Southern Country Electric Smokers aka Meco Review

Meco, the company that owns Aussie Grills, sold two Electric Smokers under the Meco label, but recently decided to rename the brand Southern Country. They also refer to them as Aussie Electric Smokers. There are only two models and whether you call them Meco, Aussie or Southern Country the model numbers are 5029 and 5030. They are basically the same except the 5030 is black coated steel and the 5029 is stainless steel and costs twice as much. These are decent, inexpensive Electric Smokers.

It is easy to add wood chips, chunks, or pellets with a door on the side. Bullet shaped, it is made of thin, lightweight metal that does not retain heat well in cool, rainy, or windy weather. The 1500 watt heating element has an inexpensive thermostatic controller. The controller doesn’t have specific numeric temperature settings like a digital controller, but can be dialed from Off to High and any point in between. The simple thermostat monitors the cook box and regulates power to the heating element. For example, when set to “MED”, the controller is designed to maintain a temperature range associated with that dial position. Used in conjunction with a digital thermometer, it can be dialed to a specific temperature.

There are two air vent/dampers on the lid. The two 15.5″ nickel coated cooking grates are standard on all bullets and just a bit too small for many BBQ  rib slabs. To get more capacity, cut slabs in half, you can fit up to eight half slabs easily. If you bend or roll the slabs, you can fit six. Comes with a standard 5.5 quart porcelain coated water/drip pan. Our lid never fit quite right, and we constantly had to jiggle it to get a tight seal. They say it can easily be converted to cook burgers or steaks, but allowing fats and juices to drip right above the heating element doesn’t seem like a good idea. The newer electric apartment grills use radiant plates instead of traditional metal rod grates.