Vertical 17 Inch Steel Charcoal Smoker, Heavy Duty Round BBQ Grill for Outdoor Cooking, Black

I wanted a good beginner smoker. I have a Cobb cooker, which is really nice, and works wonderful but is very small. I've also done offset smoking on my regular grill, but was ready to up my game to a real smoker. After looking at many different options, I decided to go with a simple vertical charcoal smoker and this one seemed like a good option. I've done 3 smokes so far and have been pretty happy with the results. I've done ribs, turkey breast, salmon, chicken, brats, pork roast, potatoes, sweet potatoes. Lots of experimenting!! The PROS: - I love the 2 access doors. 1 for the fuel and 1 for the second rack. It makes it easy to access these areas. - I love that it easily comes apart. This allows you to carefully lift off the upper parts to access the fuel or second grate, etc. - It has a big water pan which I've used with water and beer. Seems to help keep the meat moist. - It seems to heat well for smoking. With the water pan, you can have a very hot fire and it still stays in the 250 degree range. Without the pan, it needs less fuel to be at 250-275 range. - Comes with a hooks and fitting to hang meat for smoking. I have not tried that feature yet though. The CONS: - It's rather cheaply made. I have no idea of the durability yet, but you get what you pay for. It's not made of the most robust fittings and materials. - You need to assemble it and tweak some things. I had to bend the doors and door handles a bit to fit better and close more tightly. - The sheet metal brackets that hold the grills in place are not good. They do the job, but should be made out of thicker material. They bend easily when cleaning. I'm going to upgrade these to something better because they are way too flimsy. - Ash buildup/airflow . I don't think the lower part has enough space for ash and the airflow seems restricted by the small lower opening/ash bucket. The coals only burn in the center and the ash builds up. I might try modifying this a bit to achieve better results. Raising the coal grate and adding lower vent holes may help. OVERALL: I believe this is a good low-end vertical smoker. I've been doing my smokes with the water pan in place for the first 2 hours. Then I remove it to get a little more heat and let the dripping fall on the coals for added flavor. I just got a 6-sensor meat digital meat thermometer to use for my next smoke. I don't know how accurate the built-in thermometer is. I'm curious how the heat is distributed in the smoker. I don't think this is a smoker you will hand down to your kids or grand kids. I don't think it's that durable. I plan to use mine a lot this summer and keep it clean and maintained, so we'll see. But the materials and fittings are just ok. That said, I wanted something I could get into cheap and learn from. I think this smoker fits the bill perfectly. My family has loved the ribs & turkey breast. Oh so good! My wife also really loved the smoked sweet potatoes. Smokey creamy goodness!! Update!! 2022 and still having fun with this smoker that I have affectionately named R2-BBQ. It's still a great value to get started with a smoker. I drilled a small hole in the side so I could insert a temp probe to monitor the interior temp when cooking. I realized that a firebox would be a nice addition to keep the charcoal/wood chunks in place. I'm going to try that. Overall, the durability has held up. I store it inside and try to keep it clean and it still looks good after 2 years. It even smells good too!!

This is a great smoker and grill for the beach. I was a bit hesitant as I always judge a new product purchase by the 1, 2, and 3 star reviews and find a common denominator or complaint. I found assembly time, temp control, and insulation to be top negatives. Assembly took me about 40 minutes. You will need a 7 and 9mm socket and or wrench and Phillips head screwdriver for this. Anytime you build a new grill, you need to burn it in before first cook. So I loaded it with charcoal and got it up to 400 degrees. During this time, I did notice that smoke escaped quite a bit through the seals. However, this is not entirely a negative because they sell high temp smoker tape at the hardware store or even Amazon. I highly recommend you grab a roll and seal the doors and connections. After doing this, you will have a noticeable difference. The seller should consider including a roll as part of the install process. Lastly was temp control. Honestly, it is just a tank of metal. With most grills, you will have temp control problems if you don't put the right amount of wood or briquettes. Each grill is different so you may have to do some trial and error but I was able to get this properly to 275 where I needed it and smoke some meat. Overall, for the price and portability, this is a great smoker and grill. Going to the beach or lake early? Take this and begin smoking when you get there or use it as dual grill or one grill and one fire pit. Another tip too: overtime any grill may have paint flake off and cause rusting. I highly recommend you get some high temp spray paint and spray down scratched areas periodically. If you take care of this grill then it has a chance to last long.

