ProQ Ranger Review

I’ve been smoking on ProQ bullet smokers for a fair few years now, having had a ProQ Frontier as my first real smoker. I’m a big fan of the way they have ease of control and good performance. There is a review of the ProQ Exel Elite which is the biggest in the range, the Frontier is the middle sized smoker, and the ranger is the smallest, with a diameter of 37cm and 1m tall.

The ProQ Ranger still comes as a 3 in 1 setup, with 2 stackers, you can use as a mini kettle (great for the beach) or setup who best suits you. There’s still plenty of space with both levels to cook on, you could easily cook 2 chickens, a couple of pork butts or smallish briskets.

Ribs are probably the trickiest as most racks of ribs will be too wide, but there are ways round this. I’ve enjoyed cooking sausages, smoking salmon and trout in it, and cooked lots of short rib in it very successfully.

The water pan also doubles as a wok, which is very useful, so keep an eye out for wok recipes using this feature in future.

I’ve found the size to be a good thing however, with cooks lasting 6/7 hours on a load of lumpwood at 120c, you can easily cook for 20-30 people. If you’re looking to cook bigger briskets and for more people you should look at the Rangers bigger stablemates. The build quality is excellent, and the first time I’ve got my hands on the Elite model, with thicker steel, stainless metalwork and grills, and better porcleain coating

If you have a bigger smoker already, a smaller smoker like this paired up can give you extra options too and is definitely worth considering.

It’s available from Hot Smoked for a £209

NB.I was given the ProQ Ranger for the purposes of the review, but have been free to test and share my experiences of using the smoker.