Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the LIZZQ Premium Pellet Smoker Tube.  Up until now I recommended a tube made by a company called Cave Tools.  I loved it but it has now been “out of stock” for almost a year, I think the supply chain crunch killed it.  Smoker tubes are too wonderful for me not to have one in the TspAz catalog so I went out to find the best one actually available on the market today.

Out of the gate you can get smoker tubes for as little as 10 bucks and they do work, all of them “work” the key is how well, how long and how practical are they for real smoking use.

If you want to save a few bucks sure just search Amazon for “pellet smoker tube” and take your pick.   If you want to follow my “always be frugal never be cheap” law of life, get this one or one as much like it as possible.  You can spend an extra 5 bucks and have a tool you can use for years or “save” 5 bucks and toss out a warped and damaged tool in a year or less while saying bad words like cheap I may add.

I broke down the criteria to get “the best” as follows.  Note I did not say the best for the price but the best.  While best for the price is something I teach there is also a cost threshold to look at as well.  Once you are under a certain price point, just get the best you can find.  When the best of something is 20 bucks or and likely is a multi year or longer purchase, stop doing math and get on with living or in this case cooking.

The Criteria for me Here Are…

• • Construction – the gauge of the steel should be heavy to prevent warping.  While the gauge was not stated reviews of it were positive.  To make sure I could recommend this one I ordered one, it is just as heavy as the one I used to recommend.  Heavy steel equals long life in a tool like this.
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  • Design – this tube is well thought out.  It is easy to fill, easy to use and creates a great flow of smoke.  I have tried some others that tend to flare up or fizzle out.  The key seems to be the diameter of the tube and the size of the holes, along with proper use.  More on that in today’s TspAz segment on the show.
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  • Capacity – many times I want to put some smoke on something short duration like a steak or chops sure.  The real point to smoke though is “low and slow”.  Tubes actually work better (volume of smoke) the longer they run.  (more on that in a bit).  The last thing you want is to be 2 hours into a 8 hour cook and need to refill (restart) your tube.  There is also a reality here.  Any meat will only “take smoke” beyond the bark anyway for so long, once it reaches a sufficient temp it stops taking smoke.  Hence you want your smoke to simply run for you up to that point.  This tube when full provides 5 hours of smoke.  That is plenty for anything you are going to cook using a smoke tube.  This sees to how practical, volume equals long duration use without a reload.

Based on the above this tool is “the best” currently available in my opinion, that doesn’t mean no other product is as good, it simply means for what it is, it is very hard to do much better.    There are some things to know about using this tube or any tube in my view anyway.

• 1. As I said the longer it runs the better it gets as to volume of smoke.  If you are doing a pork roast for 5 hours this likely does not even matter but the first time I used mine I just put some smoke on burgers.  An hour later I came out and thought I left the burners on the grill and had a grill fire going, instead it was the smoker just doing its job.  Billowing smoke poured out of the grill vents.  I dumped a glass of water on it, went back inside.  An hour later it was billowing still!  The lesson, if you want smoke on a burger or something quick, start the smoker 30 minutes or even more before you start cooking if you want heavy smoke on it.
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  2. They work best full but as above putting them out is not practical.  I am pretty sure if you used enough water to do it, the pellets would expand to pulp and be useless.  So follow the instructions and put some foil inside the tube and limit it to what you need, with a little extra because pellets are cheap and all.
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  3. Use a torch to light it and give it a really good start then LET IT BURN for a good 3-5 minutes.  Don’t worry it won’t all get on fire, it won’t take out too many pellets too fast, it will all be just fine.  Then let it run (smoke) with the grill open for another 3-5 minutes before closing down the hood.  Don’t soak the dang pellets either.  They are compressed sawdust not wood chips.  All you will end up with if you do this is mush.
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  4. While it is a good idea to have the grill running under it for a bit when you start it, you can cold smoke and there is no real need to have any heat below it once it is running.  Once it is running right it will run for hours and hours with no heat under it.  In fact I think you should avoid heat under it, if you ever get flare ups, it will only be because of heat under it.  Put it on a cool spot on the grill.  Trust me on this.

This is a great item for anyone with a gas or charcoal grill.  For 14 bucks you end up with a “pellet smoker” without another expensive large item on your deck or porch.  And unlike a smoker you can sear, cook fast, etc. or smoke low and slow.  Yes you can do it with foil pouch and wood chips, I have done so many times.  That works, but this works better and in the end it is more efficient and hence more economical over the long run.  As always, be frugal not cheap!

So check out the LIZZQ Premium Pellet Smoker Tube today and take your grill master skills up a notch.  With well over 7,000 review and a 4.5 star total rating you know it is top quality.  Frankly if you wanted to beat the hell out of someone with a blunt object, this thing is up to the job.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – Here is another cool hack for you Kettle Heads, (like me) or you can really do it with any grill.  Put the smoker down in the bottom of the grill and run your flame on the other side.  Return the grate and let the smoke waft over your meat from below.  DO NOT put it directly under it as it can cause flare ups, but in most grills there is plenty of room for this. This is also THE WAY to use this for cold smoking.  I have been doing my home made sausage this way for a while.  And I no longer even miss my long since deceased Bradley Smoker.  And if you are thinking man I could run two of these at one time, YES YOU CAN and I like the way you think.