This was my first ever attempt at smoking and had read reviews on this grill and it seemed like a great choice for a novice. I'm going to share my thoughts on this in sections. First, unboxing: There was a large dent in the lower middle section of the grill. The lid was scratched both inside and out, and one of the legs was bent pretty severely, even though it doesn't appear so bad in the photo. I know this isn't a cadillac of grills, but at the same time, I'm not happy that it looks like crap either. I really wanted to return it, but had planned on smoking on saturday and the grill showed up late thursday night, so i didn't really have time to send it back. and it wasn't damaged enough to harm the function of the grill, so I kept it. I knocked off a star for the condition of the grill only. Second, assembly: The grill has a ton of screws and parts, but assemble was easy. The instructions kind of suck because it doesn't have a good guide as to what screws and nuts are A, B, C, and D. But there are only 2 sizes, so it's not really difficult to figure it out. I recommend sorting them out in groups before starting. I did that and it made assembly go much smoother. The bent leg was the most difficult part of the process as getting it bent back to the right shape was not an easy task. Once over that hurdle though, it took about an hour total probably to get it all together. Third, grilling: The grill was easy to use. I loaded charcoal in the bottom (highly recommend Fogo charcoal by the way), got it lit, assembled the grill sections and waited for it to heat up. Temp climbed up to 200 and as it was rising, I throttled back on the air flow at the bottom of the grill. It hit 220 or there about, and held there. Biggest complaint while cooking was the temp gage. it has moisture in it that stayed there the entire day, even with the heat and sitting in the sun. It made it extremely difficult to read the gage without having to get up and go look at it closely. I loaded on the meat, brisket on bottom grill, ribs on top, and the cook was on. The grill maintained an almost perfect 220-250 for the entire day. I cut the air flow back 2 times during the cook, and then opened it back up once after adding more water to the water pan. Pretty much didn't really touch it during the 7 hours the meat was smoking. Overall, I don't think I could have made a better choice than this grill. It was incredibly easy to use, temp was super easy to maintain, and for this first time smoker, the meat turned out incredible. Ribs were falling off the bone and the brisket was perfect. I really can't wait to do this all over again. I would have given this thing 5 stars had it not been for the damage to the grill itself and the moisture in the temp gage. I never tried contacting the seller to see if i could get them replaced, but I might just to see what they say. It didn't detract from the grills function, but it just looks bad. and the gage fogging over makes it really difficult to read. For a smoker though, this thing is top notch. I have no regrets buying it and would do so again.

This is my first smoker. I'm no novice to grilling and backyard BBQ craft, but wanted to try something different. Took about a half hour or so to put this smoker together. Didn't realize there were actual instructions till almost done. I'm an ex master tech (mechanic). Anyway getting familiar with this unit I decided to try cooking something. I wanted smoked something. We had 2 Pikes Peak Roasts and not a clue what to do with them. The others we had were too tough to cook on a grill or so I thought. I started my charcoal in a charcoal chimney, let it take off and then moved to the bottom rack/grill. Played around until I hot my temp where I wanted, about 180-200F. At that temp I began adding a few hickory pieces to build some smoke and then introduced the roast to the top grill area about the center of the catch pan. The roast had been lightly rubbed with Olive oil and Worcestershire sauce before patting down with a dry commercial rub. Every hour for the next 5 hours I would add a little hickory chips and adjust temp to maintain the temp I desired. After 5 hours I removed the roast and brought it inside to set for 15 minutes or so. I was amazed the grill kept a constant temp without any more than the original charcoal and small hickory pieces. When the meat aired to 150F internal temp we cut it in 1/4" pieces like a brisket. It was not overly smokey, dry or tough. Sorry for the long story but I am amazed it worked so well. When and if it wears out(the Smoker) I'll get another. Thanks for the great product. My experience may be different from others, but I'm sure if I can so this well the first time trying this others can as well.

(updated Review) Been 2 and a half years, and I have used this smoker constantly. I bought a couple of hooks to hang meat and do vertical roasting (I make a lot of different kinds of tacos and make sausages). I know a lot of reviews will talk about how you have to do all kinds of things to it, but I wanted to point out that this is a 100 dollar smoker. Those folks will say the same thing on any smoker in the sub 1000 dollar range, and Since I have done just about everything one can do in this smoker, I want to say that it is a killer smoker that works well even if you don't do anything to it. I have done pastrami, ham, brisket, salmon, smoked peppers, smoked yams and even done a whole bunch of smoked salt and smoked peppercorns. And never did anything more than assemble it. It can work great with pellet soke as well as raw wood or wood chips. I came back looking for a second cheap smoker, and wanted a box style, but this will be my primary for a long time -- preferred even over the fancy electric smoker I bought years ago. Previous Review: I wasn’t able to move my larger grill with side box to my new home, and wanted to do some charcoal cooking and grilling and smoking, so went for this one. Assembly was a bit of a bear, but not hard to do, and was able to get it fired up and cooking some quick dinner steaks that night. The ability to hang from inside has been a boon for doing vertical smoking, and the way the chip bin works to diffuse the heat was wonderful. Great flavor from the smoke — and it does a better job on pork than my electric one does. Could probably use pellets if you wanted. I used chips and chunks, and no soaking needed. It is very light — I have a bit of a strong wind at times, and came home to find it lifted into parts. The dual doors give you a great ability to both regulate the heat (adding hot coals or fresh charcoal) and still be able to adjust for the hotter lower grill and then the cooler upper grill. Like most barrels, it gives off good heat, so can also function as a nice fire pit for roasting marshmallows. Clean up is super easy, as you just lift the parts and everything can be washed if you want. I recommend it.

