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Portable smoke Generator, 1# refillable propane bottle, Coleman 30" tree
I have three different comments/questions that are related to grilling and propane:
1) I just bought a Smoke Chief smoke generator and so far it is great. It is made by Smokehouse Products of Hood River Oregon - they are the new company that bought the Luhr Jenson product line and are sill in the same location. They now manufacture the Little Chief and other smokers.
I bought it because of seeing it on demo at Holiday Sports in Burlington WA. the rep was using it to smoke cheese and the samples were awesome. It doesn't add any heat while it is smoking so the cheese doesn't melt. For cooking just attach the smoke generator and fire up the grill - gas, charcoal or electric, whatever you have. The MSRP is about $189 but it was on sale at Holiday Sports for $129 with a $10 gift certificate added for good measure.
I used it at home on my Weber Genesis gas grill - I had to drill a 9/16" hole for the smoke tube. So far we have used it three times and the first use was for salmon filets that were great - I cooked them a little longer than usual but at a very low heat and had smoke on all the time and the last use was for chicken wings that were also great - a little over done but this is still early on the learning curve.
The unit weighs about 2.5# and is about 8"X4"X 10". It will probably fit inside my small Weber charcoal Go Anywhere grill. I prefer to use this grill with charcoal (but it is available in gas also) because of its size and weight. I can't see carrying 40# to 100# of large bulky grill/smoker ( Weber Q or Coleman Roadtrip?) in the basment of the MH. I don't think that i even need to drill a hole in the Go Anywhere grill as I can use one of the vent holes in the grill.
2) Refillable propane bottles:
Manchester Tank is advertising a refillable 1# bottle. I found them on ebay for about $40.00+ but if you buy several 1# disposables over the season the new refillable will pay for itself quickly. They have to be refilled from an existing larger tank 5# or above I know that there are people selling adapters to refill the disposable one pound bottles and apparently a lot of these disposable bottles are being refilled whether it is safe or legal at all. I personally have no interest in refilling the disposable for safety and liability concerns. Since I now carry a 2.5 gallon ( 11#) propane tank I can refill this 1# bottle if I should decide to get one.
3) I just got a new 2.5 Gal Manchester propane tank and when I tried to fasten my Coleman 30" propane mast (tree) the new type OPD fitting extended further from the tank body than the old style tank. Consequently the Coleman tree would not grip the neck of the fitting to hold it upright.
When I contacted Coleman they suggested buying a new tree ($40.00) - for product liability reasons they aparently wouldn't offer any solution. I plan to cut a couple of pieces of steel flat bar stock that I already have and screw or rivet it to the sheet metal gripper jaws at the bottom of the Coleman tree. Has anyone had this same experience and did you get a solution or just buy a new Coleman tree?
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Beth, Lee and Buster (AKA Busticator, 14# King of All Pomeranians - Protector of His People)
2007 40' HR Ambassador & 2005 CR-V
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