YOU ARE HERE >> AmazingRibs ยป Ratings & Reviews ยป Lang 36″ Original Patio Model Review
All of our reviews are done independently by our team of testers and are in no way influenced by advertising or other monetary compensation from manufacturers. Click here to learn more about our unbiased product review process.
Lang’s 36″ Patio Smoker is their most popular residential model. With two 18.5″ x 15″ bottom racks and a 23.5″ x 16″ sliding upper rack, Lang claims it will hold 60 to 72 lbs. of meat with room to spare. Expanded metal cooking grates are reinforced with square tubing frames. It has a V-shaped grease pan or trough with 2″ brass gate valve and a 17″ x 17″ firebox.
Like all Lang smokers, the 36″ Patio employs their signature reverse flow design which some believe provides more even air and heat flow than traditional offsets that have a firebox on one side and chimney on the other. Reverse Flow smokers place the chimney directly above the firebox, so heat travels along the bottom of the cook tank to the opposite side where it flows upward then reverses course and heads back where it came from then out the chimney.
Our MSRP below is for the basic backyard BBQ model. An optional warmer box, (shown right), sits on top the firebox. The Patio is also offered in a 48″ model that can be trailer mounted.
Product Information:
Manufacturer:
The Lang family has been in the meat smoking business for generations. In 1988 they began manufacturing and selling smokers. Known for reverse flow designs, (see diagram below), Lang manufactures a wide variety of smokers from 36″ to 108″. A relatively new development for Lang is their Hybrid cookers that have a sealed off charcoal grill on the left side and a traditional smoker with attached firebox on the right.
The baffle in the above diagram is a V-shaped trough or griddle. Drippings hit the griddle and sizzle, sending moisture and flavor into the smoke box. Grease and gunk never goes into the belly of the smoker, but is diverted outside. Primary racks are positioned about an inch above the griddle. Since drippings don’t build up under the racks, they always hit hot metal instead of a pool of gunk and sizzle as the excess moves into the trough and heads out the 2″ brass gate valve.
Owner, Ben Lang, feels this “clean design” is a hallmark of Lang Smokers because it cooks clean and is easy to keep clean. Just scrape the trough and hit it with a water hose when needed, gunk is cleared out through the gate valve and the griddle is ready to sizzle clean again, all without disturbing the firebox. Some owners season the top section of the trough by the firebox and use it as a griddle.
As a youngster, Lang cut his teeth bussing tables and says one way to tell a good restaurant is if the employee’s fingernails are clean and the restrooms spotless: that’s a good indication of what’s going on in the kitchen. “When you make an apparatus that’s hard to clean, people aren’t going to clean it often”, Lang states, “If cooking equipment in the kitchen ย takes hours to clean thoroughly, the staff may only do it once a week, same with a smoker”.
Lang says many residential customers come to him after struggling with Cheap Offset Smokers from the hardware store. “After a while they realize they need something better and are ready to graduate to Lang”, he smiles adding, “The purchase becomes a legacy to their family providing comradery when cooking and eating for generations”.
We used a Lang 36″ Original Patio Model in our Science of BBQ & Grilling With Meathead video series presented by Kingsford. Click here to see that video series and check out my Virtual Showroom vid below:
Published On: 7/11/2014
All of the products below have been tested and are highly recommended. Click here to read more about our review process.
Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our “buy now” links. This has zero impact on the price you pay but helps support the site.
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, weโll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we donโt have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please donโt think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50ยฐF so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators