The smoker came nicely packed with all parts boxed inside the actual smoker unit. Assembly was quite simple, with great instructions, all parts were easily located. It took me around an hour to assemble the smoker and have the propane tank connected, I’m pretty impressed by the simplicity.
All parts nicely boxed inside the smoker 
The grates slide out nicely 
All set up and ready to go
Once the smoker was assembled, the next step was seasoning it. According to the instructions, seasoning is a simple process. You lightly coat the inside of the smoker as well as the racks in vegetable oil, then you turn it on to high and leave it on for an hour, then let it cool completely before using it the first time. So I did that, and finished for the day.
A couple of days later, I decided to try my first smoke. Since I didn’t want to try something expensive, I decided to smoke some chicken breast and Italian sausages. After putting together a quick rub (consisting of salt, black pepper, garlic powder and some herbs) I put it into the smoker. This is where the issues began…
As opposed to an electric smoker which regulates the temperature digitally, with this smoker it needs to be done manually, and that turned out to be easier said than done.
I started the smoker and waited for it to get to temp (in this case 225° F), while reaching it was quite fast, it shot way past it in no time. Enter the propane regulator, I started playing with the knob and after a couple of minutes was able to fine-tune it and it sat at approximately 225° F.
As a side note, the knob on the smoker itself it’s absolutely useless, the flame size doesn’t change regardless of which direction the knob is pointing. I just keep it on the highest setting, and use the regulator to adjust the flame.
The next issue came up when I tried adding the wood chips – I have a bag from when I tried smoking in a regular grill (which, unfortunately, very much failed). The tray the smoker comes with has a couple of vents that are open directly to the flame (see image below), so in no time the chips were totally on fire, resulting in the temperature spiking and the wood using up very quickly.
Finally, there’s a tray over the flame to put liquid in it to keep the food in the smoker moist. According to the instruction manual, you can put in anything including water and apple juice. Well, I decided to try putting apple juice, and all I got out of it was burnt sugar and a nasty smell. Additionally, it’s painfully small, and even at that low temperature the liquid (which was later replaced with water) evaporated after a few minutes.
In spite of those setbacks, I soldiered on and what came out was quite impressive – albeit a bit dry. I’m proud of myself 🙂
