Advice needed for first smoker

[adventureguide]

I really need some advice.  I want to get my first smoker but I don't know where to start. I will only be smoking small amounts of meat at a time, like one brisket and maybe a couple of chickens.  So I don't need anything huge.  I don't have a preference for heat supply, but "think" I would prefer to use natural hardwoods.  My budget can go up to about $1K.

So, what can you recommend, and WHY do you recommend it?  I'm not looking for "I use xxxx because I know how to use it."  I want to know why it works, with all thr pros and cons.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[pineywoods]

If you want a wood fired smoker I would go with a Lang 36. The Langs are reverse flow which makes controlling temps much easier and they tend to stay more even front to back and side to side. It's a well built unit and should last a lifetime. The only cons that I know of are the cost of it and shipping it.

 

[jirodriguez]

Welcome to the forum!

For natural wood you are probably looking at something like a Lang, and for a grand I believe you can get a smaller patio one like you are describing. They are great stick burners made of heavy duty guage metal that retains heat real well - unfortunately I have never used one so that is about all I can comment on those.

If you are willing to look at charcoal I would suggest the 18.5" WSM (Weber  Smokey Mountain) or it's big brother the 22.5" WSM. The WSM's are considered by many to be the best charcoal smoker you can buy for under $500. Like all Weber products they just plain work, no muss, no fuss, and Weber backs them with great customer service. I have a 22.5" WSM and I can hold eight 8-10 lb. pork butts, or four 13-16 lb. briskets, or six flat racks of ribs, or ten whole chickens - to give you and idea of it's size. The WSM is about as close as you can get to a set-it-and-forget-it charcoal smoker. You light it, get it up to temp., put on meat, and then leave it alone. I toss briskets and butts on at midnight, go to bed, get up at 6:00 AM and check the smoker (usually don't have to make any adjustments to vents), have breakfast, and go about my day.

 

[rbranstner]

Build a UDS for around $125 and you can use the rest of that money to buy meat and other gadgets. The use holds a fair amount of meat and it is very easy run and one basket of charcoal will run for 24+ hours so if you want to do  those long smokes it's great as you don't need to add fuel.

 

[adventureguide]

Build a UDS for around $125 and you can use the rest of that money to buy meat and other gadgets. The use holds a fair amount of meat and it is very easy run and one basket of charcoal will run for 24+ hours so if you want to do  those long smokes it's great as you don't need to add fuel.

So what is a UDS?

 

[jirodriguez]

So what is a UDS?

UDS = Ugly Drum Smoker.... but don't let the name fool you, they don't have to be ugly and they do work really well if you get the design right. There are a lot of folks that have built their own on this site, if you look in the build section under charcoal smokers you will see lots of step-by-steps on how to build a UDS. A properly built and ran UDS can run a looong time on one load of charcoal. My WSM is basically a lazy man's UDS with the addition of a water pan and a 2nd rack - course even then some UDS's do have a 2nd rack to... lol.