I just got my new SM045 home and so far I'm very happy with it. I haven't smoked anything yet, but have played around with it, given it a thorough examination, and seasoned it. It looks very well made and I can't wait to get started smoking on it! A pork butt and a couple of fatties for the game tomorrow are first on the list. I'll post more once I've actually smoked something on it.
Overall I'm very happy with the smoker and it looks great. Since I do a lot of product testing in my job, I automatically write down every slight negative impression I have when I try out a new product. While overall the smoker is wonderful, I have a couple of nit-picking comments to make that could make people's first impression of this product even better.
--There were discolored brown spots on the stainless steel inside my smoker. They were around weld points and at regular intervals around the top (probably where something was welded to the other side.) I called customer service and Bill at Cookshack assured me that it's normal from the welding of stainless steel and nothing to worry about structurally or functionally. They're all on the inside so they'll be covered in smoke residue soon enough anyway. If this is indeed common I'd suggest maybe putting something about it in the owner's manual to set peoples' minds at ease.
--The built in meat probe looks very well made and I'm sure it will last longer than my cheap Maverick probes do. The problem is that it only goes up to 200 degrees. Anything above 200 and the display just reads "HI". It's pretty common for people to want to take their pork butts up to 205 or 210 so I was a little disappointed that the built in probe didn't go up to at least 210. I'm a 190 man myself, but I do like to experiment sometimes.
--When seasoning the smoker according to the directions (2 chunks, 200 degrees, 4 hours) I got smoke for 30 minutes or so and then none at all, not even a hint for the next 3.5 hours. After reading some forum posts I moved the chunks closer to the front of the wood box and bumped the temp up to 225. This gave me a lot of smoke for several hours and seasoned the smoker very well. I'd suggest that the instructions should include to place the wood towards the front and/or to season at 225. Since I was trying to follow the instructions to the letter my first impression of the smoker was that "this thing doesn't work the way it's supposed to."
Again, I love the smoker overall and am just offering this as constructive criticism to help make it even better. I'm smoking tomorrow and will post pics when I can!
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