Tremore Breeze Smoker

Heat rises, making every smoker hotter at the top of the cooking chamber than the bottom. The Tremore Breeze creates a kind of turbulence inside its cooking chamber which evens out the heat so that meats do not have to be shifted from top to bottom for them to cook at the same rate. This is just one of the unique features that make this one of the best charcoal smokers money can buy. The issue you have to seriously think about is the price. While a large unit, the actual cooking chamber is relatively small and at $5,500 if you think about this purchase in terms of cooking capacity, this is one of the most expensive smokers on the market.

The Tremore Breeze really is a brilliantly designed smoker. I could spend a lot of time talking about the reverse flow air control and the bottom pull venting that gives the cooking chamber an amazingly even heat, but I won't go into that. If you are interested you can find videos on the Tremore Breeze Website. Suffice to say that it works, and it works very well.

What is most impressive, isn't the technical achievements but how easy this smoker is to use. The first design feature that stands out is the single vent control. The Breeze controls only how air enters the firebox and not how air leaves the the cooking chamber. Of course the genius of the design makes this possible, but the benefit is very real, and it is very simple.

The basic operation is to open the vent, add a few pounds of charcoal, and as the manufacturer recommends light with lighter fluid. Once the coals (use only natural charcoal as with any gravity feed smoker) are glowing hot, add the charcoal for the period of cooking (up to 30 pounds), adjusts the vent to the desired temperature, and start smoking. As a smoker the Breeze is more than competent. Temperature control isn't just simple, it is quick and responsive. Because the heat source is independent of the cooking chamber, recover time is short, and the cooking chamber holds its heat well when you open the door. Smoke production is very good, even with small amounts of wood.

There is one thing in particular that I like to see in any charcoal powered cooker and that is the ability to cut the oxygen flow to snuff the fire when you are done cooking. The vent control on the Breeze does not close the air flow so this unit can not be easily shutdown. This isn't as much a design flaw as part of the design. This smoker is designed to start from with an empty firebox. This means that there is not easy way to reserve unused charcoal for the next cook.

The real issue with this unit is the price and the size of the cooking chamber. While the Breeze stands five feet tall and nearly as long the cooking chamber is actually small. With about 5.4 cubic feet of space, and a standard 1260 square inches on the three included cooking grates, this isn't actually a large smoker. When you compare the cooking capacity with the $5,000USD price tag this grill costs $4.00USD per square inch of cooking space, making it one one of the most expensive smokers on the market.

The question anyone who considers buying this smoker needs to ask themselves is the price worth the capacity. Yes, this is a brilliantly designed smoker that is both attractive and durable. The construction quality excellent and if you have a lot of money to spend, and don't need to cook for a restaurant, then this is an excellent choice, abet an expensive one.