Posted by admin | Posted in Grills & Smokers | Posted on 11-12-2009
Tags: Barbecue Restaurants, Broil, Char, Char Broil, Charcoal, Charcoal Wood, Cooking Shows, Damper, Favorite Foods, Grates, Heat And Smoke, Mesquite, Mid Size, Personal Recipe, Porcelain, Product Description, Silver, Smoke Flavor, Smoke Stack, Smoker, Smoker Grill, Surface Area
- Offset firebox design provides multiple cooking options.
- 738 sq. in. total cooking surface area.
- Easy-clean porcelain grates and full set of charcoal/wood grates for firebox & cooking chamber
- Top-mounted smoke stack with damper
- Firebox access door with integrated damper
Product Description
Char Broil welcomes you to barbecuing like the pros with the Silver Smoker. This grill represents our mid size smoker bbq. Almost everything you’ve seen on cooking shows or tasted in your favorite barbecue restaurants around the country can be brought into your own home with this grill. The offset firebox provides you with the heat and smoke flavor to slow cook your favorite foods. Whether the wood is cherry, mesquite, hickory, pecan, or any personal recipe for … More >>
There are two reasons to get this smoker, because you think it is great, or because you do not want to spend a lot of money for a great smoker and you have the ability to modify it.
The steel is a little on the thin side, so it does not hold the heat like the thicker models do. The firebox is not sealed up very tight, so there are plenty of air leaks. Now you need some air to get in there, but I normally run mine with the stack vent wide open and the firebox vents shut completely. Enough air leaks in to feed the fire.
Needed modifications,
1. needs a hole drilled into the cover to mount a thermometer. Every smoker needs a thermometer. How else do you know you are in the right temperature range?
2. Vent stack needs to go lower inside the main smoker chamber. I used some rolled up aluminum flashing and slid it into the stack, then pulled it down so it touched the cooking grates. Now the heat does not float over the food and escape, it moves down to the foods level for a better cook.
3. Need to seal up the door on the main food chamber to keep smoke and heat from escaping. I initially used crumbled up aluminum foil, but then switched over to a high temp gasket I glued on. Makes a big difference when the heat is not escaping too fast.
4. Need to build a fire basket. I welded one up out of scrap angle iron and steel mesh. now I can just dump charcoal or wood right into it and do not have to worry about it clogging the bottom of the fire box and choking the fire.
5. You need to fabricate an ash scraper. I made one out of a 24 inch steel rod with a 4 inch wide scraper welded to the end. I shaped the scraper to match the contour of the bottom of the firebox. Now about an hour or two into the burn I can open the door and scrape the built up ash out into a metal bucket to keep the fire breathing properly.
Now once you have made these modifications this is a pretty good entry level smoker. But even with all these modifications, it is still a stick burner and you cannot leave it unattended for too long or your temps will move out of range. I used to run mine while I did yard work. I kept walking past and adjusted the the airflow or added wood, etc.
I hardly ever use mine anymore because I built a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) Now it only gets used during the big parties at my house when my drum cannot handle all the food being cooked. You can see a picture of the UDS at bbq-brethren.
Rating: 1 / 5
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.
Rating: 3 / 5
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 such, I have not gotten that far. Total trash at over $200.
Rating: 1 / 5
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. It’s already a $200 unit and there are other very good units on the market in the $200 – $300 range. Skip this one. Those new to BBQ and those who are experience, both, will find this unit a disappointment.
Rating: 1 / 5
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.
Rating: 4 / 5