Weber 2820 Smokey Mountain Cooker/Smoker

I have looked for a smoker for some time, ruling out the Weber because of its price. Then my wife suprised me with the Weber 2820 for my birthday.

Set up and assemby takes about 5 minutes. The shell of the smoker is a heavy guage enameled steel. The racks are sturdy and heavy guage steel also.

One caveat, I normally use a gas bbq so haven't purchased charcoal for some time. Without much thought I picked up a bag of 'matchlight' type of charcoal. The manual does warn about not using lighter fluid. Well my first batch of smoked ribs had a distinct lighter fluid taste and smell. Go with the regular briquets.

You can really load up the two racks with meat and fish, do use a meat thermometer to insure not over or under cooking.

I didn't get this smoker with the intention of bbq'ing or steaming, so can't comment on that.

But I can tell you that this in a fine little smoker!!!!

I've never smoked before and since getting this 2 weeks ago, have smoked a ham and pork ribs. I watched how to prepare the meats and use the WSM at virtualweberbullet.com. The Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker is just awesome. I was really surprised how it holds the temperature so well. I was able to cook the ribs for 4 hours and have the temp hold around 225 degrees by adjusting the 3 vents at the bottom. Use a little Apple Wood and it will give some great flavor to the meats. I also suggest getting a wireless thermometer like the MAVERICK ET-73 that you can use to measure the meat and the air temp. Amazon shipped both at a great price. There is a larger one coming out in October.

I finally had the chance to use my new WSM cooker this last weekend. I cooked pork spare ribs for about 4-4.5 hours. I was surprised at how good the ribs tasted. I cooked 3 full slabs of ribs and everyone was impressed with the results. I had done quite a bit of research prior to using it for the first time, and it paid off.

One note: When I received my WSM, the packaging was in great shape. However, the first time I put it together I could tell the middle section was out of round (as other reviewers have warned about). Mine was very minor and I was able to gently shape it so it was a snug fit all around. It worked great my first time cooking and I had no problems with the out of round issue after the minor correction.

I would highly recommend this product for a first timer like myself who wants to get into cooking with smoke.

UPDATE - 8/19/08

Ok, as promised, I am amending my review... Weber did send me the new bottom bowl "hand picked" from the assembly line. Incredibly, the ring has a slight marred mark on it along the same lines as the last three! - not bad enough to be out of round, so it fits snug in the middle cylinder, so I am keeping it and moving on... There is CLEARLY a manufacturing issue here!!

Now to the good part... I put the new smoker to the test yesterday. LOADED it with 4 full racks of baby back ribs and 2 4lb shoulders. Ribs took ~5 hours and shoulders ~7 hours. Very, VERY good. I have been smoking on a traditional charcoal grill previously, which is a pain, and I have to say that the Weber is very easy - basically fool proof. I believe it's the design - the shape and tight airflow enable you to load it up with coal/wood and basically just tweak the vents for a very long time. It basically sits at 225-250 degrees by itself.

Ordered three different types of wood tonight on Amazon to experiment with...

Even with the manufacturing/return issue, I am so immpressed with the usability of this smoker, I'll give it a 4.75 ranking.

ORIGINAL POST:

Well, I really would just actually like to have one of these grills, but I'm on my third try to get one that isn't damaged.

I am a Charcoal Grill Nut and have toyed alot with slow smoking meats on my traditional Brinkmann charcoal grill. I've gotten pretty good at it but it's a pain separating the coal to one side, meat to the other, regulating the heat, etc.

...So I did all the research on smokers and decided the Weber SM smoker was the best choice. I am a big Amazon user and fan. So I ordered a few weeks ago.

The smoker arrived in an undamaged package. Opened it up and both the top bowl and the bottom bowl had a very uniform marred/flattened spot on the ring. The rings were too far out of round to use and didn't fit in the middle cylinder correctly.

I returned to Amazon and they immediately sent a new one. As an aside, I have to say from this and other experiences that Amazon is absolutely fantastic on returns.

The new one came in a few days. Opened it up. Top bowl fine. Bottom bowl - same exact flaw. Box was undamaged.

I did not want to go through this again - I was 80% sure a third one from Amazon would be damaged. This is not an Amazon issue that I can tell. Everything I saw tells me this is a manufacturing issue and there is probably an entire mfg lot of the bowls that are flawed.

I instead called Weber directly. They are "hand picking" one off the assembly line and sending it to me. I am current waiting for it.

Once I receive it in good condition and try the smoker I'll revisit my rating on this....

Outstanding for smoking a pork shoulder. It is made to last for a very long time.