Brinkmann Square Vertical Charcoal Smoker

For the price of the smoker I did not have huge expectations. The smoker has good room in it. The ventilation is great. All in all the salmon turned out great!

not a very good product very poor designed and would not stay shut and very hard to keep temp at certain degree i give it a thumbs down

This is my first smoker, I went inexpensive to get my feet wet in the world of smoking. However after about four smokings I am definitely ready for an upgrade.

It does smoke, however don't expect to cook anything with this. I think I hit 200 degrees once. So expect to cook in an oven once you are done smoking. So after four hours of smoking it is a little frustrating to still cook your food some more. I did drill holes in the bottom of the coal pan, but it didn't seem to work all that well (maybe I should put more holes in?).

The door is also a huge problem. It takes a little manipulation to get it closed. Lots of cracks and open gaps for the smoke to release, so this is also a design flaw.

Don't expect great engineering, but it is certainly usable, and I do like mine. The metal is on the thin side, but I have managed to get mine to 250F when it was 12F outside (with the water pan removed though). You will probably need to be handy to get it working properly. I didn't like the way the door was latching, it just didn't instill confidence. I realized that I needed to bend the walls of the smoker in just slighly (If you need to do this, and you probably will, be sure to remove any racks first). After that it latched just fine, I've had no problems with it accidentally opening.

Also, the door wasn't held on quite right (it was actually able to fall off), looks like maybe they cut the top bar that it "hinges" on a bit too short. I added a washer to the bottom bar/hinge and it was just enough to raise it up so it is held in just fine now.

I haven't actually used the water bowl in mine yet as it is winter and I'm in New England. My first smoke (after proper seasoning) I was able to get it to 250F without the water bowl, and it was about 12F outside. And with these kind of temperatures it makes it a lot easier to do a cold smoke.

One minor modification that I did was to put a pizza stone on the very bottom of the unit. I figure it might help to keep the heat in, and also help to protect the bottom from rusting.

I'm going to try adding a pizza stone to where the water bowl should be, just to keep some of the direct heat off of the bottom rack. Maybe I will add a small bowl with water on top of that, just to add a little steam.

I did some spareribs with lump charcoal and hickory chunks. Kept it on for about 5 hours. Delicious! Falling from the bone, and a great smoke flavor! Mmmm--mmmm good!

Overall, I am VERY pleased with my smoker. I really like having the slide-out racks. The built-in thermometer is nice too. For the price, you can't go wrong. As long as you are handy you should be able to make it work. I'm looking forward to using mine for a long time. Well... hopefully anyway.

It is tough to get this thing hot and to keep it hot for very long. The reason is simply a design flaw. The charcoal pan is simply a pan. it has no grate on the bottom for ashes to fall through. So what happens is the coals smother themselves in their own ash and deprive the coals of oxygen.
If you already own one, I believe it is possible to modify it by drilling holes in the pan and placing something underneath to catch the ashes (someone else online had this same problem, and this was his solution)
I might also try replacing the pan with a small square grill.
But if you don't own one, I suggest you just upgrade and buy one that works.

purchased t5he smoker for my son but bought one from Walmart 2 years ago and am well pleased with it. would highly recommend it for home use

Use primarily to smoke fish, easy to make additional racks, fun to experiment with, great value for the money, very glad we bought it

Many smokers are the round design where you have to lift off the lid and remove the top rack if you need to do anything with food on the lower rack. With this Brinkman model, you open from the side to access the racks and the charcoal pit. Much easier, especially if you are smoking several different items at the same time which require different cooking times. Great design, great product!

I recently bought the smoker about 2 hrs ago after looking at it on this site. I found that the door was not hinged and was supposed to be. I also found it to be a lot thinner that I expected. Also, don't expect to us it right out the box. You have to cure it first and that takes at least 3 hrs. We will see how it does, when i get to smoke something.