Laurence Edwards compares the Dadant and Rouchboy smokers across twelve features. The Rouchboy wins on ergonomics, finish, and price, but the Dadant burns for 5 to 6 hours straight, which Edwards values most for larger operations.
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Hi, I'm Lawrence Ederson, Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today we're going to find out which smoker's best, the original Dadant or the Rouchboy. So I've done separate reviews of these smokers already. I've showed you the original Dadant smoker and I've showed you the Rouchboy smoker. Finally though, the time has come to show you which one of these smokers I think is the best smoker on the market. So in this video, we're not going to focus too much on each of the specific features. We've done them in separate videos showing the Daden and the Rouchboy. We're going to do it competition style though, and we're going to go through each one of those features, and I'm going to tell you which smoker I prefer for that specific feature. We'll tot up the scores at the end, and then I'll give you the verdict as to which is the best smoker on the international market. Right, so first things first, size of the smoker. Now the Dadant is the hands-down winner here. The Dadant is so much bigger than the Rouch Boy. When I looked at them originally, I thought there's not a huge amount in it. The Dadant does look a lot bigger. It's a 4-inch by 10-inch firebox, and then the Rouch Boy looks a lot smaller. It's a 4-inch by 7-inch firebox. But the way that these 2 smokers keep the fuel alight is very different. If you open up the Daydent, you get a complete full-size firebox, maybe minus an inch at the bottom for the trivet. If you open up the Rouchboy, you're limited to this size. So you're effectively comparing that size firebox there to that size firebox there. There's a clear winner here for me. I much prefer a big smoker, so the Daydent is my winner. Right, next one. Is the aesthetics of the smoker, and for me, there is only one winner here. It's the Rouch Boy. I much prefer the overall look of the Rouch Boy. This is my personal preference though. I'm not taken on that cone spouted look. I kind of prefer this Etna look with a smaller spout. You've got a nice brush effect on the, on the Rouch Boy. I prefer the dark leather of the bellows, the suede. I just think overall it's easier on the eye. I prefer the Rouch Boy, so now it's 1-all. Now the next one is a really important consideration when you're looking to buy yourself a smoker, and that is the action of the bellows. Now I find personally the Rouch Boy is a clear winner in this department as well. The action is much lighter, it's much wider, and it really does fire the air through the firebox really effectively. But the bigger consideration for me there is that Ease of use. I really find that easy to use, and when you're using a smoker for hours on end, the action of the bellows is really important. So for me, the Rouchboy is the winner in that department as well. Now that's not to say that the Daden isn't right. It, it works and it's fine. It's just a little bit harder to use. The mechanism, in terms of a quality function, I would say these are both equal. The mechanism's fine. I just find the Rouchboy a little bit easier Now the next one that we're going to talk about is the fit and finish of both of these models. And again, I'm steering towards the Rouchboy in terms of fit and finish. I find it's just more of a polished product. And I know a different company makes these now to the— to who made them originally, but I still just find there's no sharp edges. The little details are just that little bit better on the Rouchboy. The way that the smoker cage is pinned back inside, the way that it comes underneath. It's nicely done, but there's a little bit less rattle, whereas with the Deidant, things move around a little bit more. The fit and finish, I don't think, is quite as good. The metal bending— and even as I've just touched that there, I've snagged myself on a bit of a corner of this metal here where really it should be fully pushed in. These 2 aren't fully pushed in. There's a little bit of snagginess on the metal. The metal bending all around as well. I find it's a little bit snaggy, it's a little bit slapdash. I know other people have had this issue with the Dedent smokers as well. The quality is fine in terms of its function, but that fit and finish, I think the Rouchboy is more of a polished product. So it's getting a little bit in favor of the Rouchboy at this point. What does the Dedent have for it that's better than the Rouchboy? Now, one of the very minor points, and I will keep it as a category in here, is the pin. that connects the head of the smoker to the firebox. The Daden is a far superior model 'cause it's got a pinned variant, whereas the Rouch Boy is just a piece of bent metal. If that breaks, you're in real trouble, whereas the Daden, it's repairable. That's a really nice feature for the Daden, and I definitely let it be the winner in that category. Now, another really important consideration is the feel and connection that you get when you're closing the lid. And if you just feel both of these smokers, they both feel very tight. It's probably quite hard to draw a winner out of the two of them. Having used both of them, however, the Daden is by far and away the better seal. Don't think there's anything different in there. Maybe there's a bit of a design function in the way that they've bent the metal. But when you're using that bellow, the smoke comes out the front of the smoker and nothing comes and creeps out those sides. When you're using the Rouch Boy, you get the smoke coming out the front, but you also get smoke coming out the back, which is annoying because it can come into your face a little bit. But also it means that the fuel's not going to last quite as long. So I'd put the Deiden into the winning category for that one as well. Right, the next one, and probably the most important consideration when you're buying a smoker, is how well does it burn the fuel. And both of these smokers, these are premium smokers. These aren't £10 or £15 smokers that you're going to buy from China or somewhere cheap that are going to fall apart. They're going to last for ages. But the mechanism to drive the air into that fuel and keep that fuel burning for a