BBQ Buyers Guide to the Cheapest Quarter Inch Offset Smokers

hi this is smoke master d coming at you with another episode of barbecue buyer's guide this time to the cheapest quarter inch offsets please stay all the way to the end where i'll reveal the true secret to the cheapest quarter inch offset all right so we got our basic offset smoker and this is how it works the air goes into that intake damper and fuels a fire that's either going to be charcoal or wood right there in the firebox then the heat and smoke is going to go into that cooking chamber where there's going to be food on that grate and then it's going to go out that smoke stack and pass the exhaust stamper there all right we've got the expensive offset smoker versus the cheap one now the expensive is going to be fully welded and the cheap one is going to be bolted together and that's going to make it so there's going to be seams that are going to lose heat then the expensive offset smoker is going to have quarter inch steel or thicker and that's going to be three gauge or less and we're going to remember that gauges get thicker the lower the number is then on the other side we're generally going to have an eighth of an inch steel or thinner and that's going to be 11 gauge or more all right and lastly most have a high standard of construction the eos's and um they're usually made in the united states um but the cheap offset smokers are usually built in another country um and are shipped from that country and that's really the main reason why they have to be bolted together is so that they can fit in their shipping containers all right and here's a map of the united states and where these locations are for the companies and that's going to be a very important part in how much you might be paying for one of these smokers and the reason for that is when you have um something with quarter inch steel it's going to be heavy so the shipping has to play a part in how much they charge you for it um so if you live right next to one of these places you can probably get a much better deal on an expensive offset smoker so you're going to see at the top there we've got the yoders in hutchinson kansas perry oklahoma is the the home of horizon smokers then in houston we have the texas original barbecue pits as far as i know you can't buy directly from their factory but they have dealers right there in houston that will give you that discount based on not having to ship it and we'll we'll look at that in the next slide also and lastly we have old country barbecue their headquarters are in laredo texas but their their factories are actually in mexico and part of that is gonna make it so you might not be able to get that discount for uh the shipping but they have some stuff about them that's that makes their products cheaper anyway and we'll go into that in a second okay and uh just to give you an idea of of the difference we have the lulling 20 loaded on the texas original barbecue pits website and it is almost 2 600 and then you have the dealer there and you see in the bottom right that that's just uh 1999. so and that's so there's a difference of 600 they say free shipping there um no the the shipping is built into the price that they're giving you on their website so just know that all right so we're going to start off with old country barbecue pits apparently they were established in 1955 i think that they were selling mostly farm equipment then i'm not sure when they made their first smoker but the brazos that we have over there for 999.99 at academy sports is a very popular smoker as far as quarter-inch offsets go they do however sell three more uh styles of quarter-inch offsets from their website they didn't have pictures for all of them they only had that picture there i've asked for more pictures and more information and maybe i'll be able to do another episode just on old country barbecue pits but for now we're only going to have the brazos on the list because that's the one that i have the most information for uh so we're going to go on and this is another old country barbecue pits uh it's kind of exciting the brazos dlx you see the picture there is not very good as of yet they've only come out with the thumbnail for their advertisements so that's that thumbnail picture blown up a little bit but it's going to probably be coming out in april so maybe we'll have some more information by then and it's going to be only about two hundred dollars more than the brazos and it's going to give you the counterweight the heavy-duty coal grate tuning plates and a drain valve this is really something that they're aiming at um the mid mid level um premium smokers like the horizon rd20 and the um the loaded wichita so um and and it's much cheaper than those two smokers so the brazos dlx i think it's about to make a big splash in the market now how do they do it you see that website right there that is a website that's going to tell you all of these things uh they they're much cheaper than their competitors because they shear uh the metal off and roll it around and then weld it to make their their pipes so they can use that technique to make different thicknesses of steel and you're going to notice on all of their smokers that there's a big huge weld line right down the barrel and that's not a problem or anything everybody else pretty much they cast the pipe and then they cut it so you're not going to see that weld there's not really a big difference in that as far as i know for number two they have different people work on different parts at the same time so kind of the assembly line method purchase materials in bulk so they get discounts there um the whole mexico thing like we discussed and you can see there's their store and headquarters and there's the rio grande and there's mexico and what do you know there's an academy sports right down the road and then lastly uh smaller margins more units sold they are are basically the mcdonald's of the quarter inch offset world um and you know if you like mcdonald's then it's a great thing pros and cons of the old country barbecue pits more bang for your buck wide ranges of sizes below fifteen hundred dollars the smoke stack is at great level if you think that's better now i've looked into this and as far as i can tell it's it's not really a big game changer they say that it cuts out hot spots in your grill but i've watched many youtube videos about people adding tuning plates to their old