Customer Reviews

Brinkmann 810-5301-6 Smoke'N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill, Black

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Let me start off by saying I bought this because it was cheap, so I did not have great expectations for it. It was more something to start off with until I get my big one. Having said that, it is good for what you pay. Since you are probably wondering what the biggest issues will be, let me explain the issues I have had with it:
1. The bowl that holds the charcoal is too shallow, and there is no grate provided to allow ashes to drop. That means when you want to smoke a brisket right (i.e. 10+ hours), the coals will suffocate in their own ashes and the temperature will drop too low. I have remedied this problem by installing my own makeshift grate which allows the ashes to sift to the bottom. But, since it is shallow, it limits the total cook time you have until the ashes pile up and suffocate the coals anyway.
2. The little door on the side that allows you access to the smoker without opening the lid is entirely too small for its intended purpose. This means when you need to add wood or charcoal, there is really no way to add it evenly or quickly. I have had to resort to using tongs, heat-resistant gloves, and throwing the charcoal in order to get it evenly dispersed. Further adding to the frustration is trying to add water to the water bowl. It sits well to the top of the door, so there is no effective way to pour water in. I have resulted to using a folded paper plate to funnel the water to the bowl.
3. Limited access to the meat. If you have a full smoker going, the top rack actually blocks access to the stuff you have underneath. That means if you have anything on the top rack, there is no real way to get to what is underneath if you want to turn it, baste it, or anything else. That also means that if you have any mopping sauce etc. to add to anything on the bottom, there isn't any way to do it evenly. Further, if you do want to baste anything using the water bowl mixture, you will have to open the side door and use a baster to suck up the liquid, then go through the open top to apply it.

So, like the title says, don't expect too much. This is a great little smoker for small jobs, especially for the price, but don't expect to get any serious smoking done with it.

P.S. cleaning this thing can be dangerous. The metal supports that hold up the bowls/racks are really sharp.

Although, I have to use more charcoal than recommended amd some work is required to assemble, it still deserves 5 stars. It won't cook hot enough without a nearly full basin of charcoal, at the start. I do understand that smokers cook at lower temps, but it's just too slow without a good amount of charcoal. Cheapo charcoal doesn't work so well with this one, unless you are cooking burgers, steaks or hot dogs only. This is especially true if you are cooking a lot of meat and using both racks. I like having the nice size door because it's possible to turn over the meat you are slow smoking (with a very long tong) on the second rack, without having to remove the lid and the top cooking rack, but in doing so, you really need to be careful. If needed, you can use the door to add more charcoal/woodchips. The reason this grill is my all time favorite; the meat gets so tender, and there's no burn char. It browns and gets a delicious color, nice smokey flavor, but no burned areas. No charcoal residue gets on your meat. I don't use a water pan. This is a slow way to cook, but you don't have to constantly watch over your meat. I find when I get a good, even smoke going, only have to turn the meat once. Really, I can go cook my side dishes without running out to check on the meat every 10 minutes. Flare ups are rare. Healthy size slabs of ribs takes about 3 1/2 hours to cook. Best to cook burgers and hot dogs first, as soon as the charcoal is ready, without the lid on...after they are done, I put on the ribs and let them slow smoke.

I don't know where they get that 50 lbs of meat from. Each rack holds approx., 1 large St Louis style ribs with tip attached or 2 baby back slabs or 2 chickens or 5 nice size steaks. It will smoke a 12 to 18 pound turkey and each rack will easily hold 3 lbs of hot dogs or sausage or 10 midsize burgers.



UPDATE: I can attest, this smoker cooks up tender, moist and....evenly cooked meats, without vents. Never a need to place your meat into a low temp oven to finish cooking and tender up. No. The meat is lip smacking good, evenly cooked, beautiful color, and tender moist, right off this smoker.

Yes, it has an open bottom area for the charcoal pan...makes for easier cleanups. The pan covers the bottom of the smoker. The smoke rises up through your meat and delivers smokey flavor. I use a, whiskey oak/hickory blend, of chips. That smoke flavor is in every delicious bite, okay. Once the charcoal is well ashed over and burned down some, you will not have flareups as long as the lid is properly fitted down into the barrel.

