Which smoker to get

Depends what you are looking for which will be the general answer people give.

If you want ease then propane or electric can be easier, and take less tending.

If you are decided on electric, then you have choices of various vertical and cabinet cookers. I assume there are some horizontal too.

I ended up going with a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker for the following reasons:

1. It has a thermometer and timer (timer is handy)
2. It is well insulated so if I move to a cold climate I gather ambient temperature won't be a problem.

I ended up getting it from Walmart for $179, with free shipping to my local store. Hasn't actually arrived yet alas. Still if you go to the electric smoker forum here at SMF you can discuss it with folk with more experience. Don't forget to consider propane though too, which shares some benefits with electric and you can get a propane cooker for a bit less (and of course a bunch more depending on budget :) )

hello Karl,welcome to smf.I too have a charcoal bullet.I bought a $9.99 1000 watt hot plate,drilled a hole in bottem of charcoal pan to run plug.drilled another hole to adjust temp in the side of pan-5/8's plug socket works great.so now u have a electric when u want-or charcoal when u want-works great for me-wrapped foil in a tube to fill in the gaps around the charcoal pan & use a space blanket if cold outside. hope this helps

Welcome to SMF Karl! Glad to have you here. Type of smoker is really your personal preference. Check out some of the info on the colum at the left and it will tell you a little about each. Also check out this link and you can get more info on smokers...
http://www.amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyer...checklist.html
After you are done go to the buyers guid at the top and click on the type are looking for to get more detailed info.

Oh and if you would slide into the RollCall thread and make an introduction. Kind of a tradition around here.
Hope this helps
Alan

Welcome to the smf. Just to give you another option, Cabela's sells a convertion kit for your type of smoker, that will convert it to electric. It gives you a 1500w element and chip pan, it is like 35 bucks. I have seen them on other sites too. Just an idea if you want to be able to use charcoal and or electric.

Kookie