Char Broil Silver Smoker

Got this as a gift from my wife. The hinge flanges on the main lid were on the front instead of the back. Sent pictures and receipts and they agreed to send a replacement and said they never had that problem before. This took several weeks and only happened after a reminder e-mail. New top came through the same way, hinges on the front instead of the back so there are lots of parts not correct out there. Hinge on the front would mean you would have to open it from the back and would not have a handle or temp gauge nor the screw insert to match up. Modified it myself at my expense and my time. Put the top on and went to put in the charcoal tray, it had the needed holes on one end but not the other. The top also has the holes wrong for the warming tray. Apparently they drilled the holes for the temp gauge, handle and exhaust stack on the wrong side. Unless you want to put a lot of time and expense to make this work, I would not bother. Other posts address the thickness of the metal and s... Read more

As a grad. student in Tennessee I didn't have the funds to purchase a great smoker, but for under $200 it does the job. I do tons of ribs, and after about five batches I'm constistantly churning out quality pork ribs. I don't really mind the thin metal, that is easiely compensated for, my biggest complaint is that the door isn't tight enough, which makes heating the other side of the grill area harder. But for under $200 I don't expect creme de la creme, I expect something that works, and it does work.

The only problem with this type of smoker is controlling the heat. As hot air naturally rises,you will find that the heat is much greater near the fire box and then travels upward accross the top of the grill and out the vent. Requires much repositioning of the meat.

this is agood entry level smoker, it's cheap and my results have been very good. I can't wait to get a better one though.

This was originally produced and sold by New Braunfels. Maybe Char Broil owned the company then. Regardless, prior to the brand name change there were several accessories that could be purchased for this unit that are not available now. These accessories, however, only slightly improved this smoker. I previously reviewed this item and gave it 3 stars. Since then, I've reconsidered my evaluation and deleted the old posting. This is not a good smoker unless you do significant modifications (there are numerous examples if you Google search the BBQ forums) to it but why bother when better products are on the market. The biggest problem is the off-set fire box. This really wouldn't be a problem if it was built better but, with the thin gage metal construction, the off-set box makes it hard to maintain a good temperature unless you use something other than charcoal. And, if you do use something else you deal with soot. Of course, if the metal was thicker the product would be more expensive. ... Read more