I add about 8 briquettes for every 1 1/2 hours of smoking, for the amount I cook. I start bone down and only, turn my meat once. You don't have to monitor temps. It's not necessary. Once you get a good smoke going, this smoker holds it's temp. With experience, you begin to know how many briquettes to add for the amount of meat you are smoking. Old fashioned, Kingsford's charcoal and water soaked wood chips, works best. Matchlight is convenient, but it burns too fast and you can't use it as "add to" charcoal because of the lighter fluid infused into it.

The only person I would not recommend this smoker for....someone that wants to cook up a lot of meat at one time. It doesn't handle a lot of meat, very well. I wish the cooking grate was 22", but it's closer to 18" It is not as durable as Weber's Smokey Mountain, but it's also about 1/5 the price.

I'm just replacing mine. It never developed any inside rust, just a little on the outside after 13 years and I was not nice to my smoker. With care, this Brinkmann's will last a good 15 years. It's constructed of a heavier gauge steel. Over time, the thermometer may fall out, unless you seal it. I never paid attention to the temp readings anyway ( I focus on how my charcoal is burning) and when mine fell out, I plugged the area with aluminum foil.

My father was real old school. His, was an open grill was on a tripod; no lid, no hood, no vents, or thermometer. All he had was a spray bottle for flare ups, a big basting brush and some heavy duty foil. He'd sit there and baby that meat for hours and clamp a foil tent over the entire, meat filled, grate. His, were some of the smoked best ribs you'd ever sink your teeth into.

It won't get hot enough if you use the charcoal in the pan as directed. I drilled a bunch of holes all over the pan to get some airflow through the charcoal. Works great now.

If you're thinking of putting your big toe into the world of smoking meats (rather than diving in head-first), the Brinkmann is the way to go. However, don't get any wild ideas that you can just pull this out of the box and start smoking. Oh, no, no. The Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill must be seriously modified so that it actually works. Once that's done, however, it's a damn fine CHEAP smoker. There are better smokers out there, but not for this price.

Here's the mods you need to make: First, do not mount the legs on the inside of the smoker. Instead mount them outside. This allows you to NOT use the little hooks to suspend the smoker bowl (where you put the charcoal/wood). You need to be able to access that bowl after you've started smoking (so you can add more fuel). As the Brinkmann is designed out of the box, once you fill that bowl, that's it. You can't really add it without hurting yourself or letting all the heat out of the smoker while you're trying not to burn the hell out of yourself.

Instead, buy some small pavers at the hardware/garden store and put the smoker bowl directly on top of them and then you can LOWER the entire smoker down over the bowl and pavers. You can adjust the height of the bowl by adding or removing pavers, and if you need to add fuel, you can lift the whole smoker off the paver/bowl stack, add more hot coals, and then lower it back down. This also prevents you from losing any of the smoke/heat inside the smoker. You can do it quickly and safely.

Also, you will need to drill holes in your smoker bowl to allow air flow. Not really quite sure WHY Brinkmann didn't think it necessary to allow a cooking fire to have oxygen, but I guess the extra work of putting vent holes would have driven up the price of the smoker.... heh. Cheapass jerks... But I digress.

You will also need a better gauge. Buy them at hardware stores, or you can use a remote meat thermometer. Anything that you can read the temp accurately without opening the lid. If you use one of those thermometers that uses leads that attach to a housing, you will wreck a lead every time you smoke, FYI. They work best, but they come at a price.

Our solution was by far easier than these. We happened to have a mini-Webber barbeque that we don't use anymore. Lo and behold, it fits perfectly inside the Brinkmann!! With this solve, it actually allows us to open and close the Webber's bottom vents to increase/decrease the heat of the coals. It's a much better solution that the paver/hole-drilling, but it seems ludicrous to buy a whole barbeque grill to run your smoker.

I'd say it's a pretty great little thing to have. Compact, easy to clean. However, novices will likely think it's crap because you really can't use it as shipped. At least not with any good results.

I have been reading these reviews and after seeing all the recommended modifications, I would have changed my mind and I would never buy this smoker thinking that it will never function properly. With that being said, I have actually had this smoker for over a year and cooked right out of the box (No Mods) with excellent results. On the last 4th of July, I had smoked 40 pounds of pork butt all at once for 13 hours. They melted in your mouth!

