What Type of Smoker Suits Me? Do you know how much type a smoker can be? Let me pretend you don’t. So let me give you a brief introduction to different smoker types. Skip this if you already know about this.
Electric Smokers: By the name, you know that electric smokers are those types of smokers that uses electricity to produce heat. The best thing about an electric smoker is “set-it-and-forget-it” capability. These are the easiest type of smoker to control, so it’s perfect for the beginners in smoking era.
Pellet Smokers: Pellet smokers produce heat by burning pellets. They are not the cheapest type of smoker, and not the easiest to control either. But the good things about pellet smokers are they can prepare very authentic smoky flavored dishes, which are amazing in taste. So, pellet smokers will be good for those who have at least a little experience in smoking.
Charcoal Smokers: I found many people who like the taste of the dishes prepared by charcoal smokers. Charcoal smokers are cheaper than the pellet ones and not the toughest to use. They produce heat from charcoals, which are not expensive either. So maintenance cost is pretty low with charcoal smokers. These are not very tough to handle so will be good for a beginner to medium-level smokers.
Gas Smokers: Gas smokers also have that “set-it-and-forget-it” capability in some extent. They’re simpler in operation and easier to control than pellet or charcoal smoker. Being powered by gas, they can produce a lot of clean heat, and they leave no ashes, which makes them easier to clean. These smokers will be good for all, from beginner to experts!
Quick Comparison Table of Top 5 Smokers: Check out this quick comparison table below to compare things between the top 5 options you can choose from.
Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch Electric Smoker
The Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch electric smoker is one of the best electric smokers you can buy without breaking the bank. Reason to recommend it is it’s a all-round smoker at a very affordable price. This smoker will not blow your mind in every sector, and won’t let you down from any perspective either. The Masterbuilt 20070910 offers a convenient remote control system. You can control the smoking process sitting 100 feet away. Cool, right? This smoker offers a generous cooking space of 730 sq. inches, enough to handle a family reunion or gathering of friends. And it is decorated with 4 removable chrome-coated racks. The smoker has a 800 watt heating unit, able to raise the temperature up to 275 degrees F., And it is well insulated, making sure no gas gets wasted. It’s a well-built electric smoker with power-coated steel outer body. The unit is sturdy and promises durability with minimal care. The digital control panel on this is brilliant, showing you all necessary data you need to smoke the food to perfection. The control panel helps you controlling the cooking process easily. Featuring a built in meat temperature probe, this unit makes sure you will not get overcooked or under cooked food again. The Masterbuilt 20070910 comes with side loading wood chip tray to help you load wood chips easily, and get your desired flavor. There’s a water pan as well that lets you add any liquid to get a flavor of that in your food. All in all, the Masterbuilt 20070910 is a very complete electric smoker that you can buy in a very modest budget.
Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Pellet Smoker
The Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Grill is a great little and useful pellet smoker which is priced under 100 dollars! It’s a perfect pellet smoker for the price. This smoker performs great overall, combined everything. And the taste of the dishes it produces is great also. And again, it will cost you less than you can expect for a good quality offset smoker. This smoker allows indirect cooking, through transmission of smoke. It offers 430 sq. inches of cooking space combined, 290 in the main chamber, and 140 in the firebox chamber. There’s porcelain enameled cooking grates inside it to convenience. It features adjustable dampers, letting you adjust heat and smoke upon your preference. This makes sure the food doesn’t get over-cooked or under-cooked. You get a simple door for ash removal in this unit. There’s a convenient side shelf also! The smoker is easy to clean. The Char-Broil American Gourmet is simple to use and user friendly. It’s ergonomically designed and not a complicated machine. This unit is decent-built, better than you’ll expect from a smoker this cheap. The build material is decent and with care, you’ll be able to use it for pretty ling time. Though the paint tends to flake up sometime (spray paints on it to touch it up). It also features a touch handle for maneuverability.Overall, it offers a way more things than you’ll expect from a smoker that’s priced under 100 bucks.
Smoke Hollow 44241G2 44-Inch Vertical LP Gas Smoker
The Smoke-Hollow 44241G2 Vertical LP Gas Smoker is the best all-round gas smoker you can buy, considering features, convenience, performance and price. It’s a pretty big smoker to cook food for an army. For your convenience, it features a dual-door cabinet system which lets you access the water and wood chip pan easily. This smoker has a brilliant heating unit, consisting of 2 independently controllable inline burners. They can provide 20000 BTU power, combined (10,000 each). And controlling the temperature is convenient also with the burners being independently controllable. This model is the largest smoker offered by smoke hollow. They wanted to make sure you can cook for an army in a budget smoker, so they did! With its big size (24.50” L x 60″ H x 33″ W), it offers a whole lot of space for you to cook food for a big audience. It’s a well-built smoker. It’s made from good-quality materials offering durability. Though I suggest you to buy a cover for it. And sometimes there could be little smoke loss from minor cracks on this unit. You can fix it with simple silicone. Being a gas smoker, cleaning this is no hard job as it leaves no ash. A wet piece of cloth and soap is all you need to clean the unit. It has dual wood chip pan for 2 burners, each of them dedicated to a single burner. Use one burner at a time to increase wood chip’s lasting time.
