Smokehouse Products Little Chief Top Load Electric Smoker Silver, Medium

It is very difficult to get smoked fish in my area, so years ago I modified a rib-smoking over to reduce heat to a level consistent with fish smoking. I've had rave reviews from everyone who tasted smoked salmon and trout from my custom smoker. On a recent trip to Alaska, our host taught me his technique for fish smoking that used Little Chief electric smokers. After returning home I purchased one and was impressed not only in how simple it was to use, but also by the quality of the smoked fish. Since then my custom smoker has been completely replaced by using my Little Chief electric smoker, and I liked it so much that I purchased a 2nd one as a gift for a close friend. I strongly recommend this smoker.

Excellent box for cold smoking!! We bought a grill thermometer and drilled a hole and installed it to keep an eye on the temp. We haven't actually used the plug to turn on the element so can't say much for that. I will update review when we do.We next purchased an Iron Chef Smoker which is a cold smoke generator. It came with all of the necessary parts and great instructions for easy installation. It produces amazing smoke and we were able to keep our little chief smoke box to about 90 degrees! Ordered happily from eBay.We did not purchase the Iron chief insulation blanket due to the poor reviews, however we bought a roll of it at Ace Hardware for $21 and were able to custom tailor it! The insulation blanket raises the temp 20 or 30 degrees or hotter if we need. We can turn on the heating element that the unit comes with to bring up the temp even more if needed. Both the blanket and element might come in handy for those 0 degree days as we live in MT.The overall construction of the box is pretty good, it does what it needs to do! For the price it's great!If you're seeking a super easy way to adjust temperatures, this *cold* smoker is the ideal set up! We did a lot of research and we are extremely pleased with this!

I have had this model of top load little chief smoker for 35 years. I have bought many for gifts. You have to recognize you are getting a cold smoker. Tops it will produce 150 degrees maybe 170 if you use an insulated blanket. It is ideal for jerky, fish and the only smoker I know that does smoked cheese. I have smoked poultry, ribs and even half briskets to flavor them but have finished them in an oven. I like the top loader because you can pull the rack out and set it on two sticks, cover it with a garbage bag and smoke nearly heat free ...which is necessary for cheese. They are nearly fool proof and other than some careless dents and smoke discoloring, mine still works and looks good after 35 years. The element is easy to replace if need be. I would recommend buying 3 extra racks if you want to do very much jerky. I make hooks from coat hangers and suspend an extra rack below each of the top 3 racks. Apple chips are my go to flavor and you pretty much need to use smokehouse brand to get the right size chip.

Four Stars only as nothing is perfect, however for me at least this unit comes close and while several other reviewers commented on "low heat" problems my temperatures were well within acceptable ranges if in fact a bit too high (I was smoking jalapeno's for chipotle' and had some failrly well charred ones) but my fault more than the units.I would recommend this to anyone. My only suggestion would be that as it is a four rack unit it would be nice if "food grade" small mesh aluminum or silicon sheets, precut to rack size were included for smoking smaller foods or use as a dehydrator and yes I would pay a higher price for that.

Love this for smoking salmon.

If you buy this make sure it's exctly what you want because Amazon does not want you to return it. I've had to fight and fight. We never even took it out of the box. Ugh.

This past year, I purchased this smoker for my husband for Christmas. The only thing he's smoked in it so far is salmon, but OH MY GOODNESS!!! It tastes amazing! The smoker comes with a little recipe book and it's full of delicious sounding foods that we can't wait to try when the weather gets colder. The smoker is compact and well built. The wood chips that come with it smell amazing even before you burn them. The racks are EASY to clean and if you happen to burn something on them a little Easy Off oven spray does the trick. We invert the box and put it on top of the smoker instead of buying the insulating blanket and it works just fine. No fires, no burned cardboard. It's a trick we learned from my dad who has the same model, only 15 years older.

This is only and I repeat only a smoker. It will not cook meat. I had 4-3.5 pieces of beef on this thing for 10 hours and it was still raw. When I contacted the company, their response was smoke it for 3 trays of chips and then put it in your slow cooker, I should not have wasted the money and when I complained, there was no customer support.