So let's get real. This is an entry level smoker. I got mine at Home Depot for $[...]. You definitely should use good charcoal and you have to keep the door open and the lid off until the charcoal ashes over. Once it's hot, put in your wood "chunks," then your water pan. Put in the racks and add the meat. Now put the lid on and you're off. If you put enough charcoal in, then you will probably need to add more every hour. Use tongs to push some of the old charcoal back and add more wood/charcoal. You will probably have to add water every 2 to 3 hours pouring carefully through the grating. Remember that you are not looking at a propane or electric smoker where you can set the heat and walk away. Charcoal needs a little finesse. This is what barbecuing is all about!! The thermometer reads warm/ideal/hot. I cook at ideal (duh) and have still had great results. Once the meat looks cooked, check the temp in the meat to see if it's done. If this had a real thermometer, I might get frustrated trying to keep the temp in the same place all day long, but again its charcoal. You won't have prolonged steady heat.

Considering this is an entry level smoker for $[...] I give it 5 stars. I have never regretted buying this smoker. This smoker will only better your smoking skills. Hope this helps!

I have owned two of these and have used both of them until they totally rusted out.. they are not meant to last forever but they do a great job while they live.

I would like to see some much needed design changes performed at the factory but until they do I have outlined how to do those changes at my website at the following address if anyone is interested.

[...]

Basically you need to drill some holes in the charcoal pan to allow more air to the charcoal, add an actual thermometer so you know what temperature you are cooking at, and I recommend moving the legs from the inside of the smoker to the outside to allow for changing the charcoal during a the long cook times involved with cooking briskets, pork butts, etc.

These mods can be performed in about an hour and do wonders for the unit.

Enjoy!

I purchased this for my brother and his family. He had been wanting a smoker for quite a long time, but didn't know which one to purchase. I decided to help him out and purchase this one for him. He loves it and I couldn't be happier. It smokes very well. He uses sand at the bottom with a bit of wood...Don't really know how that works, but he LOVES this Brinkmann.

Perhaps this could be a decent smoker, but the money saving design has serious operational and safety issues. The biggest problem is that when you place the initial load of charcoal in the charcoal pan, it immediately begins ashing over and smothering itself. This is exacerbated by lack of ventilation for the charcoal and quickly gets worse as ashes form. After a while, there are hot briquettes covered with ash producing very low and inefficient heat. So now you need to add more charcoal. Your choices are two: 1) Add it piece by piece through the miniscule door provided - good luck getting an even spread, or 2) wearing stout leather gloves, remove the food and food grill, remove the second grill, remove the water pan, and then drop briquettes into the charcoal pan creating clouds of charcoal ash which then proceeds to coat everything nearby including the interior of the smoker. This also tends to partially bury the newly added charcoal thereby hurrying the smothering process described earlier. Of course, one could reach down into the 200+degree smoker (wearing their stout leather gloves thereby burning only the upper arms and perhaps the face...) and lift out the charcoal pan. However, this requires tilting the pan to clear the upper brackets thereby dumping some ash and pieces of partially spent charcoal on the ground. This also happens when replacing the pan.

So, to get around all this, there are a few useful things that can be done to perhaps turn this into a more user friendly smoker.

As one reviewer suggested, mount the legs on the OUTSIDE of the smoker, but make sure the heads of the screws are inside the smoker and the square nuts are inside the channels of the legs on the outside of the smoker - more about this later.

Go to Lowe's and buy 5 one foot square pavers ($.99 each) and a sheet of Lath Diamond Mesh for $6.98 (Lowe's item number 11811) - stated size is 27" x 96", but the one I bought was 27" x 97". Also find a small grill to fit on top of the charcoal pan; if you can't find one, buy a Weber #7440 charcoal grate (the description says 18.5" diameter, but it's actually 13.5" - a perfect fit for the top of the 15.25" diameter charcoal pan); about $10.00.

Okay, you're now into this project by about $23 not including sales tax, but you're on your way to a functioning user friendly smoker.

Fasten the charcoal grate to the top of the charcoal pan. I drilled 4 carefully spaced 3/16" holes just outside the diameter of the 7440 grate and used 4 #8 T-nuts on top of the pan (prongs facing down) and 4 #8 screws coming up through the bottom of the lip of the charcoal pan and into the T-Nuts. The flanges of the T-Nuts grip the grate and hold it to the charcoal pan.

