Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load Electric Smoker
Jerky & fish pick — A plug-in aluminium smoke box with no controls: a fixed element holds about 165°F, five racks take up to 50 lb, and the chip pan slides out without opening the door. Built for fish, jerky and sausage. 4.4★ across 1,133.
Contender in the Lightweight division — The Best Electric Smokers of 2026: The East Oak That Runs Four Hours on a Load of Chips, the Masterbuilt Its Maker Stopped Selling, and the 40-Inch Nobody Tested
Specs
| Temperature | Fixed, about 165°F — no controls |
| Element | 450 W (Smokehouse’s product page; its repair kit page says 400 W) |
| Cooking area | Not published — 5 racks, up to 50 lb |
| Chip loading | Front chip pan, removable without opening the door |
| Meat probe | None |
| Weight | 17.6 lb (listing) |
| Owner rating | 4.4★ / 1,133 |
| Warranty | 2 years, parts defective in material or workmanship, original owner (Smokehouse) |
| Model | 9894-000-0000 |
Pros
- 4.4★ across 1,133 on a single listing, every visible review a verified purchase from a US buyer
- Built for the low end: about 165°F with nothing to set, five racks and up to 50 lb — fish, jerky, sausage and cheese
- A two-year warranty with no channel clause, and Smokehouse sells the element, cord and racks as parts
- Light (17.6 lb) and simple; the chip pan comes out without opening the door
Cons
- It cannot cook meat on its own: the element holds about 165°F, and Serious Eats and The Spruce Eats both report it never reached a food-safe cooking temperature
- Thin aluminium: four of the ten latest critical reviews are dents or shipping damage
- The handle gets very hot, Reviewed’s tester warns
- Sold by Hearthshire, a reseller at 78% positive feedback, not by Smokehouse or Amazon
- Smokehouse’s own pages disagree on the element: 450 W on the product page, 400 W on the repair kit
Heat, then shipping damage. "doesn’t even get hot enough to get the racks warm"; "Temperature never got near the160+ degrees promised in the manual. After 10 hours, baby back ribs were still raw in the center"; "It holds a lot of fish and it will produce smoke like crazy. The only downfall is it doesn’t get hot enough without being insulated"; and boxes that arrive "completely dented everywhere". One owner’s unit tripped the ground-fault outlet on every plug-in.
92 critical written reviews on 2026-10-03; the ten most recent read (Jul 10, 2024 – May 16, 2026), 9/10 Verified Purchase: not hot enough or meat not cooked 4, dented on arrival 4, tripped a GFCI 1, flimsy 1. One- and two-star are 10% of 1,133. · critical reviews read October 2026
“This is perfect for smoking fish. I love it.”— Daniel Firth, Amazon · Verified owner
Pro review “It produced a ton of good-quality smoke, and we would have loved this smoker for smoked fish or vegetables. But, it didn’t do so well on our smoked brisket test because it has a non-adjustable temperature setting of 165°F.”Hands-on smoker test (brisket at 250°F); the page links this listing— Lindsay D. Mattison, Reviewed (USA Today)
FAQ
Who is the Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load Electric Smoker for?
You smoke salmon, jerky, sausage or cheese and want a light box that holds about 165°F with nothing to set — 4.4★ across 1,133 owners, five racks, up to 50 lb — and you will never ask it to cook a brisket, because it cannot.
What do owners say about the Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load Electric Smoker?
4.4★ across 1,133 owner ratings (Amazon, read October 2026). What owners complain about: Heat, then shipping damage. "doesn’t even get hot enough to get the racks warm"; "Temperature never got near the160+ degrees promised in the manual. After 10 hours, baby back ribs were still raw in the center"; "It holds a lot of fish and it will produce smoke like crazy. The only downfall is it doesn’t get hot enough without being insulated"; and boxes that arrive "completely dented everywhere". One owner’s unit tripped the ground-fault outlet on every plug-in.
What is the warranty on the Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load Electric Smoker?
2 years, parts defective in material or workmanship, original owner (Smokehouse)
Does the Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load Electric Smoker warranty still apply if I buy it on Amazon?
Smokehouse answers that in its own warranty document, which we read on 2026-10-03: All claims submitted must be accompanied with an explanation of defect and date and place of purchase. We quote the maker rather than deciding your case — read the document before you buy if the warranty is why you are buying.
Record
- — Added as the jerky and fish pick in the electric smoker showdown: 4.4 stars across 1,133, a fixed ~165°F box. Three credentialed tests agree it smokes well and cannot cook meat on its own.
Warranty — and what changes if you buy it on Amazon
2 years, parts defective in material or workmanship, original owner (Smokehouse) · you are buying this on Amazon
All claims submitted must be accompanied with an explanation of defect and date and place of purchase.
Smokehouse’s own warranty document · read
Read it yourself: Smokehouse warranty document · we read it . Terms change without announcement, so treat this as a dated snapshot. How warranty works by buy path →
✓ Safety: no active recall — CPSC recall API checked 2026-10-03: RecallTitle=electric smoker → 4 (Char-Broil 24116, Masterbuilt 13241 and 06173, an unbranded 2006 recall 06074); control RecallTitle=Peloton → 5. RecallTitle=Smokehouse → 0, RecallTitle=Big Chief → 0; Health Canada "big chief", "smokehouse" → no smoker recall. No Smokehouse recall. It holds about 165°F: finish meat and poultry to a safe internal temperature on another cooker.
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Data last verified: October 2026. Ratings are real, dated reads — never scraped or invented. Full methodology and monetization disclosure: how we test.