Charcoal smoker owner and I could use some help with decision

Welcome to the forums.

Some added info would help in terms of directing you in the right direction. What is it you're now smoking for your catering menu? The two charcoal units you now have, are you adding wood chips or chunks to the charcoal? When cooking for a big gig, how much meat will you prepare?

Let's hone in a bit...we can discuss fish and cheese down the road.

Many folks here have had, and still have WSMs.Several also have GoodOnes.

As to smoke,most folks would consider the problem of losing smoke and flavor going from a traditional CS over to your cookers.

You might achieve some different flavors on your cookers by meat juices dripping directly on the charcoal and burning off which gives the traditional"grilling taste".

Like Max say,the slow cooking of cheese,sausage,fish would then be a different discussion, since CS would give the smoke much more easily.

Welcome to the forums.

I went from charcoal smokers to gas smokers to cheap electric smokers and back to charcoal smokers before buying my first Cookshack. All of the above mentioned types of smokers are as capable of producing good BBQ as they are capable of producing bad BBQ. Each one has its own learning curve. Yes you can even turn out bad BBQ on a Cookshack. That being said IMHO the Cookshack is the easiest smoker I’ve ever used for repeatability and if you are trying to sell what you are smoking repeatability will make or break you.

I most defiantly would not be concerned about not being able to get a good smoky flavor with a Cookshack. The opposite is true. It is very possible to over smoke your food in a Cookshack. Believe me, I’ve done it. The Cookshacks use such a small amount of wood in the beginning it is easy to catch yourself using too much in an attempt to get what you want. Believe me you won’t make that mistake more than once or twice (for us slow learners)

MaxQ, I generally Smoke Pork Loin Back Ribs, Brisket, Pork Shoulder and Tri Tip. I use Lump Charcoal with either Alder, Apple and Hickory chunks.

If I'm doing a big venue I will be smoking between 200-300 pounds of Pork Shoulder, 20-30 Racks of Ribs or 150 pounds of Brisket. However I would not use the CS for these venues only for ones that are 25-50 people.

I started down the electric road because of a desire to smoke Cheese, Fish and Sausage. After some research I realized it would be nice to have it for smaller venues.

If you desire an abundant amount of smoke, go with a CS electric smoker. As already mentioned, you can apply as much/little smoke as desired. Cold smoking baffles are available for the electrics.

The CS/FE pellet smokers are more versatile in terms of higher temps but produce less smoke flavor under standard usage though there are several workarounds.

I switched from charcoal to a CS electric 10 yrs ago and never looked back. The ease of use is night and day.

To tag onto Max and ease of use,would be an employee operating the cooker, while you do other important things.

I ,like you ,can produce a good product on your cookers,as I have spent the years honing my learning curve.

If I were at another venue,could I trust a kitchen helper to produce my acceptable product?

Probably ,if they have worked beside me for a couple of years.

Now,Max's CS 160,he or I could teach kitchen help that had never seen the cooker, over a cell phone ,to produce acceptable large meats.

Hard to place a value on that learning curve for an owner.