Why Buy a Cookshack?

First, read all of the archived information in the Cookshack Owners forum (farther down on the main page). There have been many similar questions.

The #1 answer will be customer service. CS has great! Tex...doesn't.

Smokin'

Cookshack--Made in America! Nuff said?

Cap-
I went through the exact same dilemma as you about a month ago, contemplating the exact same two units you are looking at. As smokin said, read through the archives and it will give you a rough idea about how cs people feel about their units; there're even a few threads about the smokintex unit (use the search function, it makes life much easier!). When I was doing my homework searching the archives, I looked especially hard for problems or dislikes owners had with their units...good luck finding very many. Also, I'd like to suggest to you to do what I did, e-mail the two companies and ask them any and all questions you have about their products; you'll see right away why cs owners all rave about cs customer service. One last suggestion, like you, the higher capacity of the smokintex attracted me for my purposes. Try asking the people at cs if they have any used or marked down units available. I went this route and got a larger used 5 rack unit for a discounted price, could barely tell it was used and after the first use, only I knew it was used. Ended up paying considerably more than I would have for a smokette but happy now I went with the larger unit. Anyway, for this cs newbie, so far I have no regrets on my decision. Best of luck on your decision.

Cap,

Something else you may want to take a look at on the tex unit is whether or not you can cook on the bottom grill. The extra capicaty might sound good, however with an 800 watt element in the bottom chances are the bottom grill will just burn. So, you won't really gain much capicaty.

Also, one of the differences in price is what you get in the unit. Our's comes ready to use with seasonings, cookbooks, etc...

Hi Cap -

I can't speak to the pros & cons of the Smokin Tex, but I can tell you something about the 008. The 1st one I bought was for my restaurant. It has at least 1,000 hrs. of use on it with never a problem. In fact, I was so happy with it, I purchased a second 008 for the house...and eventually bought a Model 150 for the restaurant.

Reliable, top quality equipment is my lifeblood at the restaurant...and I rate Cookshack as a 10.

And the number one reason:

We have a forum, they don't.

Smokin'

Hey,Smokin',since Stuart mentioned that the bottom rack might be real hot,does that mean you could use it for finishing chicken for turnin-now that CS can play?

I just got off the phone with Tony from customer service. An earlier thread mentioned that when the thermostat on the 008 is on off no heat should come from the unit. So I called Tony and he is sending a new thermostat. The only question he asked was what the serial number was. I'm sure it is out of warrenty. While on the phone I ordered a model 50. These are great machines backed by great customer service.