The Good-One Open Range Review

The Good-One’s Open Range is their most popular cooker. This cleverly designed charcoal unit uses the same concepts of an offset BBQ smoker, but it works better. There is a front firebox and grill that has two air intakes and a damper that runs the entire length of the firebox that controls smoke and heat to the smokebox. The wide damper provides much more even heat from left to right that an offset barrel smoker that positions the fire offset to one side. There is also an exhaust damper at the top of the smokebox. The “spinner” design of the intake and exhaust vents is very clever. The smoke and heat enter the rear of the smoke box along the entire length and circulate around the meat. The firebox is large enough to grill on or you can use it for crisping the meat and sauce over high heat after you’ve smoked. You can even grill and smoke at the same time. A model with adjustable charcoal grate is available for better heat control when grilling. Made from 11 and 14 gauge steel, it has two large wheels, a removable ash pan, drip pan and side trays. The Open Range could benefit from adding two more wheels and/or a handle on the right side.

Here’s champion Pitmaster, Chris Marks of The Good-One, displaying their AmazingRibs.com Top Ten Trophy while giving us a tour of their popular Open Range Model.

Gerry Self, the very first winner of our Pitmaster Club Gold Medal Giveaways, chose The Good-One Open Range from our impressive roster of BBQ prizes. “I received the pit today and was very surprised at the QUALITY….the ease of controlling the temperature with the air intake and exhaust spinners”, Self remarked.”The damper will let you select the temperature and it will hold at that temperature until you change it. The quality of the steel is superb and the workmanship is equally as good….I don’t know how to express my THANK YOU!” Self loves The Open Range so much he ordered a second one to mount on a custom trailer pit he’s having made.

It comes with three 332 square inch expanded metal cooking grates: one for the grill and two that can be stacked on the smoker (see above). The space between the two stackable grates is 5 1/2 inches. It can smoke 4 Saint Louis Cut slabs on the Top smoking rack with a 4 Slab rib rack and 3 on the smoking bottom rack. Or four 7-8 LBS Butts Butts on the Top Rack and two Butts on the bottom rack butterflied. The Good-One recommends butterflying 7-8 butts for the bottom rack to aid air flow. Smaller butts can go down in hunks. Charcoal Usage for 5 Hour cook 5-7 lbs depending on the brand of charcoal and for 10 hours cook 10-12 pounds depending on charcoal brand.

Open Range can be used as a stick burner, but it takes longer to get the fire right and requires more skill than just using charcoal. If you want more smoke flavor, consider adding wood chunks to your charcoal fire.