The Best Smokers for Transforming Yourself Into a Pitmaster

Choosing a best smoker is like choosing a best artist or band. People claim to do it all the time, but the truth is, it’s not really a meaningful designation. Some listicle can claim that the Rolling Stones are better than Tupac, but what does that even mean? Ranking smokers is a similar conundrum. There are so many different styles, with so many different features, that aside from the fact that they all allow low and slow cooking, the decision of which model to buy is as influenced by your own personal situation as it is by the quality of the smokers themselves.

The bottom line: The best smoker depends on what you need to use it for. “I have an arsenal of 15,” says Ed Randolph of Handsome Devil BBQ in New York. Randolph is a restaurant pitmaster as well as a competition and catering one, so he’s well-versed in the notion of different smokes for different folks. So is Jonathan Fox of the massively popular Atlanta joint Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q. Fox has worked his way through a whole range of smokers, from a cheap grocery store kettle grill all the way up through the industrial grade one he uses at the restaurant. I talked to both Fox and Randolph as I tried to puzzle out how to compare an offset smoker to a pellet grill to a kettle to an electric smoker. My takeaway after talking to the pros is that, more than anything, a good smoker, like a good oven, offers stability and control. “Barbecue is all about consistent temperature and retaining your heat inside the smoker,” says Randolph.

So when you strip away the bells, the whistles, the well-designed utensil shelves, and the bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, what you need is a box that will get to a certain temperature, usually between 225 and 275℉, and stay there. Forever.

Read on for the smokers that stood out in testing; for more information about what I looked for and how I tested, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Below are the types of smokers I tested. There are others, like kamado grills, and even propane smokers, that may be explored in future updates to this review.

If you picture a smoker in your mind, what you are probably imagining is an offset. These have a firebox separate from, and slightly lower than, the cook chamber. Temperature is regulated by opening and closing dampers on the firebox and on a smokestack on the opposite side of the smoker from the firebox. Some offsets use a reverse flow, which, as Fox explains, “connects the firebox to a chamber that goes underneath the cook chamber, then back across and out,” rather than opening directly into it.

Instead of charcoal and wood chunks, these use small wood pellets to provide smoke. The pellets are typically fed automatically to a heating element that lights them. A fan blows the hot air through the smoker and the temperature is regulated by a thermostat.

These operate in the same basic way as a pellet grill except you can use charcoal and full-sized wood chunks instead of pellets. The charcoal and wood goes into a holding bin, and as the fire burns from the bottom, new fuel falls on to it. The temperature is again regulated using a thermostat and a fan to blow more hot air when needed.

These look like a stretched out version of the classic Weber kettle charcoal grill. Coals and wood go in the very bottom, then there’s a water pan, and then cooking grills, layered above. Temperature is regulated by vents on the bottom and top.

Often made of steel barrels, drum smokers are incredibly easy to use. You just start a fire in the base of the drum and then hang whatever you’re cooking from hooks at the top of the drum. They require much less effort than offset or kettle smokers because you don’t have to keep feeding the fire, but depending on the model you choose, they offer a bit less control over the airflow.

These generally use a heating coil below a box holding wood chips. Like pellet and gravity-fed machines it uses a thermostat, but because there is not actual fire, it can be harder to regulate temperature. As Randolph explains, “when [an electric smoker] gets up to its desired temperature, the thermostat will have a big drop, maybe 25 degrees, before it kicks back on again.”

This thing is a beast. Considering that it costs less than $600, this smoker is as high-quality and heavy-duty as they come (emphasis on heavy: I brought this home from Home Depot and it weighed over 200 pounds unassembled). One chimney of charcoal kept the Grand Champ at temperature for close to two hours. When I opened the lid to see how much heat would escape, the temperature stayed higher than all the other smokers I tested and it returned to temperature quickly—sometimes in less than two minutes.

The dampers adjusted easily and provided excellent temperature control. It was also the only smoker I tested with a lid that included a gasket to retain additional smoke and heat.

The wings I cooked with it came out juicy and mid-pack in terms of smokiness, something I saw as a plus; no one wants wings that taste like they’ve been sitting on the floor of a fireplace.

Sizewise, this could fit a family reunion’s worth of barbecue—probably 8–10 racks of ribs or chickens in the 1,200 square inches of cooking space. That size also made it exhausting to assemble.

Finally, of all the manual smokers I tested, this was the easiest to use as a grill with direct heat. The charcoal grate in the long cook chamber allows you to grill dozens of burgers at once.

There was nothing I didn’t enjoy about using the Grand Champ. I did not, however, enjoy building it. The size and weight that made it so nice to cook with also made it tough to assemble. Imagine putting together a piece of Ikea furniture except it is made out of incredibly heavy steel. I did it by myself, which, while possible, I do not recommend. The neighbors heard all the swearing going on and wanted to know if I was all right. Make sure you have a partner to help you lift and hold things in place.

