During the summer when we are at the beach house, I spend a lot of time making bbq with a smoker. Big piece of equipment. I spend hours tending the fire keeping it just right. I’ve tried to do that in the winter but depending on the weather it can be a chore as I can’t sit outside with a cold adult beverage.
So I bought myself a little holiday gift. This would let me test things out during the winter inside 300 feet above. GE profile indoor smoker.
Then added some sausage an hour before the end. You can see the smoke swirling around. With the door closed there was no smoke and just a pleasant smell of bbq in the air.
The end of my first try. Outcome so so. The temperature and time I used was based on my outdoor experience. Turns out with such a compact efficient space I overcooked it. It was better than 90% of what you get in NYC but I need to cut back on time and temp.
Really interesting, thanks for posting! I’ve been eyeing a pellet smoker but as I live in a cold region this is perhaps a better idea.
I’m curious about how dirty the interior gets after a session? I’m guessing based on your description of not being able to smell the smoke, that it’s pretty well sealed. So I’m wondering if the smoke particles collect on all of the inside surfaces. And followup to that, how easy is it to clean?
Also, how low can it go? Do you think it can do cold smoking?
Clean up is easy. The racks come out and go in to the dishwasher along with the drip tray. The interior then is easy to wipe down with a sponge. The filtration works well so that there is no smoke coming out. Lowest temperature is too high for cold smoking. Low enough to make hot smoked salmon but too high for smoked salmon.
How would you compare the overall “smoke” results (intensity etc) compared to your regular smoker. We have been eyeing this unit but have read very different reviews ranging from very comparable to “regular” smoker to terrible with hardly any smoke flavor
You can adjust the smoke to five different levels. I don’t know how someone would say that the smoke wasn’t noticeable unless they were predisposed to not liking the concept of an indoor smoker. When you stand by the unit, you can smell a hint of smoke even when you don’t see it. When you open it smoke comes pouring out. I have a large overhead externally venting hood that I turn on at a low setting when I use the smoker to pull any residual smell and smoke out. I am still fiddling with the settings to find out what works best. But there’s more control and also ease of use than my big outdoor smoker. While I can’t cook six racks of ribs I can make plenty for a dinner for 6.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
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Fun food, fun toys, fun overall! Nice thread start.
That’s very helpful information. A few more questions if it is OK with you - What is the temperature range if the smoker? Do you have to use specific pellets which are only available through GE or can you use any commercially available? And you mentioned that you use a venting hood for the smoker - do you think it is necessary to have one when using the smoker. (The best place for us for such a smoker would be in the basement/garage which doesn’t have any ventilation but some slight smoke smell wouldn’t be too bad as long as it is not overwhelming as we have other food items/“experiments” ongoing in that space which wouldn’t benefit from a very penetrating smoke environment)
I have a question too; how do the smoking times compare with what you do outside? Would you say it takes about the same amount of time once you get the temp sorted out?
The idea that it cleans so easily is attractive! I tell myself the debris buildup over the years inside my outdoor electric smoker adds to the flavor.
I have a Weber Smokey mountain and it easily maintains a constant temp, summer or winter, for 8-10 hours. Wondering which smoker you have that requires so much attention?
Anyhow, I can’t use our smoker in our nyc apt so i almost bought this smoker during the kickstarter phase (before GE purchased the oven) but it was difficult to read the tea leaves from various paid reviewers. Post-GE acquisition, real reviews started showing up on YT and I became convinced that the smoke would a) linger in our apt for days and b) drift into our neighbors apt. Also, physically, the unit seemed to take up more space than anyone anticipated.
Looking at your impressive results, I’m starting to feel a twinge of regret! No complaints from neighbors?