Next, cut a 9" strip off the mesh lengthwise so you now have a piece 9" x 97". Cut this piece in half so the dimensions of each half are 9" x 48.5". Form one of these pieces into a 15 ¼" diameter circular "fence" 9" high that will snugly fit around the outside of the charcoal pan - use the charcoal pan as a guide. Secure with a couple pieces of wire "stitched" through the diamond shaped holes where the ends overlap slightly. The rest of the mesh is "spare parts" which you can use when you wear out the one you just made or for some other project.

Now for the assembly. Lay out and level 4 of the pavers in a 2' x 2' square. Place the fifth paver in the center of this square. Place the charcoal pan on top of the fifth paver. Lower the mesh circular "fence" over the charcoal pan; the fence will rest on the corners of the fifth paver and extend a little over 4 inches above the charcoal pan. The reason for the fence is to keep the charcoal on the grate and not allow it to fall off the grate - as when adding charcoal from a "chimney starter, etc. Now lower the smoker body over the mesh fence and onto the first 4 pavers. The reason for the pavers is that since the charcoal pan is no longer attached to the smoker, the pavers ensure proper spacing from pan, fence, smoker body, and access door - especially on soft ground or gravel. Open the side door and check the mesh fence - the top of it should be just about level with the bottom of the door opening which allows the door to be used as before. Assemble the rest per Brinkmann's directions.

This resolves a number of issues. 1) The charcoal now has circulation around it and burns more evenly and completely. 2) The ash that forms now falls through the grate into the charcoal pan instead of smothering the charcoal. 3) If you need to add or adjust the charcoal, simply lift the complete smoker (lid in place) off the charcoal pan and its mesh fence, add or adjust the charcoal, add more "smoke wood" if desired, and lower the smoker back onto the charcoal pan/fence - all without losing significant heat. This may sound cumbersome, but it's pretty simple, takes only seconds, and it works great. (This is why the screw heads holding the legs are on the inside - there's nothing protruding to catch on the mesh fence when lifting the smoker off and/or putting it back on.)

Hope this helps.

August 1- More mods done to stabilize temperature

While the above mods did significantly improve the performance as noted, upon first use I found that it was impossible to maintain a steady temperature since the ECB has no adjustable vents like the Weber Smokey Mountain, and has a BIG open bottom. I had to sit in front of the thing the whole time monitoring a digital thermometer probe at grill level and add/remove briquettes one at a time every 15-30 minutes in order to maintain a temperature near 225 degrees (but in fact the temperature varied from 205 to 240). So, I decided to try to fix this.

I went back to Lowe's and bought a roll of aluminum "flashing" 6" wide by 25 feet long (Lowe's #12535 - $14.36). From this I made a "skirt" to fit around the bottom of the smoker body between it and the ground essentially extending the smoker body to the ground. The smoker body sits about 5" off the ground on its legs, so the 6" high skirt fits between the legs and the body. I punched twelve 3/4 inch holes in the skirt, 4 between each leg on 2 inch centers. Then I made three sliding doors (from the flashing) with matching holes to shut off the air flow to each set of four holes. Now I had adjustable bottom vents.

I then scrapped my mesh fence described in the original post and replaced it with one about 10-11 inches in diameter and 2 ½ inch high (from the mesh left over from the earlier fence...). This I fastened directly to the charcoal grate with wire, which in turn is fastened to the charcoal pan as described earlier. The reason for this is that I noticed unaccounted for temperature variations and traced them down to whether hot charcoal had migrated to the very edge of the charcoal grate allowing the heat from that charcoal to rise directly up the walls of the smoker bypassing the bottom of the water pan. The new design solves this.

I eliminated the "fifth paver" mentioned earlier and placed the charcoal pan directly on the four pavers - level with the bottom of the legs of the smoker itself. This gets the charcoal closer to the new vents and also gets it further from the water pan allowing you to actually use the door to make minor adjustments in the charcoal and/or smoke wood.

