Cuisinart 18” Vertical Charcoal Smoker, Integrated Thermometer, Water Bowl and Dual Vents Perfect for Smoked Brisket, Chrome Plated Grates Smoker Grill for BBQ, Camping, Tailgates

There are YouTubes you can watch to help you learn how to smoke with charcoal. Its very helpful. Use 1/2 a gallon of water for most smokes. Will do a brisket or a chicken or ribs very well. With charcoal you will have to mind the unit at least every 2 hours. A chicken takes 2.5 hours approximately. Ribs take 6.Compact and light. Easily stored and cleaned. You need to dump the ash every smoke so you don't rust out the lower vent. The analog thermometer close to correct. I always use a digital prob through the top vent.

Purchased the Cuisinart 118 nearly four years ago to learn the basics of smoking and to figure out if it was really my jam, before unloading on a more expensive model in a year or two. Smoking is now my jam and this unit is responsible.Pros:- Easy to maintain and set up. Fill the coal grate and ring with a decent amount of charcoal (depending on cook time) and ensure the shape you've created looks more like an ant lion larva's conical sand trap, rather than a pile, keeping the prepped coals in the middle to slowly burn out and down. The chimney takes about 20 minutes to get those hot coals ready. Leave the top cylinder off the base after dumping the prepped coals into the shape you've made for another 20 minutes with the bottom vent wide open. Latch the cylinder in place and allow the unit another 20 minutes get to temp, toss on some wood chunk, tighten up the bottom air intake (I've never needed to open it more than 1/4 of the way) and you're good to go. I've made pork shoulders and been able to keep the smoker going at a 225 grate temp for over 8 hours without needing to add more charcoal, so this thing can go for quite some time when properly used. It just takes time to figure it out and you may use more charcoal than you need early on. Wood chunk coal tends to burn too fast and ash out in an unreasonable amount of time, so save that for quick use cooks like burgers / steaks and use Kingsford briquets for long haul cooking.- Holds up to the elements. Mine sits on an exposed back porch with only the cover to protect it. I keep saying I'm getting that better smoker this summer... but why, when there is nothing wrong with my current rig?Cons:- Kind of thin. On cold, windy days, a barricade is needed to allow the unit to stay up to temp without burning through fuel.Tips and Mods:- That water pan? Meh, I don't fill it. I put a flat sheet of foil over it, like a drum, to keep fats and drippings from burning in the bottom and giving food an off-putting flavor. Put it in before the grates and certainly before attaching it to a hot base...- Use a probe for accurate grate temps. No dial thermometer should really be trusted, especially after you've put the meat on. It will appear cooler than it is.- I added another shelf between the two provided. I didn't like my bottom layer that close to the pan's heat.- The side vent leaks. LEAKS! A gasket for grills and smokers will fix that when applied to where it overlaps the body. For a while, I moved another grill I own against the handle to keep it closed tighter.- Smoking in the winter or in cold temps (20's-40's) can burn through fuel and it's hard to keep the smoker up to temp. I use a cheap welder's blanket wrapped around the unit (but not the base or legs) and 3 heavy duty clips to hold it in place to keep it hot. This uses very little charcoal and you may even need to fully close the bottom vent to keep the heat from running away on you.- Look stuff up! Other people have been doing this a while and have webpages dedicated to ensuring you become an AMAZING cook

If you're just wanting to get into low and slow smoking, this smoker isn't a terrible choice. If you're expecting WSM build quality and features, obviously you're going to be disappointed. I'm not adverse to buying used goods, but when it comes to cooking, I prefer to buy new.Pros:-Relatively Inexpensive - If you look at the competition, you're going to see a vast range of prices ranging from about $80 to upwards of $400. I did order this one during a Gold Box deal so I snagged this one on the low end.-Space - this is a 18" cooker with levels of cooking grates. The actual cooking surface is a little bit less than that (i think the grate is about 17") but I was able to do baby back ribs, pork shoulder, and chicken breasts without worrying about space.-Assembly - I was able to assemble the whole thing in about 15 minutes, the most difficult part probably being the legsCons:-Fit and Finish - Out of the box, the paint looks pretty good. Unfortunately, it scratches fairly easily especially in areas with lots of movement, like the door. Some of the rivets aren't 100% flush, but I haven't noticed any movement from them. The handles are also pretty cheap, I wish they were designed differently so they sat a bit more flush. Also, one of the catches for the bottom latches isn't straight so it sometimes takes me a few tries to secure the bottom-Leaks like a sieve - Smoke will leak out from the top of the door, from under the lid, and from around the top vent. The amount of leaking was probably what bothered me most. Without some modification, you're going to have smoke coming out everywhere-Small Coal Ring - the diameter seems appropriate, but it doesn't have much height so the amount of charcoal you can add is limitedAdditional Notes:-I purchased one of those rolls of Nomex barbecue gasket to help fix the leakage issues. I applied some to the edge of the door that sits against the side of the smoker. I also applied to two additional areas: Under the lid where it mates to the rim of the middle section and to the edge of the underside of the top vent that sits directly on the lid. This mostly fixed the issues with smoke leaking out of where it shouldn't be-In addition to the gasket, I added additional washers to the door handle assembly to remove some play in the handle. This made the door sit more firmly against the body of the smoker eliminating further leaks.-I purchased a coal ring for a 18.5" WSM to alleviate the short coal ring issues, it's about a half inch wider so it's a tighter fit but it is more than twice as tall.-Weird design for the Coal Bowl- the bowl for the coal has vents cut into the center of it. Still not sure how I feel about it.-The built in thermometer shouldn't be trusted, but this is true for pretty much all bi-metal thermometersEven with the issues I listed above, I still think this was a good purchase. Yes, I had to put a little bit of work into it with some additional cost, but even with all of that, I'm still well below the monetary cost of the competition.

I've had this smoker for about 2 weeks, and I've used it 5-6 times now. First off, like others have said, the temp gauge is completely useless. You should really invest in a good probe if you get this smoker. The charcoal ring is pretty thin and bendable, but it is not flimsy. The cooking grates are actually about 16½ inches in diameter. The overall outside diameter is 18 inches, so if you are planning on smoking a full rack of ribs, you will have to trim it a bit. Following the manufacturers instuctions, maintaining temps around 250°F is incredibly easy at sea level, ±25°. The charcoal chamber is small, which requires reloading after about an hour & a half or so. The overall construction and fit & finish is to be expected at this price range, but the material is decently thick. You will need approximately 45 minutes, a few metric sockets, and a philips head screwdriver to assemble it. A pair of channel locks won't hurt either.