What your Smokai Smoke Generator is

• Isn't getting into smoking expensive?

  It can be, if the path you take is a dedicated smoker. A Smokai Smoke Generator on the Weber Q you already own is a different path: a fraction of the price of a pellet grill, with more range than most dedicated smokers and doesn’t take up any more space outside than your Q.

  It's economical to run, too. You only burn the wood each job needs: a small load for an afternoon cook, or a single 1L hopper of pellets for up to 12 hours of smoke.

  No second appliance on the deck, no new fuel system. Your Q, doing more.

• Can such a compact unit really produce that much smoke for so long?

  The Smoke Generator runs on 2-10mm sized wood chip, or 100% hardwood BBQ pellets, available from most BBQ stockists.  

  On its lowest setting, the Smokai 1L Classic Smoke Generator runs for up to 12 hours on a single hopper of hickory hardwood pellets. Pellets are dense, compressed hardwood and burn longer than 2-10mm wood chip.

  The 1L hopper holds far more burn time than its size suggests. The gravity-fed design and controlled airflow convert that wood into smoke at the rate you set. Exact run time depends on your smoke volume setting, your wood (chips burn faster than pellets), wood variety, and conditions.
  Whatever you load, you're measuring smoke in hours, not minutes.

• Why does “Made in New Zealand” matter?

  Because we're relentless about quality: the materials, the component manufacturing, the quality control, the testing, the performance. Keeping production in our New Zealand factory is what lets us hold that standard at every step.

  It shows in the details. Certified, heavy-duty 304L stainless steel, milled into tube on site to AS 1528.1, the standard for stainless steel tube in food processing and other hygienic applications. Every Smoke Generator passes through multiple checks at a tube manufacturing level, component production level, again as a completed assembly, and is then delivered assembled.

  Even the few parts that we have to source offshore from the most reputable manufacturers are held to the same bar: air pumps custom-built to our specification to match the Smoke Generator, and independently certified high-temperature, food-safe silicone tube to feed the air to the burn.
  We've built them this way since 2011. We do things right or not at all.

• Should I soak the wood first?

  Soaking exists as a workaround for smoker boxes sitting over direct heat, with no way to control the burn. A Smokai Smoke Generator controls the burn with airflow instead, converting dry wood into consistent smoke at the volume you set.

  Keep your pellets and chips dry. The Smoke Generator does the rest.

• Can it do everything a dedicated smoker can?

  Where it counts, it does more. Most dedicated smokers, vertical smokers and pellet grills included, are hot-smoking machines that produce whatever smoke they produce, with little control over volume. Pellet grills in particular, for all their convenience, are routinely criticized for light smoke flavour.

  A Smokai Smoke Generator on your Weber Q gives you the two things most of them can't: adjustable smoke volume to suit your taste, and true cold smoking. Cold smoke cheese, butter, salmon, or bacon with no heat at all. Hot smoke low & slow with the Q supplying exactly the heat you want and the Smoke Generator supplying fresh, wood-fired smoke.

  One setup: cold smoking, hot smoking, and full smoke control. That's more versatility than most dedicated smokers on the market.