My in-laws own a very heavy, custom, smoker that they do not and will not use. I am trying to find out what it is worth so that I can A) pay them a mutually beneficial price for the thing or B) give them some idea of what would be a fair asking price. I'm very happy with my current setup so I don't know whether or not I'm going to end up buying the thing.

Can anyone offer any thoughts on what it might be worth? In exchange for any useful information, and assuming I don't end up putting it in my backyard, they have agreed that I can market the pit to fellow TexAgs users for a reasonable price before they go the CraigsList/Facebook Marketplace route.




Smoker is on heavy duty casters. FIrebox is below cooking chamber with smoke stacks on each side. The main chamber is 5-ft long and 24" diameter (1/4" steel).


Lid is 1/2" steel. Cooking area is ~8 sq ft.


Fire box is 36" w x 27" d (1/2" steel)


View of 1/4" steel cooking chamber

A few more detail shots below.






I believe the pit is on the order of 5-7 years old. The thing is clearly not brand new but all of the steel appears to be in very good shape aside from a little rust on the surface.

TIA for any help

The hardest thing you don't know is how much the original builder was paid for their time. Was it put together by a high school shop class, a mid range guy by himself, or super high end shop with a lot of people working in it? Welds look pretty good and I don't see any obvious bad spots or anything.

Just going by what I know on mine, which is made out of a 250 gallon propane tank by a family friend that didn't let us charge him near enough for his time, cost me about $1,200.....I'm just going to spitball guess here of $1-2k would be a fair price. And someone might come behind me and say something completely different. I'm just guessing based on it's decent metal at 1/4 inch, the size of the pit, and it's age. Now whether you get a "friends and family" discount or not, is a whole different number as well.

So anyways, hope that helps.

I don't know what they originally paid for it. I know the work was commissioned at least in part due to a longstanding business relationship. As such, i haven't bothered to dig too much into the backstory because i figure whatever i learn wouldn't really help me gauge the "original purchase price."

Those are my thoughts exactly if i wind up holding onto it. I'll keep this in mind if they decide they want to sell it and i opt to not mess with it.

I have to say, I'm an offset guy so i wasn't 100% sure what i was looking at. I think it is a very solidly built pit, but my first instinct was that it is not currently set up to be an optimal smoker. I would immediately shut-in one of the smoke stacks and convert it to a reverse draw of sorts if i kept it.

DeWrecking Crew said:

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This is just my opinion, family dynamics notwithstanding...that pit is not well designed. However, it does look like the design was executed well (welds look good).

The deciding factor to determine if it is worth buying is the size of the hole between firebox and cooking chamber, do you have that info? From what I can see on the pictures, the math is all wrong on that pit. The firebox is improperly sized and the stacks are too short. In addition, the stacks are oddly placed for optimum draw. I think it'll make a nice grill more than a smoker, but it is definitely some good metal to work with.

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this.

not sure what the geometry of the top of the firebox is like, but at minimum the center of the grilling surface will be getting direct heat at way too high a temp for smoking.

I'd never be able to control temp on that unit evenly in the cooking area - took me forever to learn to master that on a high end offset firebox. i'd overcook the outside of anything I tried to smoke on that unit, probably.

agreed that nice workmanship though.

Everyone has a smoker design in their head, I see this in my business daily. The problem is many don't work, IE flow well and maintain consent heat on a longer cook. As stated above, the design is certainly not indicative to flowing well. There is, however quite a bit of expensive materials (at today's prices) that were used and again built well, if you take out the design factor. At today's cost, the material would be somewhere around a thousand, give or take a couple of hundred. If you plan to use it for relative quick things, chicken, ribs, or anything that can be done in 3-4 hrs, you shouldn't have a problem. If you are looking to to briskets, or pork butts or anything that requires 12-14+ hrs, I think you would be disappointed.

Well, here we are, about 15 months later. My in-laws have finally decided they are interested in selling the pit. They are getting ready to put it on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of $1600, negotiable.

If anyone is interested in having a look/making an offer shoot me a PM. It is located in Spring, TX

As a backyard BBQ enthusiast, I acknowledge the input above. As is, i think the thing is more of a BBQ pit and less of a smoker. Tons of good material and a design someone might be able to work with. I don't have the time, motivation, tools, or vision to do anything with it but it's a cool looking piece of steel.

There is a solid piece of steel that runs *nearly* the full width of the cooking chamber above the fire box. It's possible there are multiple plates with air space. I honestly can't tell exactly how the baffle was designed but direct heat does not seem to be an issue. The biggest issue is the inability to direct the smoke across the cooking surface rather than around each side and out the smoke stacks.

TIA

i'd spend a half day cleaning that thing up if you hope to get anywhere close to that price

just my opinion...