1000 – Transform Your 22" Weber Kettle

Smokenator 1000 is awesome! Won't write review on product itself since there are plenty of those out there. Instead will offer some tips and advise on how to use it that helped me out a lot. I saw somewhere on a review on another site to try a couple different things. Get rid of the water pan that it comes with and use a larger one. Then you can add more briquettes in the space where pan goes. It makes big difference.Here is how I use smokenator. When I start it I fill the smokenator up with charcoal and poke and prod at it until i can fill as full as I can. Then remove 12 briquettes and light them in the chimney starter. Then obviously place coals back in Smokenator. Add some wood chips to coals. Bottom vent is open all the way and so is the top. Place drip pan below meat, place grill on, then place bigger water pan filled with water next to coals on grill not on top of coals. Then put meat on grill. Put lid on so vent is opposite coals and over the meat.In about 30-45 min bbq temp will be about 250-275 on dome. (I use a candy thermometer in top vent pointed right above where meat is). Then I close top vent to just past half and leave bottom vent open all the way still. About 1.5-2 hours the heat kicks up another notch to about 300 on dome as more of the coals get lit. That's when I close bottom vent 3/4 and top 3/4. This for my grill keeps things steady at 250-260 for hours. With bigger water pan you don't have to add water every 20-30 min like you do with the one the Smokenator comes with. I may have to add water once an hour or hour and a half. With larger water pan and using standard Kingsford coals, I consistently get 6-7 hours cook time. Using original Smokenator method that the directions came with I would only get 4 hours maybe before adding coals.This is the way to go for a Weber. I have the 2 baskets for indirect grilling and tried those. Tried the snake method also and it worked ok. Also tried Minion method before we got Smokenator. Again it worked ok. Nothing works as good as Smokenator for Weber kettle. The beauty of it is when most of the coals are lit and is about 3/4 full. It can go for hours without adding coals. I don't add coals until after 5 hours or so. Did I mention Smokenator is awesome?Again one of the best tips I found with Smokenator and use every time is get larger water pan and fill Smokenator with more coals. Longer cook time with coals and less fuss with water pan. We just did a Chuck roast and made pulled beef and had French Dip. Turned out great. Try the Smokenator. It is one of those things you wish you had years ago. You wont be sorry.Only gave 4 stars because size of water pan is small. If it was bigger than would have been 5 stars for sure. Still the smokenator is awesome and use it all the time. Definitely a must have if you have a Weber kettle.Use 24 unlit coals. Light 24 coals = 48 total coals. Leave bottom vent open and top vent open until heat reaches 400. Turn top vent half open leave bottom vent wide open. Spatchcock a chicken and cook breast side up for 1 hour or until done.Update: 5/14/16 Works just as good two years later as the day I bought it. Not only good for slow and low but can also use higher heat indirect cooking.

It might be a little early to review this since I've only used it one time, but I just had to gush about the meal I just had. I skipped the recommended dry runs due to lack of time, though I might do that when I have more time. I followed the instructions -- about 50 briquettes and wood in the Smokenator, and about 15 briquettes in my chimney starter. Once all the coals were in the Smokenator and the water pan was on, I placed a 3-4 lb loin pork roast on the grill. I rubbed salt, pepper, and brown sugar on the roast the night before, so it was good to go. With only a little bit of stoking, the Smokenator held 220-250 for about five hours. The internal temperature of the pork was about 145-150 when I took it off to let it rest. I guess I was expecting something like pulled pork, but what I got was so much better -- 1/2 inch slices of the juiciest, most tender pork roast I've ever had! It was unbelievable. That's my review for now, but I can't wait to try a whole chicken and a brisket with this.It was easy to install, though due to the uneven angle of my backyard, the Smokenator looked like it wanted to pull away from the side of the kettle there for a moment. It seems a little expensive for what you get, but if I continue to get the same results as I got the first time, It'll be the best BBQ investment I've made since I got my Weber kettle. You can tell from the manual that the creator of the Smokenator really did his homework.

I made my first smoked ribs today using the Smokenator 1000 on my weber kettle, using the tips from the amazing ribs website I cooked a pair of st. louis racks from costco for 5.5 hours at 200-230 using kiawe (mesquite) wood. The temperature stayed constant in between me refiling the water pan and adding coals/wood, the lowest the temperature got was 200 flat, and the highest was 236. The resulting ribs were simply the best I've ever had, now I know that doesn't mean much to a bunch of strangers but I feel that anyone who's looking to smoke on the cheap should look into the smokenator, the result is not cheap by any means. The ribs were very juicy and they had a real good smoke ring which I was very excited about, I shared the ribs with everyone I could and everyone was very impressed.I did notice that the coals were getting eaten up pretty quick, I figure I added about 5-10 coals every hour to keep the fire going, according to the instructions this isn't really necessary inside of a 6 hour cook, but I was paranoid the heat would start to drop off if the coals got any smaller. Pushing the coals and wood into the middle of the smokenator would result in higher temperatures and a thicker smoke, I did not learn this until near the end of my cook, I was kinda just mushing the coals straight down but it's better to shuffle them into the middle under the water pan. During the first two hours the water pan dried up and the temperature flared up to 236 pretty quick, so keep refilling the water pan and it will stay steady. Oh and make sure you have something to cut the wood with (table saw would be nice) since you can't put large chunks in the smokenator without removing the water pan, it's best to cut them down into little cubes.Anyhow if you have a weber kettle you should get one of these things (with the hinged grate) and try it for yourself, it really does work as advertised.

this is amazing! i have started to dabble with smoking food on my Weber one touch using the Weber method with little success. this gadget however has vastly improved my ability to smoke food on it! its simple to use and set-up.There are plenty of videos out on the web to show this but the instructions were able to point me in the right direction to begin with.On my first attempt i hot smoked a turkey leg in ideal weather conditions and this held temperature between 100C and 115C with out doing anything accept following the guidance!The following week i tried whole a chicken. this time the weather was chillier and damp with occasional drizzle. Sure enough the smokenator produced the same great results and after several hours of cooking i had a perfectly smoked chicken. the only time the temperature fluctuated was when i forgot to top up the the water bath and the temperature started to creep up. this was simple to sort and the temperature of the oven soon returned to normal.overall, as a beginner to this kind of cooking technique this device has made smoking simple and affordable, i wont smoke all the time so there was no point for me to buy an expensive purpose built smoker. however it has made my Weber more versatile and opened up an new avenue of cooking for me!if you are interested in smoking, already own an appropriate bbq and want reliable results without spending the earth this is the way forward!

Works well. You can get some really tasty smoked meats with minimal effort. One star knocked off as it's a pain to get new coal in.

Great piece of kit for transforming you kettle BBQ in to a proper smoker. I love it. Produces great smoked beef, whole chicken and leg of lamb,I've done two types of meat both together. Keeping all the moisture in.

Great item, was s little bit fiddly to get it to sit in properly at the start but once in it was very secure and will not budge, I placed the water dish on the grill rather than in the holder as I felt it took up precious briquette space:) would highly recommend this, worked flawlessly on 13hr smoke

Fantastic! This is a real winner with everything I have tried. Experiment and enjoy, the American websites show lots of techniques on YouTube.