Happy Memorial Day gang. If you live in a ‘4-seasons’ climate like I do, Memorial Day usually marks the day that grill season starts. For me, grill season happens year round – even on the 32 degree or below nights. When it comes to Winter-based Seasonal Affective Disorder, some people choose light therapy or medication – I choose grilled meats!
So maybe you got to sample some meat that a buddy made today, or maybe in the past you’ve seen a couple ‘BBQ Pit Boys‘ videos and now you’ve got the bug to take your backyard grill game to the next level. I’m talking about buying a smoker. But if you’re new to it, where do you start?
I’m not going to review the ‘Big Guys’ that make competition grade or ‘tow-behind’ trailer smokers. These are all backyard ‘pits’ that are readily available, don’t require special equipment to operate, move or maintain. I have not cooked on all of these, and obviously I’m partial to my preferred cooking, so anything I say about these devices is going to be a matter of opinion. But before we get into that, here are the basic questions you want to ask yourself before you buy a smoker. (They are not in order.. )
- How much am I willing to spend?
- How much attention am I willing to give during the cooking process?
- Will I be cooking for just myself, or do I want the ability to feed a small crowd?
Believe it or not, the most important question of those three, is how much attention you’re willing to give. There are ‘set it and forget it’ smokers, there are ‘check it every 2-3-4 hours’ smokers, and there’s ‘check it every half hour’ smokers. Some people would prefer to drop meat and go on to the next task for the day, others really love the hobby of controlling a small fire, and really enjoy stoking and monitoring, being outside – drinking and making the day revolve around the smoke.
The second question you should ask is how much food you want to be able to fit on the smoker. 4 racks of ribs is a lot of surface area. A 17lb packer cut brisket can’t even fit in one of the smokers I have. 2 family packs of chicken legs? Dangerous territory. But if you’re just looking to feed a couple people and yourself, you don’t need to get something huge.
Last would be how much you’re willing to spend. There are great entry level smokers for the $2-300 range, I have one, I use it frequently – it is not amazing, but it works fine. If you put yourself in a $300-600 range, you can get an awesome pit for your back yard that should last a long time. If you get up over that, you’re getting into serious quality, lifetime warranties, and I’ll be jealous – lol.
One last thing, and this might be overkill – but I want to discuss how a smoker works. There is a small, smoldering fire that fills a cooking chamber up with smoke. That fire, and the temperature of the chamber is controlled by vents, or in some instances, electronic/gas input. Wood chips/chunks enhance the smoke flavor and add characteristic based on the woods used. Not all wood is good for a smoker, but thats an entirely different post. But I wanted to review this simple detail, because all smokers use this fundamental concept – small fire, cooking chamber.
OK _ Let’s get into it.
I’m going to keep things simple. I am going to rate these pits on 3 factors and then give you the price. The ‘Pitmaster’ rating is going to tell you how much attention you’ll need to spend checking and tending to your fire. Higher ‘Pitmaster’ rating means more fire tending. The ‘Real Estate’ rating is going to give you an idea of how much food you can put on the smoker. Higher ‘Real Estate’ rating means more space. ‘Quality’ is self explanatory, and the price is the price that I found.
Weber Master-Touch (Link)
Weber makes great products. Their stuff is built to last. This is a great grill to learn on – It functions as both a charcoal grill and a smoker when fire is used indirectly. It helps with learning how to control a fire, and comes in handy when you just want to have some burgers and dogs. You’re not going to smoke a ton of meat on this thing, but they last for years and the baked enamel finish is beautiful. I learned on one of these.
MECO – Double Grid Charcoal Water Smoker (Link)
I am sure you can get a good cook off of these things, but with such a small access hatch for your charcoal and this ‘water pan’ concept, it just seems like you’d be better off using this thing as a housing to build a small robot. I would steer clear of the small, under $100 smokers.. just.. don’t do it. Sorry Meco – but you know what you made…
Landmann Vista (Link)
This one is similar to the Weber, I included it because it has a little smoke stack. If you decide to go with a horizontal offset smoker, a smoke stack creates the flow of smoke through your smoker, this would be a good one to learn on as well. But also function as a charcoal grill as well.
Cuisinart Vertical (Link)
On sale frequently, I’m choosing this smoker to serve as one of many in this category. This is the vertical style with propane or electric control. Yes Cuisinart has a charcoal option that would come in higher rated than the Meco, but I still would steer clear. There are many vertical style cabinet smokers like this one that heat a waterpan up that has chips in it. I have had some delicious meat off of them, and I applaud their ease of use, and low consumption of wood chips. These are great smokers for the pitmaster that would like to set it and forget it. Some electric smokers with a higher pricetag than this one have push button temperature control. You don’t get that with charcoal (well, without extra gadgets) With the propane setup, you just dial your flame in until the temp of the cabinet is what you’re looking for, make a couple minor adjustments, then it’s hands free once it stays put.
