I'm vertical smoker shopping and hoping to get recommendations. It doesn't have to be huge - it's for home not commercial or even competition use. Wood and charcoal - no pellet. I'm used to using a water smoker, so that's a preference. I really like the Lone Star Grillz Mini Insulated Cabinet. What else should I be considering?


Thank you.

Pitmaker Vault.

Seems well thought out. A bit pricey for me, but it does look to be well built also.

Any Komodo style. It will change everything you know about cooking and smoking meat.

I like Komodo style cookers, Superduty, but it's not what I'm after. Thanks.

Why I'm shopping to see what alternatives are available.

Oklahoma Joe's (OJ) products are not built as well since Char Broil bought them out many years ago.
The old original Oklahoma Joe's products were good solid products, when Char Broil bought them out they moved production from their Oklahoma site to their mega production plant in Ohio.
Once there they started using noticeably thinner metal on the smokers.

That Lone Star Grillz looks pretty bad azz.

I have a Humphrey's weekender model thats a pretty solid smoker.
We havent used it in a while so I could be interested in selling if you're interested. Thanks

https://www.humphreysbbq.com/products/the-weekender

Lone Star would be my choice

Backwood's Chubby

I have the Lone Star Grillz Mini and couldnt be happier. I narrowed it down to that one and the Pitmaker Vault, went and looked at both and chose the LSG. Don't be fooled by the name "mini", there is plenty of cooking space. It cooks very much like a Komodo style smoker. Once you get the vents set and the temp to settle in, it will go for hours and hardly move.

I had checked them out and wasn't too impressed, but what got me to move on was https://shop.backwoods-smoker.com/collections/frontpage/products/g3-chubby reads:

"The G3 Chubby is the imported version of the G2 Chubby."

That's not even a model of interest - I was simply checking them all out and happened to notice that.

So, they're not all Made in Texas or even Made in USA. Disappointing. Next.

No doubt...


I need a Mini.5.

Cookshack is in OK. They manufacture both residential and commercial smokers. Made here in the U.S.A. according to their website. I don't have any experience with their products. The product looks similar to what you ]are looking at.

Looks like they are all pellet smokers.

Thanks for the response.

If you look at the first three or four residential smokers shown, they appear to be fueld by actual wood rather than pellets. They do have pellet smokers also.

From their product pages...

Smoker #1: "...small wood chunks smoldering over an electric heating element."
#2: "...small wood chunks smoldering over an electric heating element."
#3: "...electric smoker..."

"Pellets" or "chunks"... it still uses a burner.

If it smokes like this, buy it and I am in with a grin!