The
WSM is just about the perfect first smoker for a newbie (or a pro) IMO... You can cook enough food on it to feed a good sized family plus several friends... For example, I have easily cooked 6 butts at a time on mine... The
WSM is very user friendly in that you can use charcoal for fuel and wood chunks for smoke and it is VERY easy to regulate temps. I have got burns of over 26 hours on one load of charcoal on nice spring days... On cold or windy days, you will burn a bit more charcoal etc...
Don't take this the wrong way, I really enjoy the Qing process of tending a large offset, keeping a good clean fire and the time it takes, for me, is very relaxing... but when I don't have time to tend one of my larger offsets or the food load to justify it, the
WSM is called in to satisfy my Q'n needs..
I got my start on a Brinkman Smoke-N-Pit. I did learn to turn out some great food with it, but I'm not a fan of the cheaper offset smokers.
Many comp teams cook in WSMs with great results! There are probably more WSMs used in comps than any other single brand of cooker so you know they can turn out some decent Q!...
There are many good cookers out there, depending on your budget. The WSMs just went up in price a bit (~$250), but they are still worth every penny. You could also look at the Stumps smokers, Backwoods, GoodOnes etc... but they are more than the price of 3 or 4 WSMs combined...
As stated, you will probably, one day, out grow the
WSM. When that happens, you can move on up to bigger and better pits. Heck a lot of folks just buy another WSM...
James.