Grill Maestro

For Memorial Day weekend, I put together the Brinkmann SmokeN Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill courtesy of Home Depot (get it there, if you want it, instead of Amazon.com, it’s only around $35 now; I provided the link for additional details) in order to provide this review of its features.

Overall, it’s a very affordable smoker and at $35, downright cheap. When put up against a Weber 2820 Smokey Mountain Cooker/Smoker, it’s really no comparison. But you have to remember that the Weber reatils for $200 whereas the Brinkmann is a mere $35. Given the huge price disparity, I think that the Brinkmann really afforded itself quite well.

Installation: Installation was easy and took maybe 30 minutes. You are basically putting together the handles, attaching the legs, attaching the metal hooks for the grates, water tray, and charcoal tray, and putting on the thermometer. You could do it in your sleep, which was nice because I was tired.

Good:

• Thermometer: It’s nice that there’s a thermometer on the outside but it really had three levels - Warm, Ideal, and Hot. It didn’t indicate the actual temperature, which would’ve been nice, but it was convenient that you could read the sensor without opening anything and releasing heat or smoke.
• Cooking Surface: For $200 on the Weber you get two 18-1/2-inch-diameter cooking grates, for $35 on the Brinkmann you get two 15-1/2 inch-diameter cooking grates.
• Portable: You could, without taking it apart, move the smoker around by using the handles - a definitely plus.

Bad:

• Door Handle: The door handle to access the coals and wood is metal and it gets hot. They should have used treated plastic or something so that you could access it without burning your fingers.
• No Air Vents: It’s difficult to regular temperature if you can’t regular air flow! The charcoal tray is essentially an open bowl at the bottom of the smoker, so you get a ton of air flow and no way to control it. There isn’t even an air vent at the top.
• Water Bowl is Too Low: It made it difficult to add additional coals or wood chunks and put them where I wanted to. It’s a minor complaint as I could just use tongs, but it wasn’t an issue with the Weber.
• No Handles On Top Grate: If you have both grates cooking and you want to access the lower grate, it’s a pain to lift the top grate because it lacks handles. I often, about two hours in, like to wrap my meats in foil with some apple juice to add some juiciness back in, but this was made much more difficult by the lack of handles.

Overall, the Brinkmann wasn’t bad at all. If you’re just starting out and would like to cut your teeth on a simple smoker, you wouldn’t be doing yourself a disservice by using it. I think I’ve been spoiled by the feature-rich Weber Smokey Mountain so I may not have reacted the same way had this been my first.