If you want to be the master of the pit get an offset smoker and not a cheap one from Walmart or home Depot or Lowe's.
Get an offset smoker if you REALLY love that smokey wood flavor..
I have used stick burners for about 35 years and always have gotten tremendous flavor. I have friends clawing at me wanting something off of offset smoker but my cheap smokers from Walmart have broken down and the firebox is rusting out and the firebox baffle doesn't want to move..
I don't know how many people you cook for but don't get one larger than you actually need because the larger the smoker the more wood it will eat.. if that erodes your wallet get a smaller smoker..
If all the flavor you want is coming from a pellet smoker then I wouldn't worry about getting an offset smoker.. I've had people stand next to me and tell me there's not enough smoke coming out of my smoker.. by that they mean they want to see big white billowing clouds,..
White smoke coming out of a smoker is a dead giveaway because your fire is trying to tell you it is starving for oxygen and you can't create blue smoke if you're fire is starving for oxygen....
Here's another tip:
The worst thing you can do is start a fire in your firebox then once the fire starts you load up the firebox with all the wood it can hold so you can sit down and watch the game on TV for three or four hours.
You mentioned something about pitmaster at the beginning of your text message... I don't know if you're an armchair pitmaster or someone who just wants to get the meat on the grill and in your stomach as soon as possible wham bam thank you ma'am...
I don't know if you're only looking for white smoke because some people are. I used to be that way until I learned how to manage my fire.
Blue smoke happens in a fire when the temperature is between 650 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit respectively and you don't add wood to your fire when there's a bunch of flame going on in the firebox you're supposed to wait until the fire has all but died out...
Then if you added enough wood at the beginning of your far you should have enough coals on your great to ignite a new piece of wood to the fire and only about 30 seconds if you had put that wood on top of your firebox to preheat it so you're not throwing a cold piece of wood into your firebox and expect the wood to ignite it because the wood is not up to temperature and what's your far going to do it's going to start putting out white smoke again. The size of your wood determines how long it will burn before you need to add wood so you need to watch that you're not putting in wood that's too big because now you're asking you're far to use more energy to ignite that big piece of wood and now you're running low on coals in your fire bed so now you're fighting the temperature swings by not managing the size of the wood you're using,. Mr pitmaster...
But if none of that interests you and white smoke is all you can hope for then a pellet grill by
rec tec should last you quite a while as long as you're not leaving it out in the rain and don't have a cover for it and the sun beats down on it when you're cooking giving you high temperature swings...
Exactly what does broke down mean or kick the bucket both terms are very subjective.
You don't go into a doctor's office and say doc I'm about ready to kick the bucket. That doesn't do the doctor any good but here are your pellet smoker is the patient it can't talk to the doctor but you can and the closer you can narrow down what's ailing your smoker might be more cost-effective than to buy another smoker. Or maybe the fact that you need another smoker is because you don't want to take the time to take the smoker apart to replace a part...
You might be a lawyer and it would be easier to throw money at it to fix it then then to have to get down on your hands and knees and be the hero of the day... Some Women like guys that can fix things...
I don't know but you may have only used the grill 20 times in the last 20 years...
Look at the reviews on the smoker that you're looking for and start from there ... Good luck