really long time, they're both very, very good. And they both do it in a very different way. So the Dedum uses that steel trivet underneath, whereas the Rouchboy uses this cage. Now the cage limits the size of the firebox to that versus the much larger Daydon. However, the mechanism and the process of keeping that fuel alight is superior, I think, on the Rouchboy. And in terms of relightability, in terms of leaving the smoker there and coming back and it still being alight, the Rouchboy clinches it again because the way that the air can flow underneath that fuel as it does in a log burner. It keeps the fuel going, which means that it's much more reliable in terms of picking up the smoker and it being ready to use. Now, the next really important consideration is burn time. Now, it's a real easy winner for me here. The Deiden, if you're going for burn time only, you cannot beat the Deiden. It really cannot be beaten, solely down to the fact that it's considerably bigger, But if you can keep that fuel going, as I've showed you in previous videos, cardboard matting, hessian sacking, and log briquettes, this will go. And I've had this going for about 5 hours solid on one light of the smoker. So you— these two cannot compete. If you're looking at this video and saying, I want a smoker that's going to last as long as it practically can, it's the Deiden. There's nothing else on the market that can compete with the length of time you're going to get out of this smoker. But also isn't gonna fall apart within a year. So I've completely lost count at this point of, of who's winning. I'd say it's probably a draw up until now, but they're very different at different jobs. So we'll continue on and I'll talk to you more about the features of each of these smokers. Now, in terms of the material that's used to construct both of these smokers, I'm gonna give this one to the Rouch Boy. They're both made of stainless steel, a nice thick gauge of stainless steel. But the Rouchboy's got a nicer finish, but most importantly, when you give it a little bit of a squeeze, it feels more solid. It's very difficult to get a dent or a deflection into the Rouchboy, whereas with the Dadant, it's really easy to do that. You just push it in and it's going to dent on you. And there's not a massive issue with that, and I, I've had a smoker like this, the Dadant smoker, for 5 years before I ran over it with my truck, and it had dents and dings all over it. It still works. But if on a scoring basis, I think the Rouch Boy has got slightly better and slightly thicker stainless steel. Right, moving on to the cage then, and it goes back a little bit to the fit and finish. You can see on the Daydent it rocks around a little bit like that. They've tried to put these 2 underhanging pieces underneath there so that you can put it onto something and stop it burning. That doesn't work with the Daydent. You cannot put the Daydent onto a poly hive when it's lit. It will just melt straight through it. But on that cage, it's connected on, but there's quite a lot of movement there. Now with the Rouchboy, there's no movement in that cage. All of the bends are correct and they're pinning that cage to the firebox. But even better than that, you've got this lovely design where it bends around underneath the firebox and gives you a little bit of protection so you can put your smoker directly onto a polyhive. For me, really invaluable. So in terms of the the cage fit and finish and the design, I'm going to give that one to the Rouch Boy as well. Now in terms of cost, the Dayden in the UK is costing about £55. The Rouch Boy costs £47. So the Rouch Boy is the cheaper smoker, so it wins that round as well. And that's it. We've covered all of the main features of both of these smokers, and for me there is only one winner, and that is the Rouch. Now that doesn't mean that I'm not going to use my Dadant smoker. I'll probably continue to use my Dadant smoker over the Rouch Boy, even though all of those features there, we've gone through it one by one, I've scored them independently of each other and told you which one is the winner. However, I've not weighted those scores, and for me, my personal preference above everything else in a smoker is burn time. As long as I can keep that fuel going, which I can within the Daden, for me, getting a 4 or 5 hour burn time is paramount. And I would probably give that a weighting of 4 as opposed to the 1s and 1s I'd be giving out to all of them. That's what's important to me. So therefore, I would go with the Daden because that gives the longest possible burn time, and I know that I'm getting all of the quality that comes with this smoker as well. Okay, the fit and finish isn't as good, Okay, the mechanism for the bellows isn't quite as good in my opinion. Okay, I can't put it onto my polyhives, which is a little bit frustrating. But what I want is a smoker that will last for 5 or 6 hours as an absolute maximum. With this one, you've got to keep an eye on it, and you've got to make sure that you've constantly got fuel available, and you've got to make sure that you add additional fuel to the firebox. to get it up to temperature before it runs out. 'Cause if it runs out, you're back to square one and you're back to starting that fire from scratch. And for me, that's a real frustration and a reason that I won't use my Rouch Boy as much as I use my Daydon. So I hope you found that video useful. I hope you found it enjoyable. I know it's really difficult when you see 2 products online and you're trying to compare the pros and cons of both. That's what I'm trying to do in this video, to give you a feature-by-feature comparison Of these 2 really, really good smokers so you can make an informed decision for yourself. Now, if you're not like me and burn time isn't that important, you've only, say, got between 1 and 10 hives, I'd recommend the Rouchboy. It's such a good smoker. Not enough people use this smoker because they think that the Dadant is, is everything that they need in a smoker, and it is. But if you've not got that many hives, this really would be my recommendation. You're saving about 20% of the cost. And everything else is just as good, and in a lot of areas considerably better as well. So that's it for the video. As I said, hope you've enjoyed it, hope you found it useful. Please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
