The Texas BBQ Forum

I have been wanting to add a food warmer to my collection, but don't want to drop a ton on a big commercial unit that would take up way to much space. I'm just looking to hold briskets and other foods at 140-170 degrees. My oven only gets down to 175 degrees and I don't trust a cooler to hold that temps overnight. I really don't want my RTIC drink cooler to smell like BBQ either. I have enough coolers and tents that do that already. So, I've seen people talking about using those electric Masterbuilt or similar smokers as holding ovens. I just can't find specs on how low they go.

Has anyone tried this before? I see they are cheap enough on the marketplace and just wanted to know which ones people have experience with. I was counting on electric, but I would take propane in a pinch.

It sounds like you have the answers

No experience with an electric smoker, but have you thought about a turkey roaster? Those can get down to 150, you just have to get the temp knob and actual temp inside mapped out.

I had a cookshack electric smoker I believe it was a sm005 those are no longer made, that I used for years until I gave it to a neighbor in a patio clean up effort.
in the end of our use of it we would bake potatoes and such, it would have worked great as a warmer.
the only problem was it needed a digital thermometer, so I used a maverick or similar, 130 degrees was a good low on that smoker, it also worked great as a dehydrator one just had to open the door to "dump" the humidity from time to time

From what I've seen, some of them only go down to 225 degrees or so. The Pit Boss ones can hit 150, so they might be my option. A full sized warmer looks to be cost and space prohibitive for now.