Smokenator 1000 – Transform Your 22" Weber Kettle

I have long been fond of my 22" Weber, and learned a few tricks with it by watching youtube and such. Nothing that I have ever done has produced the departure from ordinary grilling/smoking such as this. I have used it only twice now, and it seems that I can't fail. Everything comes out "ridiculously" moist, unlike anything I have ever turned out on the Weber. I bought the Cooper oven thermometer because it was rated a best overall by Cooks Illustrated, and when I sit the thermometer on the grill, it didn't get above 200 degrees. The temperature at the top of the kettle was close to 300 degrees, and to run it any cooler than that, you are probably in for a very long day of barbecuing. My chickens are moist and well smoked, ribs plump and tender, and I cant wait to put a brisket on the grill with this tremendous asset. Your family will think you became a genius on the grill. Easy to use, great temperature regulation, and superior results. Best money I ever spent on this site!

Please see the photos I uploaded. I inaugurated my Smokenator 1000 the other day after getting my grill scrubbed clean and my applewood chunks soaked and all that. I used a commercial rub which I wouldn't advise doing, too salty. One other thing you want is a DRIP PAN, some kind of disposable aluminum pan to go underneath whatever you're smoking. The Smokenator 1000 arrived in four days, not the three weeks quoted as the outside delivery date, so that was great news. It's really sturdy. YOU OUGHT TO ORDER THE HOVERGRILL WITH IT. That's the "upper deck" grill that can greatly expand your grill's capacity. I had a Steve Raichlen Non-Stick Rib Rack so I used that Steven Raichlen Best of Barbecue Nonstick Ultimate Rib Rack , and it worked great! I could have smoked two MORE racks if I'd been inclined! It took about four hours from when the coals were lit until the ribs came off the grill, then I rested them for an hour. They were outstanding! I've never tasted better! So much better than my earlier attempts at building and maintaining an offset fire to smoke ribs. I can hardly wait to try other cuts of meat and fish and chicken. If you own a Weber 22.5" grill, you NEED one of these! A brilliant solution which works GREAT. One other thing you want to have is a GOOD thermometer or two! A $60 grill, a $70 smoker, $50 in thermometers.. it's worth it! I need to find a thermometer or two to use with this device. I like instrumentation. I want to know what's going on, and from what I've read you want a thermometer at about grill height, but a few inches away from the food itself. NO COMPLAINTS WHATSOEVER. You will not believe how good these ribs were. Amazing! I can hardly wait to try some salmon or a chicken. ... Regarding thermometers, my idea now is to buy a couple of $20 dial BBQ thermometers, drill a hole through the grill wall just above the charcoal grate and the food grate in order to be able to tell what the temperature is like at those two locations -- where the food is, not the dome!

I was somewhat skeptical and agonized about spending $70 bucks for this. I am so happy I finally did it. See the picture I uploaded. I bought in on a Wednesday and it arrived the next Saturday morning and I had baby backs cooking a couple of hours later. Even though I do grill regularly I've never cooked ribs. I do a fair amount of direct/indirect heat cooking on the kettle, but temperature management for anything over a couple of hours is a bit of a hassle. I was seriously considering buying a WSM. I am so glad I didn't!. This is the perfect solution for my occasional water smoking/longer cook needs!. Amazing results. The Smokenator worked just as advertised. I was blown away!. I used Trader Joe's hardwood briquets and I followed the instructions faithfully. I was able to achieve a constant temp of 220 "+/- 10 deg" for 4.5 hours out of 55 briquets!. The ribs turned out spectacular!. I only had to refill the water every hour and move the coals around with the include poker. But that's it. Minimal vent fiddling. Never had to add coals. Amazing. So as an instant convert and a former skeptic I can tell you this works. And it works very well. It's not just a "piece of bent metal" as the one or two naysayers portray it. It's well engineered and manufactured of high quality stainless. I believe It's a fair price just for the material and manufacture. I now believe it's also great price for the results I got without having to buy a larger more expensive piece of equipment to achieve these results.