Replace the temperature gauge. The gauge that comes with the Brinkmann shows Warm, Ideal & Hot. This is not bad in and of itself. I.e.; if you know the "I" in IDEAL is 220 degrees, you could just set it there. The problem is the reaction time of the gauge is way too long. During my last smoke, a wind gust came along and the internal temperature at the grid level (according to my Fluke digital thermal probe) went from 230 to 195 degrees within about 30 seconds. The built in gauge didn't move. The problem is that there is no probe on the built in gauge and the temperature gauge body is mounted to the lid. Therefore, the gauge measures the temperature of the actual lid itself. This is a big "heat sink" and is very slow to react making the gauge reading essentially worthless. I replaced it with a Taylor Weekend Warrior Grill /Smoker Thermometer - $12.56 at Amazon. While this does have a probe extending out from the body and does respond a bit faster than the ECB stock gauge, it too is a bit slow to react to temperature changes. And at almost 3 inches in diameter, it stands out like rabbit ears on a mouse (but I like it). I still use my digital thermometer (I drilled a hole above the Taylor thermometer and installed an eyelet to make inserting the digital thermometer probe much easier), but hopefully if all this works, I can retire it and just use the Taylor.

The ECB is still sensitive to the amount of charcoal and the vents only provide partial control. However, I can now put in a load of charcoal (approx. 15 Kingsford briquettes) and using the vents, tune it to hold a pretty solid 230 degrees, or whatever temperature I choose, for about an hour and a half (co-incidentally about the same amount of time until my selected smoke wood stops smoking). Then I have to add another "charge" of charcoal - and more smoke wood if desired.

Having said all that, even with all I've done, the ECB lid fits very loosely. That coupled with no top vent makes precise control - like that described by Weber Smokey Mountain users - not possible...without even more mods. So now if I'd actually bought this smoker for $65 (Amazon) and done the mods I described at about $50, I'd have an almost really good smoker for about $115 compared to about $275 for the small (18") Weber or $375 for the 22" Weber. Was it worth it? Well, it was a challenge and I enjoyed the design/build part. But, if we decide we really like smoked food (still a question up in the air at this point although we've made some really good stuff), I'll probably spring for the 22" Weber Smokey Mountain next year.

Again, hope this helps. If you need more details on how to do all this, post a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Let me start off by saying, I have never had to modify this in any shape or form. I have used it eactly as it comes for around 2 years now. For this thing to be 30-40 dollars at retail stores, there is no complaint from me. I have produced more than one meat that has blown people's minds. My favorite is Boston Butt Roasts. I love smoking those over 7-8 hours and getting the best barbecue meat hands down. I've also done two thanksgiving turkeys, some baby back ribs, as well as one chicken. I have never been let down and I always am satisfied with the product. This unit is perfect for someone (like I was) that had zero knowledge as well as zero experience in the field of slow smoking meats. If you are a first timer, there is absolutely no need to run out and buy a 200 dollar smoker. Learn on this one first and then you can move up to a pricier grill. I like this smoker so much that I've purchased one for my dad and I'm going to teach him the trade.

I ended up buying this as an introduction to smoking. I read a lot of the reviews and compared several smokers. For the range of capabilities and options it didn't seem like this little model could be beat.

My local Lowe's had it on sale when I decided to make the purchase. So I even got it cheaper locally and without the wait.

I was pleasantly surprised at this little smoker. Out the box assembly was fairly easy. The handles and grills are designed to fit snug, so you need to tweak the handles in somewhat to get your screw holes to line up. But with basic mechanical abilities it was an easy assembly. I haven't yet made any modifications to it; I wanted to try it out first to see for myself on some of the other comments.

I smoked my first brisket. Wow, I was surprised. It tasted delicious. That brisket alone made it worth the money. I found the actual use of the smoker easy. I ended up getting Ideal to hot for about 5 hours off of about 4 lbs of charcoal. I added some more towards the end. You have to work it somewhat to get air flow to keep your coals going, but other than that a fairly easy first smoke. And the brisket was heaven sent.

I will make some modifications to it though. I agree with the air flow comments. It seems like Brinkman got sued over a fire so that's the reason for no draw hole on the bottom. A drill bit will take care of that one fairly easy. And the built in thermometer does need to be augmented. I would rather know if I am holding more precise temperatures. The web has a couple of good sites where other people have made modifications that I will try out.