Char-Broil Deluxe BBQ Offset Smoker (Link)
We officially have something that resembles a pit here! This is what’s called a ‘horizontal offset’ smoker. This style of smoker is used by some of the best in the business.. Not this one… but this style. It has a little side car that you build the fire in, and allows you to indirectly smoke your food. This was my first official smoker. Yes, the chamber can be filled up and used as a grill – which I did a bunch of times after the fire-box burned out on me. The metal that makes up this smoker is not rugged steel like some of its higher-priced cousins. That being said, I was able to get 2 solid years of smoking off of it before it started falling apart. (probably should have bought a cover for it, and not left it out in the rain.) Smoke flavor was great – temperature control, not so much. I had some awesome stuff come off this smoker, and some burned, ruined stuff come off it. I was still a little new to smoking, so once again, I’m saying this is my opinion – I would spend more and get something more rugged.
Dyna-Glo Vertical Offset (Link)
Dyna-glo smokers go on sale frequently as well as much as 40% off at times, and they came highly recommended from a guy I respect. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not buying the wide body one. The smaller one is cheaper – but the racks are not wide enough to fit a whole rack of ribs on them. Whats good about Dyna-glo’s vertical offset design is that it eliminated my apprehension using vertical style smoker, by offsetting the fire box. This prevents you from having to open up the cooking chamber to monitor your fire, and with proper placement of drip pans, eliminates potential flare-ups from happening. The construction on these smokers is pretty good too, solid device. Just pissed that I bought the smaller one.
Weber Smokey Mountain 22″ (Link)
What separates the WSM from other traditional vertical / bullet smokers is the size and engineering behind it. It holds temperature very well, has a huge water basin in it if you choose to use it, large hatch for stoking the fire, and just the sheer quality of a Weber product. I have cooked on one of these for over 3 years, and they work great. Two racks on the inside make for a decent amount of real estate, but accessing the lower rack can be a pain in the ass if you’re trying to mop or check temps, hence the slightly downgraded real estate rating. However, I can set this thing up with coal, set the vents and check it every 2 hours – it can run for as long as 8 hours without having to add more charcoal. Price is a little hefty.
Oklahoma Joe Horizontal Offset (LINK)
Now this is a beautiful pit. If I had $300 laying around I would go get one right now, and give my vertical offset DynaGlo to this kid at work that would probably love it. Heavy gauge steel, nice powdercoat finish. I have seen people mod these out with temperature guage ports and additional thermometers to really make magic on these pits. Covered up, this thing should last a lifetime. With any horizontal offset, maintaining temp is a bit more involved, so I’m not saying this is the ‘perfect’ smoker. But for me, the BBQ style that I prefer to replicate, and my budget – I really like this one. They also make a ‘reverse flow’ version for close to $600, where the smoke goes under a steel plate to the opposite side of the fire, before entering the chamber. The result is a much more even temperature throughout your smoker (Link)
Traeger Pro Series
Ahhh- now we start getting into luxury. Traeger makes ‘pellet’ smokers. Pellets are compressed wood that looks like hamster food. you fill a hopper up with a wood flavor of your choice, set the dial to your preferred temperature (can go hot enough to grill). Push ‘go’ and just keep that hopper filled up. There are cheaper versions of this smoker, but Traeger is a tried and trusted name in this style of smoker. Other versions have issues with the hoppers clogging, Traeger has their shit together. This is the ultimate in hands-free smoking, but it comes with a price.
BIG GREEN EGG (LINK)
Great marketing, construction, and one of the most badass grills you’ll find on the market – The Big Green Egg is a household name. Ceramic insulation on these grills are astounding. Heavy duty – holds temperature like crazy once you get it there, for either smoking or grilling, or making pizzas – it seems like these grills have a whole community of people that believe this is the be-all end-all device for cooking with fire. I have never cooked on one of these, but the reviews speak for themselves. People that have them are nuts over them. They come in many different sizes from “XXL”(29” Diameter cooking surface) to “Mini”(10” diameter cooking surface). I’m going to just suggest that you do your own research on this one – there is a lot of info and accessories for this thing.
Yoder Kingman (Link)
I’ll conclude this extensive exercise with the smoker that I am absolutely going to own someday. This is the heaviest duty smoker that you could still call a ‘backyard’ pit. The Yoder Kingman has more bells and whistles than you could ever need. Smoke distribution plate, gas ignition, counterweighted doors, top of the line gauges, insanely thick steel construction, over 2200 sq inches of cooking area. This is a pit that is built to be handed down to people. Sometimes I just watch videos of people using them and dream of what I could be doing with my time. Yoder has other models, like the Witchita, which are also just as eye catching. This is a trophy smoker for someone that is looking to win trophies for smoking…
This concludes my semi-educated breakdown of different smokers that are good for backyard entertaining – I hope it was helpful! Any questions or comments, comment below. I am sure there are some people out there that might say the little bullet smokers are great, and I’m out of my mind, maybe there are people who think the horizontal offset smokers are a pain in the neck. like I said, this was just a quick rundown of various style smokers and some of my opinions of each. All of it’s debatable, I’m sure.