placed on racks as with traditional smokers but also allow meats such as ribs to be hung from a bar located at the top of the smoker. Some people claim the hanging of the meat allows for a more even cook and smoke penetration than when meat is placed flat on a rack. This is kind of the same principle used with the "Reverse Flow" smoker design where smoke is circulated above and below the meat creating a more even cooking environment inside the smoker.

Oklahoma Joe Drum Smokers

Electric and Propane Style Smoke
If you are a backyard enthusiast and want to produce some great smoked food but don't want to worry with tending a fire, and spending hours watching a thermometer, then a propane or electric smoker might be just what you need. Set the temperature, set the time, throw some wood chips in and go cool off inside. The propane smokers use a small propane tank just like the ones used on gas grills. The main drawback to the propane smoker is running out of propane. Smoking times quite often run several hours, maybe even 10 or 12. This uses a lot of propane so you need to keep a spare cylinder on hand and plan on replacing them fairly often. Some electric smokers even have a remote with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth so you can relax inside and monitor the time, smoker temperature and meat temperature right from your favorite easy chair. The main drawback to electric smokers is of course, you have to have electricity. As long as you have an electrical outlet within reach, you are good to go for ever. Electric smokers come in a wide array of sizes, styles and features. Some are small enough to just allow cooking of one pork butt, while some of the commercial units used in restaurants can easily hold upwards of 500 pounds of meat at one time. The wood chips come in a large variety of different types of wood and are available almost everywhere. Keep in mind, propane and electric smokers are not allowed in competition BBQ, but if your dream is to be a backyard pitmaster boss without all the hassle of traditional smokers, then one of these just might be exactly what your looking for.

"Smokey" The Biggest Mobile BBQ Rig In The World

The rig is 76-feet long, and weighs 80,000 lbs. (40 tons). Terry Folsom said the barbecue grill/pit trailer is the largest mobile smoker in the world.

The custom-made trailer was built in 2000, has 24 smoking compartments and a firebox in the shape of the state of Texas at the rear.

Folsom, who is based in Brenham, Texas, said he bought the 18-wheeler smoker about seven years ago from a world champion BBQ pitmaster who fell on hard times. The big rig BBQ pit can cook 8,000 to 12,000 pounds of meat at a time, enough for thousands of hungry folks. Folsom said he uses it only for charity. He has used it to help the Salvation Army in Galveston and for Hurricane Harvey relief.