I’d buy a Weber Kettle and call it good honestly. I’ve seen some good food come off those, and you still have the direct option.
Offsets require a ton of airflow to burn a clean fire, and most cheap offsets don’t want to burn clean to begin with because of meh design. About the best you can hope for is putting a stick on every 20 minutes, and oftentimes because the firebox is small(and thus the fire is also small) it’s more like 10-15 in reality.
Trying to run an offset like you would a charcoal smoker(chimney of charcoal with wood chunks) is going to eat you alive in charcoal costs.
In short, a Weber kettle with a slow n sear is probably your huckleberry. It’s compact, able to easily use charcoal to grill, and when you want to smoke it’ll do great for that as well.
I had a piece of shit royal gourmet smoker which is similar to this and had a similar experience as that guy. Made some great brisket and ribs, but I went through a ton of charcoal and wood. Temps would be all over the place, and that was after I added lava liner and firebricks
Like pounding a nail with a screwdriver
😂
Just learn to control the offset. That’s all part of the experience.
I’d buy a Weber Kettle and call it good honestly. I’ve seen some good food come off those, and you still have the direct option. Offsets require a ton of airflow to burn a clean fire, and most cheap offsets don’t want to burn clean to begin with because of meh design. About the best you can hope for is putting a stick on every 20 minutes, and oftentimes because the firebox is small(and thus the fire is also small) it’s more like 10-15 in reality. Trying to run an offset like you would a charcoal smoker(chimney of charcoal with wood chunks) is going to eat you alive in charcoal costs. In short, a Weber kettle with a slow n sear is probably your huckleberry. It’s compact, able to easily use charcoal to grill, and when you want to smoke it’ll do great for that as well.
Have you ever used a smaller offset? What you're describing is nothing like my experience.
I had a piece of shit royal gourmet smoker which is similar to this and had a similar experience as that guy. Made some great brisket and ribs, but I went through a ton of charcoal and wood. Temps would be all over the place, and that was after I added lava liner and firebricks