Weber is one of the most trusted names in outdoor cooking for good reason: Its designs consistently perform. The Smokey Mountain was a little finicky to get to temperature initially (I ultimately had to remove the lid to get it to drop below 300℉), but once I got it to smoking temperature it stayed right where I wanted it.

The Smokey Mountain is feather light when compared to everything else I tried, so when I opened the lid to do the heat release test, the temperature took a nosedive (almost 100 degrees according to my thermometer), but it bounced back shockingly fast.

The wings I made in the Weber had the best color and were the smokiest by a wide margin. But even though they looked like they would be dry, they were still moist and juicy inside.

If you have a small yard or patio, the Weber is the best choice for a smoker thanks to its small footprint. But it can still accommodate plenty thanks to two equally-sized cooking grates. It's also easy to transport for things like tailgating.

I did find that if I didn’t make sure to have a full water pan, the smoker had issues. The water pan helps regulate the temperature, and without it, all the consistency I mentioned above disappears.

Best pellet smoker / best gravity-fed smoker: Weber Smokefire Series

I’m lumping pellet and gravity-fed smokers together because they are really for the same type of person: Someone who wants to cook without hovering near a smoker all day long. “I love offsets,” says Randolph. “But last night I was up until 11 o’clock feeding wood into an offset...you can’t walk away from that machine.” Both wood pellet grills and gravity-fed ones ensure you don’t need to do that. They offer the convenience of a gas grill but the flavor of a charcoal smoker or a wood smoker. Randolph is a fan of machines like this (he even wrote a cookbook specifically for pellet grills), though he concedes they can seem like cheating. Cheating or no, a pellet grill does come with smallest learning curve of all the different types I tested.

The second generation of the Weber Smokefire had everything I was looking for from a pellet grill (and it should considering its high price). It maintained an internal temperature within seven degrees of the temperature I set for hours. And it was a star at smoking meat. It did make me feel like I was doing something unseemly to produce such good results with such little effort.

The Smokefire also came with a “Smokeboost” setting to provide an extra kick of smoky flavor. It kept the temperature quite low—between 165-180°F for an extended period of time. That keeps the meat from cooking too quickly and allows it to absorb more of the smoke.

Four meat probe ports allow you to cook a whole range of foods simultaneously, and they send information to an app that is better designed than any other grill app I’ve tried. I used it to monitor a cook from a mile away.

It suffered from a common problem among pellet grills: Pellets got caught in the hopper and needed a little push to get into the fire pot. However, the hopper was angled, which made it less of a problem than in some other grills.

I want to be clear: While I picked some “bests” here, all but one of the smokers I tested performed well and I would absolutely recommend them.

Oklahoma Joe’s Highland Reverse Flow Offset Smoker was slightly smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the Char-Griller. It didn’t retain heat quite as well the Char-Griller and took longer to get back up to temperature than either the Char-Griller or the Weber, though only by a few minutes—not much if you’re doing a 10-hour cook. Like the Char-Griller, it is also set up to allow direct heat grilling, but only in the firebox itself, so there is less cook space. It does offer two configurations for the smokestack allowing some additional customizability and opportunity for experimentation.

Oklahoma Joe’s Rider series of pellet grills are well-designed and, of all the smokers I tested, was actually one of the two best grills for high heat cooking along with the Masterbuilt Gravity series mentioned below. When testing at low temperatures, the Rider would occasionally jump about 25 degrees, but the thermostat set up corrected that in about five minutes. And it had the widest temperature range—even though the highest setting was 650℉, I measured the temperature much higher than that. This pellet grill has four meat probe ports for tracking the progress of a cook, and heavy-duty cast iron grates with a dedicated sear zone. It doesn’t come with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, but if that isn’t something you care about, this is a great smoker.

The Masterbuilt Gravity Series is a gravity-fed smoker, which means the fuel falls from a hopper onto the fire and you don’t need to refuel frequently, if at all. It also uses a fan and thermostat system similar to a pellet grill to maintain temperature. Assembly is a little intimidating, as I had to actually connect the wires for the digital controls, the thermostat, and the fan, but the electronics were all intuitive and worked as advertised. It held temperature well and produced great wings. It has slots for built-in temperature probes which is an excellent feature. It also has an app that allows control over the smoker via bluetooth or Wi-Fi. That is definitely...also a feature. Personally, I’ve found every app for a smoker or grill I’ve ever used to be buggy and slow enough to respond that I’d rather just push the buttons on the machine itself. But if you love controlling things with your phone, this interface works. Not as well as the Traeger or Weber pellet grills, but pretty well. One of the best things about the Masterbuilt is its versatility. It really is a smoker grill. It was able to smoke at lower temperatures and grill at temperatures up to 700 degrees. All you have to do to switch between smoking and grilling is flip the cast iron grate from the beveled “smoke” side to the flat “sear” side.