country barbecue pits so i don't really buy that free shipping from factory now that is uh probably built into the price too you know it's just cheaper so it seems better that way they're fully functional they'll do the job despite having uh all those cost-saving measures and then uh the brazos is the most accessible smoker on this list all right and now for cons the welds are not going to be perfect there's going to be extra slag here and there the overall craftsmanship is gonna be a little bit lower um they don't have a temp gauge that comes with their smokers uh you're gonna have to buy that separately the uh hole for the the temperature gauge might not be exactly correct you might have to widen it a little bit it's not as pretty as the other smokers i've really noticed this on sort of the lids i noticed that the pipe smokers they're going to have some really nice lines uh that just adds aesthetic to them that the uh the old country don't seem to have and that that doesn't take away from the uh the job that the old country barbecue pits perform and lastly you can't customize these pits uh you buy them as is and that's basically it all right now a warning on the pipe built offsets they are built to order so when you buy one um you don't know exactly how long you're gonna be waiting but it's usually probably around two months could be longer all right so the horizon smokers we got the 16 inch classic now that's going to be available at cabela's or bass pro they're probably going to have to order it for you but it's going to be 999 and 99 cents there which is pretty good price uh for a quarter inch offset um so if you bought it from the factory it's 8.95 plus shipping you kind of have to figure out you know what your proximity is to their factory as to whether it would be cheaper um of course if you're in driving distance you know you can get it for 8.95 so um and you can call the company to ask for the shipping rates now that 20 inch um i like it because it has a lot more room but while i was gathering the information on it i discovered that cabela's and bass pro are no longer carrying it i'm going to put it in here anyway just for fun but um yeah it's 12.95 at the factory uh the shipping to me out here in north carolina is somewhere around 300 so um you know that takes it above the 1500 uh threshold that i set for the inexpensive part of this video um but i'm keeping it on anyway and that's just how we're gonna roll all right the pros and cons pros the 16 inch is the cheapest new pipe made offset ons there's no shelf on the firebox like other makers 16 inches i don't think that that's a big deal and the 16 inch horizon has a smaller firebox than other pipe made 16-inch smokers except for the ranger also you can't customize the pits from bass pros or cabela's so you know it's just what it is and that is that and now we're on the texas original barbecue pit so we've got that ranger offset smoker for 1299.99 and um we have the texasoriginalpits.com is where you can get that and the lulling 16 offset smoker is going to be 1499.99 on the website and 1399.99 barbecue guys website so the barbecue guys they sell pretty much everything from texas original pits and for some reason they have it a hundred dollars cheaper this luling 16. so um i don't know why that is we're going to talk about even more interesting things about the lulings here in a second for prices all right now pros and cons pros come standard with pot warmers from standard with probe port the ranger offset can be loaded on a hitch now that's an interesting thing i i looked for pictures of that and i couldn't find any if you want to do offset smoking it usually is a longer sort of activity while you're tailgating i suppose that could be helpful but you know for getting around and stuff with that smoker if it you want something that's going to go with you that could be cool the website offers a payment plan the dealers don't have to charge sales tax to out-of-state buyers now that's a really interesting one so if you live in any of the states bordering texas and you want an offset smoker that could be really interesting you know going to the dealers there in houston so i would definitely take a look at that option also another thing from the dealers they might have your model in thicker steel for no extra crust as we know thicker steel holds better heat that's what we like now the cons um that flat built-in shipping rate really um you know that only works for people who are very far away if you live in maine that could work for you uh you know so um but if you're close that could that could be a real con and make uh that that trip down to texas really worthwhile even more worthwhile if you can skip on out on that sales tax um so definitely consider that and then they're slightly more expensive than others in certain regards of course there's there's a range of prices here and uh the standard probe port and pot warmers kind of make some things worth it there so it's all sort of a sliding scale all right then we have the yoder smokers and we've got the cheyenne here um the charlotte grill company has it for 1075. grill billy's in durham though has it for 11.99 it really seems like the um the dealerships have a lot more sway in what gets sold and um how much they're going to charge for it with the yoders just looking around at their dealerships uh so that's been a little strange it's um very different from sort of the other companies in that way now the an even stranger thing is that when i talked to the charlotte grill company they told me that they had never sold a regular cheyenne there they had only ever sold the cheyenne loaded so uh that comes out to 14.95 there which is right under our 1500 threshold uh so and you know it's it's not more than that they don't add on an extra shipping cost they are going to get it from the company though so it's going to take that time but yeah the cheyenne loaded with the counterweight heat management plate and upper slide out shelf and so the pros and the cons largest 16 inch cook chamber on the list it's not by much but it is okay the cons they currently have a 25-week back up so that is like almost six months almost six months um that you would be waiting for your yoder if you ordered it right now i don't know if the pandemic is playing into that so maybe by the time you watch this video sometime later that's gonna be be down but yeah that's a long time all right now the main