I’ve been grilling out for close to forty years. I’ve owned MANY grills and numerous smokers. I don’t fire up my PRESENT smoker much anymore because it's gas. I MUCH prefer the flavor of food cooked with charcoal. I’m no pit master, but I know what’s good or what’s bad in a grill’s performance. I won’t go into detail on that, though. This is no GRILL review. I WILL say that’s I AM cheapskate. That’s why it took me a few minutes to invest $70 in this Smokenator. I’ve experimented with various ways of smoking using my old Weber Performer. I’ve fashioned aluminum foil in some IMAGINATIVE ways to comprise a setup that offered some formula of heat supply and burn rate of the coals which suited me. No matter what contrived method I’d attempted, temperature regulation and how long the charcoal lasts was always a concern. I got pretty good at that, but it was still inconsistent and tedious. So this evening, I monitored my first SHORT smoke using this Smokenator. Just some pork chops and chicken cuts. Off and on, I monitored the dome temperature and the smoke emanating from the Weber for well over an hour. I must say: This Smokenator worked VERY well. The kettle temperature remained near my 225-250° desired temperature for longer than I’d expected it would. The smoke kept coming for longer than I’d anticipated too. AGAIN: Small cuts. No pork butt, brisket, whole chicken…or turkey. Just 8-10 pieces of chicken and pork chops. Now I’m tempted to smoke a larger cut of meat…for the first time EVER in my Weber. If it’s NOT so great, then I’ll update this. Meanwhile, I DO approve of the Smokenator’s performance. For those who are new to smoking meats - bear in mind that the water in the pan (and the air you let in) are KEY factors of temperature regulation. The water absorbs a huge amount of heat at its 212° boiling point. Of course, the steam it gives off is also 212°. This helps to keep the grill’s temperature roughly in the desired 225-250° temperature range for smoking. I’ll note that the water pan is small, so it needs refilling after an hour or so. The hint that I got was when I saw the grill’s temperature rising to above 250°. I popped the top and saw the water was getting low. I added more water and…fifteen minutes later - the cook temp settled back down closer to 225°. All in all, I think the Smokenator is a worthwhile purchase if you own a Weber dome grill and you want to infuse that smoky flavor into your cookouts. Even if you actually own a full-sized smoker, this device allows an opportunity for a MUCH scaled-down smoking session - VERSUS the compulsion to go buy a hundred dollars of big hunks of meat merely to justify firing up the big smoker.

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.

Well, I think this invention has a positive prospect but I'm not sure if I agree with all of the rave reviews it has received. I would say that it works okay. On the upside, the concept of adding the water tin above the coals and maintaining completely indirect heat is genious. On the downside, I don't really think you need the metal cover. Utlimately, I wound up using only the water tin without the metal separator. With the separator in place it can be challenging to stoke the coals. Thus, it is challenging to maintain consistent temperature...it seems that most others have had better luck at this than I. In the long run, I'm still glad I bought the kit because it got my mind going. I still stack all my coals real high on one side of the grill and keep the meat far away to avoid charring. I'm also still using the metal tin above the coals and filling it with water to help maintain consistent temperatures. This method seems to be working better for me.

I've had this item for about a year and it has really added to my cooking repertoire. Due to limited space I have not invested in a true smoker so I cannot compare it to one. However, what I do know is that I have smoked some awesome meals with this handy gadget. I have made the most wonderful smoked salmon that I have ever tasted. Pork butts, ribs and chicken come out great. Because the heat is coming from the one side of the grill I would suggest rotating your meat about half way through the smoke so the sides cook evenly. If you are doing ribs, switch the rack furthest with the rack closest to the smokenator. It is very easy to install. I would recommend installing it on the side of your kettle where the two wheels are. The reason for this when you tilt your grill to roll it the coals will rest on the downward side. If you have your smokenator on the high side it could slip out of the notches and spill the coals. It is a good idea to test run your smokenator without any food once or twice. This will give you an idea of how the temps run. Try it with and without a water pan. As had been suggested, larger water pans are desirable for longer cooks. If you are doing a short smoke (fish) the small pan that comes with the unit will be just fine. Using Weber's hinged grates is a must. These will give you easy access to coals allowing you to adjust them, add more fuel or wood. I was using chips because there was not enough room to put chunks after the smokenator has been filled with coal. However, I have begun to just drop a chunk on the top coals where the water pan is supposed to go and let he hinged grate rest on the wood and it has worked fine, I get more smoke with less effort. Someday I'll get a real smoker but for now I'll just keep turning out the best smoked meat I've ever tasted with this Smokenator.

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.

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.