My complaint about this smoker is that it was missing parts and several of the bolts had messed up threads and couldn’t be started. Luckily I have a huge supply of varies nuts and bolts and I was able to assemble it. The part that was missing was one of the latches that holds the upper and lower sections together so you can move the smoker as one unit. That wasn’t too big of a deal since I haven’t had to move it to a different location. As for how it works as a smoker, it does a great job. I have always preferred the water type smokers, I have owned several over the years. And for those saying it is a good starter smoker (honestly don’t know what that really means) this smoker is pretty much all you will ever need unless you plan on hosting a lot of people or start a BBQ stand. Again, the function of this smoker is really great, it keeps a good steady temperature with not much stoking needed. I really love the hooks that come with it, they are great to hang a side of ribs from. All of my previous “droid” type (looks like an R2 unit from Star Wars) didn’t have this feature and I had to modify the grills to hang ribs. If it wasn’t for the missing part and the really bad bolts, I would give this a 5 star rating.

Fast shipping (ordered one day, arrived the next by noon). Easy to put together (took me about 30 minutes; I’m no build master). This is the first smoker I’ve ever owned, I didn’t do a lot of research, I just went for it. The best decision for a simple smoker. I used the hickory wood blocks (from Walmart; comes in a box), Kingsford Insta Matchlight charcoal, and hickory wood chips. I put the wood blocks in the center the charcoal, and then built some charcoal on top. I then took aluminum foil and filled it with the wood chips and placed it on top once I had a good flame going. I decided to do pork chili verde as my first meal. I smoked the meat by itself for a little bit, then I added my homemade chili verde sauce over it. I played in the pool, enjoyed the amazing smell for about 4/6 hours. The most tender meat, I didn’t even need to cut it, it fell apart. I decided to keep cooking as the temp held for over 8 hours and made some rice and sausage for my breakfast the next day. One of the complaints that people said was that the smoke comes out a lot, and it does, but the top where your food sits, holds the most smoke I’ve ever seen. If I had a second person I would have taken a video to show how much smoke holds in the top when I pulled the lid off! I love it, I will be using the hack out of it this summer!!

Definitely worth the money! Super easy to put together, although a couple steps were hard to see, but easy enough to figure out. I watched the video, and realized the doors get hung on the inside. I used it once and forgot how good it tastes on a charcoal grill and not propane. I just grilled a ribeye to start off, since it's been years since I used a non-propane grill. Let me tell you the smokey grill flavor was heaven. LOL It's easy to use and clean, the temperature stayed at a consistent 450, and not much leakage. Can't wait to smoke my brisket, I'm a first time smoker, so I'm a little nervous hahaha.

Se siente muy frágil, el armado toma tiempo, no creo que dure mucho

The smoker is built like a tank. The heavy-duty steel construction ensures that it can withstand high temperatures and the elements. I've used it multiple times already, and it shows no signs of wear or rust. The enamel coating on the interior also helps maintain its integrity and makes cleaning a breeze. The Realcook smoker excels in performance. The vertical design allows for even heat distribution, ensuring that my meats are cooked to perfection every time. The two cooking racks provide ample space to smoke various items simultaneously. I've smoked ribs, brisket, and even some vegetables, all with outstanding results. The built-in thermometer is accurate and helps me maintain the perfect cooking temperature. One of the standout features of this smoker is its user-friendliness. Setting it up was straightforward, and the instructions were clear and concise. The access doors make it easy to add charcoal and wood chips without losing heat, and the adjustable air vents allow for precise temperature control.

Very nice made, quality vs price good. Amazing if you have small balcony or garden. Keeping the heat very well.

El smoker funciona correctamente, muy bonito diseño, solo que no sella correctamente y se sale el humo por las puertas, está bien la relación costo-beneficio.

Im fairly good at installing things, and this took a long while. Its not that easy, and the instructions take a few minutes to decipher sometimes. After I installed it though, ive been using it and i really really really like it! Although the setup took some time, it was worth it for the product i got.