Help I'm about to take my 1st smokey breath

[arran]

Hello

I'm Arran and I'm a complete newbee !

I've been studying for months and driving my wife mad about buying a smoker. It started out with a friend singing the praises of his WSM. After reading many posts I discovered the pro q range.

As I don't have any bbq apart from a 10yr old weber smokey joe I felt that the versitality of te pro q will give me more bbq freedom.

Finance dictates that I get the frontier and I just have a few questions before I buy that I'm hoping u professionals might help
Me with and more importantly make me bite the bullet and buy it.

How well does the frontier work as a grill I'm a little concerned with the grill space?

I'm going to prob buy it from garden xl because they are the cheapest and are offering a free cover, @ £189. Is this the best price ?

Shall I go for the pro q chinenea starter or is the weber chinenea starter still the best?
is the pro q rib rack good they are £15 at garden xl or are there better ones to get?

Please excuse my tying as its on a smart phone ( I'm tying while te wife is asleep , feels like I'm almost cheating on her)

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Arran

[Saucy Pig]

Hi Arran
First off welcome to the forums. You should be able to find pretty much everything you need to know on here somewhere.

The ProQ are a great range. If its versatility you're after there's not much better. They smoke great and grill just fine also.
You should be good with the frontier for whatever it is you need. Although if you're worried about grill space you can get the double layer grills, that might be the way to go also.(there's a review on here somewhere) I bought the rib rack and proq chimney all at the same time and have never had a problem with either. The rib rack is small enough to do baby backs and spares unlike some of the larger models. Buying stuff designed for the proq you're also never going to have to worry about things fitting properly.

I like grilling on my Excel as by adding stackers I can vary the heat applied to the food and you don't get flare ups. Just the bottom on its own makes a great camping BBQ or fire pit for the garden on chilly evenings too.

Hope that helps a little, any other questions feel free to ask.

Nick

[paulfire]

hi Arran
i got my proQ excel in May and I am still finding my way around the black arts we call BBQing. you will have loads of fun and probably some disasters too, the thing is you learn more from the things that go wrong.
after settling on pork shoulder joints to experiment with, three non-succesfull attempts at through the night cooking followed. then i took the advice of seasoned veterans and got some heat beads, now my first success at pulled pork AND did'nt need to start cooking till 0830.
any advice you need and friendly chat too is here, good luck.