Gateway Drum Smokers Grills & Smokers

The competition drum: a full 55-gallon barrel with three grate positions, two welded air-adjusting intake pipes and an adjustable exhaust, finished in a coating rated to 1000°F rather than ordinary powder coat. Unlike the Pit Barrel, this one is meant to be dialled - the intakes and the stack are both adjustable and there is a fixed 3-inch Tel-Tru-style dial in the centre of the lid. It arrives fully assembled on a pallet with a caster kit, which is why it weighs 130 lbs boxed. The Sizzle 55G at $1,399 is the same drum with a gloss finish and logo plate.

Gateway's 30-gallon drum: the same welded intakes, adjustable stack, 1000°F-rated finish and center-mounted dial as the 55G, in a barrel roughly half the volume with two grate levels instead of three and an 18-inch grate instead of 22. It is the one to buy if you cook for a family rather than a crowd but still want the damper control and build quality of the competition drum. Gateway's own product page notes a fuel load runs about five to seven hours.