I don't know much about the ceramic cookers (accept that they look really
cool!) but I can tell you as a former ECB "Gourmet" user that switching to
the WSM was a great decision for me. I would be extremely surprised if you
experienced any "noob failures" because, since you've been using the ECB,
you're most likely quite experienced at fire tending and temperature
control.

On the other hand, if you've got your ECB performing consistently w/ 14 hour
burns..boy, that's pretty damn good. Perhaps the decision would come down
to other factors. For instance, I, like you, could often achieve fairly
consistent burn times and temps w/ my ECB during the late spring and summer
months. BUT (!), living in Wisconsin, weather conditions often prevented me
from using my ECB w/ any sort of success. Due to the build quality and
construction materials my ECB was extremely susceptible to windy conditions
and ambient temperatures. If it was a cool day w/ a decent amount of breeze
I'd literally have to fight the thing just to keep a consistent temp for an
hour. Try cooking a butt in those conditions! In addition, I couldn't even
think about cooking during the late fall and winter months. However, now
that I have the WSM I've got BIG plans for football season this year.

Good luck whatever you decide!

J.P.

"ceed"
<ceed@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqr stuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com>
wrote in message newsp.suvscia021xk10@bobdello...
<snip>
> Is stepping up to this higher end bullet worth it? I now feel I know my
> Brinkmann. Would I have to go through a lot of noob failures again with
> the WSM, or are they somewhat similar in the way they work?
>
> My wife always says "don't mess with success". I am afraid of doing so in
> this case. Maybe I should wait until I can do an even more substantial
> upgrade to, let's say, ceramic?