I’m not @vinouspleasure, but I have a Charbroil Silver Smoker offset, and that sucker goes through charcoal like I own stock in Kingsford. I have a charcoal basket that holds probably about 8 quarts of briquets, and I fill it with unlit charcoal, light a full chimney, and dump the lit coals on top. With that setup, it’ll go for only 4-5 hours before needing to be refueled. I would love to have a WSM, but my wife would probably tell me to make sure there’d be room next to it to unroll my sleeping bag on a permanent basis.
Charbroil are not know for engineering great smokers. My suggestion is to scour Facebook marketplace for a lightly used wsm in your area for < $100 and chuck (or give away) the charbroil. I paid $65 for one that had been used twice and the owner threw in four bags of charcoal, fire starters and other stuff.
if that doesn’t work for you, you can improve the airflow in the charbroil by adding high heat gaskets to the places where smoke leaks, raise the fire on a grate or basket to create airflow under the fire, add a baffle near the firebox to even out temps, extend the chimney closer to the grate to get more smoke moving across the meat and treat the outside for rust.
Try googling charbroil silver smoker modifications for more detail.
I’ve done all kinds of modifications, and I’m happy with my CBSS, FWIW. I extended the chimney down to grate level, the basket is one I had a friend weld up using some expanded metal and it rests above the floor of the firebox, and the doors seal pretty well. I also installed a baffle in cooking chamber just ‘downstream’ of the firebox to get better heat/smoke circulation. It works pretty well with the mods, it just goes through a lot of charcoal.
Answering some of the questions that have been posted.
You can use other pellets. There was a small bag that came with the unit. I bought a 20 pound bag from Amazon and they work fine. A cup of pellets last several hours. Temp range is 125 to 300. Time for cooking is shorter than on my outdoor smoker. Also use lower temp. The unit is insulated so the heat retention is much better than most smokers. I turn on the hood vent just to pull the residual smell out. I think it’s fine to use without a vent. There was no smoke other than when I opened the door. Easy to clean. Pull the racks out and into the dishwasher. Wipe down the inside with a sponge and hot water. Done in 5 minutes.
I was intrigued and went looking for information.
This review explains some of how this works as a closed system.
Don’t think I can justify spending $500 though
it was $599-$649 on Indiegogo (kickstarter-like platform) when they were raising money. Pretty happy I didn’t purchase it back then, I think it’s prob too big for our space and we now have a bungalow where I can use a wsm (though one of my neighbors yelled at me last summer and reported me to the property manager )
Came across this thread doing a Google search and signed up. I haven’t been here since the old, old, very old Chowhound days lol (I might have been PangurBanTheCat back then, but I forget).
I moderate an indoor smoking group on Reddit (r/IndoorBBQSmoking), which I started specifically to cover appliances like the GE Indoor Smoker. A similar appliance, Livwell’s SmoqeX, has a Kickstarter ending today (although their smoke removal uses filters unlike the catalytic system in the GE). There’s also a group on Facebook.
Anyway, although I didn’t participate in the FirstBuild (subsidiary of GE Appliances) Indiegogo for the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker (called the Arden back then), I did purchased one of the first ones sold to the public (from BestBuy), so I’ve had one since Jan 2024.
I’m very happy with it. It really is a well-designed, well-built and easy to use appliance that actually does what it claims to do. The catalytic smoke removal (which is the same as the $9000 Monogram Hearth Oven uses) does work well. I conducted a poll of users on Reddit, and the food’s smoke level is approximately what you can achieve with the average outdoor pellet grill (YMMV). I do clean it every 2-3 uses, which takes 10 minutes scrubbing and I run the removable racks through the dishwasher each time. Will use any pellets, although long ones may clog the auger. I usually use B&B Championship Blend (same as BBQr’s Delight). I’ve cooked wings, whole chicken, salmon, pork shoulder, ribs and turkey breast in it successfully (haven’t tried brisket). Better than what often goes for restaurant BBQ in the Boston area!
Goes on sale periodically for $499 from various Big Box stores, so I would wait until I see it for that price. Less than that sometimes, but much rarer.
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