Better than an electric smoker

[whistlepig]

My first smoker, a MES30, was my entry level smoker. It still works great but I was wondering if spending a little (not a lot) of money more on a different style of smoker would be worthwhile. The are lot of different styles like pellet, charcoal, and wood smokers. I like the simplicty of use of the electric smoker. Something simple to use, for not much money more, that adds better flavor to the smoke. I thinking there is going to be a big price jump from the MES30 to the next level of smoker.

 

[mike243]

A Weber would be my next step up if I wanted to keep it simple and less work, a pellet smoker works great imo but will give less smoke or a cleaner smoke flavor, some folks like it others don't, Masterbuilt has a new design of charcoal smoker in 2 sizes and I want 1 . I will be holding off this year probably . good luck as the market is loaded with new units and designs .

 

[hawtsauc3]

Second on a Weber Smokey mountain. I use one after learning on an ECB and they’re very easy to use. I’ve since added a party q and with a temperature controller like that, they literally run like an oven. With my partyq I have to start the coals and get it up to temp, then start shutting down the vents and then fire up the party q to mange it for me. I smoked up 2 birds yesterday and my only work was prep and take down, but I got all that great charcoal flavor. Below is the setup I used.

that said, if that’s not your style the master built gravity is also a great new option, it’ll cost about the same as getting the WSM with a temp controller, but people are huge fans of them