cooking grate area in inches squared so uh we notice you know the ranger 16 is going to be the smallest there horizon 16 a little bit bigger the um horizon 20 is the biggest overall i really like the uh the space in that thing 720 the luling 16 is 502 the cheyenne 507 like we said it's the largest of the 16 inch ones there and then that old country brazos is going to have 639 now remember that the old country brazos has that upper shelf i've never seen anyone use it in any of the videos that i've watched of people using a brazos so i'm not entirely sure how necessary it is i'm sure some people must use it and if we add in the firebox you're gonna see it's the 1618 there for the ranger 630 so they have a very similar size firebox that difference is very similar all right that brazos gets a lot more uh square inch space in the on the fire grate in its firebox than the horizon 20. i think the horizon 20s firebox is actually larger though um so i'm not really sure how that works out how that it has a smaller um grate in the firebox than the brazos and the luling 16 and the cheyenne almost neck and neck there cheyenne still you know just a little bit bigger but they they are very similar smokers in many ways all right and now the estimated price range so um some of these prices are estimates some of them are right on what they actually would be so that ranger 16 i estimated that uh the dealers would sell it to you for around a thousand um and it's of course 1299.99 on the website the horizon 16 you know the website price from the company is 8.95 999.99 at cabela's and bass pro and that 11.50 is um i think what they would charge me out in north carolina if they added in shipping the horizon 20 same deal um it's 12.95 at the factory 1600 shipped to me um out in north carolina the luling 16 is 11.55 estimated from the dealership there in houston it's uh and those two prices up there are the two different websites that sell it uh the cheyenne okay is 1075 at the charlotte grill company uh you know you'd have to take a look at your own dealership to see what the price would be there it's 12.50 estimated for shipping out to north carolina the old country brazos is 999.99 at i believe at every academy sports so if you live near one of those it was 1200 to ship out of out to me um i looked that up on the academy sports website could be different wherever you're located uh depending on the distance of the shipping and now for the real secret to the cheapest quarter inch offset smoker all right and it is the old oklahoma joes now the one thing that you're going to want to know is that the one pictured here is not the correct one uh that name plate you see there that has the outline of the state of oklahoma for the correct one it's going to need to have all of the letters inside of that state outline also you're going to want to look at the handle for the lid um and it should be welded i think completely up and down on those brackets there's a reddit thread on this which explains everything so you may want to check that out now the story about oklahoma joes is that they used to make quarter inch offsets in perry oklahoma then the brand was sold to charbroil in 1997 and after that uh charbroil laid off everybody in oklahoma and they moved the operation overseas and then roger davidson who was part of the original oklahoma joes came back got the band back together so to say and started horizon now charbroil to their credit did try to keep oklahoma joe's quality high for the first little while before they created the highland and models that we know today and that includes this smoker here now the firebox is bolted onto the main chamber but main chamber is five gauge steel and as we remember and as we remember the quarter inch is three gauge so it's really close this smoker is actually probably as close to a quarter inch offset you can get without actually being there now the lid is 11 gauge oklahoma joes that they make today are 13 gauge in all of their steel so the steel difference is really a big one and this older oklahoma joes from the char-broil company is going to work a lot better than the one that they create today so um and how do you find all these things you look on places like facebook marketplace or on craigslist and if you can find one of the original pre-1997 ones you know it's going to have some rest on it maybe you might have to get an angle grinder you might have to get a steel brush you might have to do some work but it is the cheapest way to get a quarter inch offset you fix it up you get some high heat paint to put on the main chamber outside not the inside and then you're going to want to get some oil some canola oil spray to spray on the inside to season it and you can have the real cheapest quarter inch offset if you can find one of those and if you can't um you know this older oklahoma joes from charbroil is a good second place dollar per pound it is a lot better than their current model and you can probably find some deals out there if you're in the moxville area these pictures came from a guy named keith who allowed me to put him up here um he's selling one for 350. uh it's worth the money um so go check out keith and get this offset from him he's been having a little bit of a hard time with the pandemic don't lowball them give them what it's worth and make some great barbecue on this really good looking pit which is actually new old stock um which means that this was stock left over before they decided to make the highland and recently oklahoma joe's decided that they were going to sell all that stock off so this thing's only been used once it looks really good uh you know and if you want to give keith a shout out and and get this from him please do now that's everything please add your review to the comments uh do you own one of these smokers let us know about it let people know about it which one should they get which one's the best which one has problems and everybody have a great day and reel on [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Smoke Master D

Views: 91,205

Keywords: Offset Smoker, Brisket, Horizon Smokers, Yoder Smokers, Old Country Barbeque Pits, Texas Original BBQ Pits, Grill, Pit, BBQ, Barbeque, Barbecue, what smoker should i buy, what offset smoker should i buy, which smoker is the best, how to use an offset smoker, best offset smoker

Id: sEBMW8wJqI8

Length: 22min 51sec (1371 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021