Cuisinart 36-Inch Vertical Propane Smoker - COS-244

The directions were very clear. Everything went together well. Smokes very well. Hard to keep temp if windy. Needs a skirt around the bottom to help with wind. Smoker did well.

Came with bent water tray frame. Sorta fixed it. Too much of a hassle to return.

Awesome smoker, easy to assemble and heavy... which is good

Just got this smoker put it together in about an hour with pretty good instructions. Smoked some ribs and they turned out great. As with any new cooking device it will take using it a couple of times to figure out just how it cooks

The first bit of praise goes to the instructions. They very easy to follow and absolutely perfect. Congrats to the Author. Next is it's very easy to use and worked perfectly after assembly. Last is it made my best pork should to date. Yum!

2 users found this review helpful

I want preface this review by saying this is the first smoker, propane or otherwise, I have ever used. I've been wanting to try smoking meats for a while and this Cuisinart vertical smoker seemed like an ideal starter. It easily sits next to my grill outside without taking up too much space like a normal offset wood barrel smoker would, and seemed like it would be easier to operate than a vertical charcoal smoker. Assembly was a little more labor intensive than I expected and took me about 1.5 hours or so to complete, including breaking down all of the garbage for recycling. This product had a lot of foam and cardboard packaging to be tossed or recycled. Lighting is very easy as the burner has a built in sparker that clicks on when you turn the knob from the off position. The water/wood tray which sits above the burner conveniently has its own door at the bottom so you can access it without releasing all of the heat in the chamber. Once the burner is on, I place the wood chunks in the center of the tray, push the tray most of the way in and then fill the water reservoir around the wood to keep the chamber hydrated. In my experience the wood starts to smoke within about 30 minutes. I've been trying to keep the smoker between 215 and 225 degrees when doing my pork ribs and brisket, and this has been surprisingly easy. After the chamber reaches around 225, I turn the burner to "low" and top off the water tray and forget about it for anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes. One of my negative comments has to be I wish the water tray held more water and didn't evaporate so quickly. After about 45 minutes or so, the tray will be dry and the temperature will slowly increase. With the burner on low however, I never saw it get much above 250 degrees, so even then it was never a big deal. I got a full 20lb propane tank before my first use and have so far done about 26 hours of smoking over two weekends before writing this review. The burner seems to use the propane efficiently because I'm still on the first tank. I'd say I will expect between 20 to 30 hours of use on each tank in the future. I've had great weather the past two weekends and generally just left the burner on low though, so if you're smoking in freezing weather or something your mileage may vary. Pros: 1) Pretty easy to maintain a consistent temperature as long as you don't open the chamber or mess with it. It's barbecue so you shouldn't be messing with it anyways. 2) Easily houses enough meat for 8 people, maybe 6 depending on how hungry you are. This was plenty big for my needs. 3) The wood chips in the tray burn nice and slow and I haven't refilled them actually after starting a smoke. Later on (maybe 6-8 hours in) they start becoming white, but I figure they've provided enough smoke that I didn't need to refill. 4) Comes with a recipe book that actually has a GREAT barbecue sauce and a decent rub recipe. 5) Cleanup is pretty easy. Everything drips down directly into the wood chip/water tray, so pull that out with the four food racks and wash as desired. (I just hose them down in the backyard) Cons: 1) Assembly took a while and it came with too much packing material. This was just a one time problem however and doesn't matter if you're not a tree hugger like me. 2) The water tray should be deeper I think. This way you might be able to make it an hour without needing to refill. Also you would be able to put more wood chips so the smoke will last longer. 3) Might not be big enough if you're trying to host a larger party with it, say 10 or more people, and want to have something other than brisket. If you're doing ribs for example, each rack really only holds a single rib-rack which feeds 2-3 people.

This is my first smoker, so I really didn't know what to expect. Overall, I was extremely impressed. I didn't realize this required so much assembly, with that said it took me approximately 2 hours to assemble. I had a few issues, but nothing major. Like I said earlier, this is my first smoker - so I don't have much experience using them. For the most part I've been smoking small items, like salmon & chicken because they have been the easiest things for me to learn. For the most part, I'm This is my first smoker so I don't have much experience with them. That said, this is quite fantastic. You might need a couple hours to assemble the smoker, at least I did. My smoker ended up being exactly square with not unevenness issues. I made sure not to completely tighten the structural screws until I had everything in place. I then tighten up opposing screws and corners. The built-in in thermometer in the door is very handy and its placement seems to help in accuracy. I've mainly just been smoking salmon in the smoker as I think that's the easiest thing for me to learn right now. As far as I can tell, I'm smoking the salmon correctly and they all turn out quite edible with variances as I gain experience. as well.

We got the smoker a week ago and smoked a brisket! It was very easy to keep the temp even and the brisket was juicy! I can't wait to try ribs and chicken in it next!!!

Excellent smoker! Have been wanting one for some time and this is outstanding. Easy to use and highly recommend! Quality is great and setup is a breeze!

Great size, easy to build, cooks great! Great for small areas, separate shelves inside smoker to cook multiple things. Propane tank needed. Does what it says!