Smoke source

[rkh1911]

Tube or maze. Which do you prefer and why. I'm fixen to buy one just don't know if one is better than the the other.

 

[Lonzinomaker]

Depends, I have both. Maze for 10+ hours of smoke, tube for 2-6 hr of smoke and smaller footprint. Of course you don't have to fill the maze up so you can get shorter smokes with it.
For my #3, I use the tube more frequently because I can tent it with foil to keep drippings off it easier than the tray.  I did have to put grounding clamp on end so it sits at an angle to keep it burning.

 

[LuvMyQ]

OK.  I assume these are for pellets. I am definitely in need of some education on them.  Can someone answer a couple of questions?

1.  What advantage do these get you over the traditional SI firebox? 
2.  Where do you place it in the SI?

 

[LarryD]

1.  What advantage do these get you over the traditional SI firebox? 

I don't have one (yet), so I can only answer the first question.    If you want to cold smoke then you can use your SI smoker as just the container and use one of these smoke producing devices to provide the smoke.  This keeps the temperatures significantly lower and means you don't have to get the cold-smoke plate accessory.

I actually have the cold-smoke plate and have done cheese a couple times, ham once, and bacon once for cold-smoking.  What this looks like is using chips of wood instead of chunks, putting in the cold-smoke plate, using the drip tray to hold ice on top of the cold-smoke plate, and then cycling the power on my #2 for 15 minutes on and 30-40 minutes off multiple times.  The cycling is to get the wood smoking, but to not keep applying heat in the smoker as I don't want to significantly raise the temperature in the smoker.  It works, but it is admittedly a bit of a hassle.

 

[rkh1911]

Think I'm going to get one of each. Can you burn chips in them or are they pellets only.

 

[tomd8]

I can speak for the tube as I have used the 12inch version in one of my older smokers.  I've added some chips in with pellets and they burn through but I can't really say how efficient they are since they don't pack very tight.  Pellets of course pack tightly and once lit a half tube would give me 2.5-3 hrs of smoke.  Since I've only used the tube during a hot smoke I can't substantiate how much heat the glowing pellets radiate when used in a cold smoke.

 

[azbohunter]

I have the A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER 5X8 tray and have used it in my #3 for doing jerky and fish. I prefer using dust over pellets as I think dust burns cooler. Keep in mind that with the tray you can burn dust or pellets, with the tubes they recommend pellets only.
I have had trouble keeping the dust burning without the use of a jerky fan. With that combination I can smoke at 100 degrees if I chose to.