The Pit Barrel Cooker is an interesting choice and a totally different style from the others tested here. It is a steel barrel that uses a fire basket on the bottom as a heat source. You either set food on the grates high above the fire or hang it from hooks just below the lid. The nice thing about the Pit Barrel cooker is that it’s designed such that you can get hours of cooking by just filling the fire basket, and you don’t need to mess around with the vents to adjust temperature. The downside is there isn’t much manual control once the fire is started, so the temperature inside does fluctuate some—not so much that it would ruin a cook—but it does jump around between 250–300. It’s also quite affordable with 18.5 inch model costing just $400.

The Z Grills 450B Pellet Grill does everything you want from a pellet grill. Easy to start, easy to use, minimal observation required. There has been some online musing that Z Grills could be a Traeger killer (Traeger being the biggest name in pellet grills) by offering solid equipment at much lower cost. I found it to be just that. It didn’t hold temperature quite as well as the Masterbuilt and the reading on the digital display seemed slightly off compared to my thermometer, though I don’t want to judge too harshly on that since all grills can have hot spots and cold spots. It doesn’t have the Wi-Fi connectivity of the Masterbuilt, but as I said, that connectivity can be more burden than luxury at times. If you want a pellet grill for under $500, this is your choice.

The Cuisinart Oakmont is a solid budget pellet grill that did an adequate job holding temperature, though it intermittently ran 25 degrees hotter than whatever it was set to. Its cast iron grates make it a versatile choice if you want to use it as a grill. It also comes with Wi-Fi connectivity and an app that functions as well as the Masterbuilt Gravity series.

The Traeger Ironwood is a great pellet grill and smoker that performed right on part with our top pick, the Weber Smokefire. It held consistent temperatures, produced excellent smoky flavor on food, and had an app that surpassed what I expect from a “smart grill.” I ultimately chose the Weber for its superior ability to function as a grill as well as a smoker; the Traeger’s highest temperature setting is only 500 and the internal temperature measured just below that near the stainless steel grates. But Traeger very much earned its reputation for excellent pellet grills with the Ironwood.

The Charbroil Digital Electric Smoker is the one machine that didn’t perform for me. The interface on the vertical smoker was tough to use and the app was predictably buggy. Temperatures fluctuated more than any of the other smokers and the smoke from the wood chips just didn’t measure up to what I got from the larger wood chunks (as Randolph noted these issues aren't particular to the Charboil, it’s something that is likely an issue with many electric smokers of this style).

1. I wanted a smoker that would get to temperature easily without too much fussing with the dampers or vents.

2. Since larger cuts of meat are the typical use case for a smoker, it should offer enough cooking area to accommodate them.

3. The smoker should maintain a consistent temperature.

4. It should return to temperature quickly after opening the lid for basting or wrapping food.

5. Since most people don’t have room for multiple outdoor cooking apparatuses, it should be versatile enough to work as a grill as well as a smoker, if possible.

6. Does it have any unique features, like app connectivity, storage shelves or hooks, or inserts for meat thermometers?

First, I set a price ceiling for the smokers. Only the pellet grills cost more than $600 (I gave them a wider birth because the market is just much, much smaller if you limit the price point too much). It was important to set a price cap because smokers can come with stratospheric price tags. If you're willing to spend many thousands of dollars on one, you’ll get an elite piece of equipment that will almost always perform better than a budget choice thanks to more industrial strength materials. But smokers like that just aren't realistic choices for most beginners or even intermediate home pitmasters. If you’re talking about a manual smoker (i.e. not a pellet grill that requires electricity) Fox says that something that costs as little $300–$500 range will get you started and let you produce quality results.

After receiving the smokers, I unpacked each one and assembled it, taking note of how complicated or physically challenging the process was. After seasoning each one according to the manufacturer's instructions, I lit them. With the exception of the pellet grills, I used one chimney of the same lump charcoal and two pieces of Smoak hardwood. In the gravity fed smoker, I filled the hopper with charcoal and wood.

I brought each to a temperature of 250℉ and put on a batch of wings (I chose wings as I thought they'd be less prone to user error in a way that could skew testing). Next, I left the smokers unattended for 30 minutes to see if there was any change in temperature, checking with a Thermopro thermometer. I used the Thermopro instead of relying on the temperature gauges and thermostats in the smokers for a consistent comparison. After checking the internal temperature, I lifted the lid and left it open for one minute to see how much heat was lost before replacing the lid to test how long it took to come back up to temperature. I repeated this process three more times to see how the smokers managed heat as they continued to burn fuel.

Finally, I tasted the wings from each. I used the taste test as more of a tiebreaker, though, since I considered maintaining temperature and ease of use more important. Taste can be as much down to technique as anything else; I didn’t want to lean too hard on a test that allowed for the possibility of user error.

If you have the space to accommodate it, the Char-Griller Grand Champ is a solidly built offset smoker that will hold temperature and give you control to change it. It’s also just plain fun to use. If you’re short on space, the Weber Smokey Mountain works great for something so small. And if you want to smoke without the hassle of watching a fire, both the Weber Smokefire gets top marks.