Weber 731001 Smokey Mountain Cooker 22-Inch Charcoal
I suggested to spend at least 400-500 bucks for a charcoal smoker, and the Weber 731001 smoky Mountain is the undoubtedly the best charcoal smoker you can buy at this price. The 22-inch version is priced just under 400$, and there’re other smaller versions too for lesser price. Though I suggest to buy the bigger model if you can afford because sometimes you might need to cook for bigger audience than expected. The 22-inch model has a generous 726 inches of cooking space, decorated with two removable nickel-plated 1/2-inch cooking grates. Whereas the 18-inch model gives 481 sq. inches. You can choose the best model for you depending on your needs and budget. This is one of the most durable best smoker out in the market, thanks to its awesome build quality. It looks very premium with its eye catchy finishing. Being made of high-quality porcelain-enameled steel, it promises longevity. It produces tasty dishes with it great heating unit and intelligent temperature controlling. It produces enough heat to smoke any type of food you dream smoking off. It has efficient heat controlling mechanism with 4 dampers in it. It lets you control the heat well to prevent the food from getting over or under cooked. This smoker leaves some ash. But still cleaning it is not much of hassle because of its good cleaning mechanism. The bottom ash on it pans makes the job of picking and throwing out ash. There’s a charcoal stand that catches ashes without putting the flame out, minimizing the chance of ash smothering.
Smoker Accessories Which You Will Need You might like a normal thermometer, but you’ll love a wireless one, when it’ll let you control the temperature of your smoker when you’ll be watching a movie in your living room! You would have to pause your movie after every 20 minutes and had to go to your smoker to check the temperature. Even if you hated it, you would have to do this cause low and slow is all about consistent temperature.
The ThermoPro TP-08 wireless meat thermometer
To monitor internal smoker temperature throughout the cooking process the ThermoPro TP08 offers the best mix of range, durability and features under $50.00. With dual probes of this thermometer, you can easily monitor internal temperature and meat temperature sitting up to 300 feet away. The receiver controller has 1.5 × 1.3-inch inch LCD display to display all your need information, and it will flash and beep when either your meat or smoker temperature crosses the temperature you set. For price and durability the ThermoPro is a solid choice. Considering features and price, I found the ThermoPro TP08 as the best overall wireless thermometer from all the options available.
Range: 300 ft. range wireless receiver Temperature range of probe: 32˚F to 572˚F (0˚C to 300˚C), ±1.5°F/0.8°C accuracy Price: Under 50 Bucks, Get the exact price on the ThermoPro TP-08
Grill Heat Aid 932°F Extreme Heat Resistant Gloves
Are you going to cook over 900 degrees? No matter whether you do or not, this pair of gloves is going to protect your hands at 932 degrees! You’ll feel safe and confident with this while you’re playing with hot toy! Just make sure you’re not letting cooking liquid gets on the gloves, because that may tend to pass some heat through! And also make sure the wife doesn’t steal them for baking.
Grip: Silicone strips for great grip, complete safety and confidence. Temperature protection: 932˚F, because of having an exterior layer of premium quality Para & Meta aramid fibers. Price: Get the exact price on the Grill Heat Aid 932°F Extreme Heat Resistant Gloves,
Weber Rapid-fire Chimney Starter
Capacity: Holds enough briquettes for a 22-1/2-inch grill Price: Get the exact price of Weber Rapid-fire Chimney Starter.
Smoker Price, how much can you spend? Have an estimated budget on your mind before starting to research the market, or else you’ll get confused. Have a budget, find the best smokers in that budget range, and then compare them. If you want to spend 500$, and starting the research, you check out a 1000$ model first, and start to love that, then remember you can’t spend that much, and come back to the 500$ models, and I bet you can never be fully satisfied with those cheaper models no matter how good they are in their price range as you are already in love with the 1000$ model and seeking perfection as that in a 500$ model. So, would you want to buy your smoker with in-satisfaction in mind? If NO, then only try to fall in love with the smokers in your price range, not the perfect expensive luxury models.
Basic Features of a Smoker: Heating, temperature controlling, thermometer: No matter what smoker you buy, you always want to check sure its heating unit produces enough heat. So make sure your smoker has a good heating unit. Then is temperature controlling. Only heating up will not do. There should be good mechanism is a smoker that lets you control the temperature by may be letting some heat go through vents, and then adjusting to getting the heat up again upon necessary. Some smokers have a good built-in thermometer, for others you might need to buy a good quality one. A thermometer is a must for a smoker for obvious reasons. So if your smoker has a good-quality thermometer built-in, that’s a plus. If not, definitely buy one separately.
Space: Determine how much space you want depending on the audience you’ll be cooking for most of the times. The audience can alter sometime, but I’m talking about the common one. And, try to buy a little bigger model than you’ll need in regular use. Because if sometimes a couple of persons get added to the regular audience, this little space will save you.
Build Quality and Finishing: This matters, for better durability and less smoke loss. You want your smoker to be durable, and it’ll only be when it’s made from good-quality materials like porcelain enameled steel or so. Thus make sure the smoker you’re buying is made from good materials and will serve your for years.