[AFMUG] Completely OT, but I figure there's some people here into BBQ..

[Simon Westlake]

I've been into smoking for a while, been smoking ribs, sausage and 
chicken on a cheapo, thin, Home Depot smoker for a few years. They turn 
out pretty good, but it's an all day affair of babysitting and hoping 
the weather is OK.

I've been looking at some higher end smokers for a while and I'm torn 
between something like 
http://www.yodersmokers.com/ys640-pellet-grill.html and 
http://www.ssomd.com/backwoods-smoker-chubby, the biggest differences 
between them being one uses pellets and one is charcoal.

I've always used charcoal but the convenience of the pellet smoker is 
pretty appealing to me as well. I've been reading reviews online and 
I've had a hard time finding info that seems unbiased, there's a lot of 
people against pellets on principle and a lot of people for them purely 
for convenience. Most of the BBQ forums are pretty religious places (in 
terms of their preferences.)

The other problem is that, even if I pick one, there's tons and tons of 
manufacturers out there, and if I'm even going to remotely consider 
spending $1K+ on a smoker, I want it to be the best. So, anyone out 
there with experience with any of these types of units?