Help me overcome my fear of wood smokers

You don't need one unless you're cooking large quantities. I have a 26 inch Weber Kettle, and have smoked all sorts of things on it. Two boston butts at once, up to 3 racks of ribs, chicken, turkey, etc. I use the snake method for coals and put chunks of wood on top. Usually a 2x2 ring of coals, about 2/3 of the way around the perimeter at the bottom, and just lay fat chunks all the way around on top of that. You will learn more and more with experience, but I rarely check it once I get it started. Maybe every 90 minutes, but you can quickly walk over and look at the thermometer, or you can get one that will clip to the cooking grate or probes to the meat. Like you, I mostly just grill burgers, dogs, chicken, and simple stuff, but for versatility a kettle is great.

ETA: I used to have a big offset smoker and the Weber kettle can do anything that could do, just not as much meat at once. I liked that I could start a chimney of coals on the gas side burner, and dump into the firebox with new wood but after tinkering with the snake method there’s no sense in fooling with all that just to cook for my family. If I was cooking for a party maybe.

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wood smoker, where I go with different types of wood,

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All smoke comes from wood. The easiest smokers to use that are in your price range will be ones that run off charcoal where you add different wood chunks to it. You can buy all different types of wood chunks for smoking at Academy, Walmart, Home Depot, or the grocery store.

Look at Webber Smokey Mountain, Pit Barrel Cooker, Oklahoma Joe Bronco, etc..

If you don’t have much money, find a used Weber kettle—the large one, and start fricking around on it.

You can do a lot of small batch stuff with a kettle. Pretty much anything. It will take you a little time to trial and error for temp control, but once you get it down, it is not hard to smoke meat in a kettle. If you enjoy it, you can step up to a better rig.

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I don't do anything too exotic... burgers, pork chops, chicken, hot dogs, sausage, kabobs, etc.

What is not appealing is the thought of spending my entire day checking the fire every 30 minutes to see if I need to add wood, or take other steps to control the temp.

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You don’t need a smoker

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All smoke comes from wood. The easiest smokers to use that are in your price range will be ones that run off charcoal where you add different wood chunks to it. 

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He asked for easy. Why keep stoking with charcoal when you can have the heated cast iron do virtually the same thing? Having the Dutch oven cracked open with lid on top creates an environment that never catches fire completely because there is not enough air for it to catch. You end up with a nice piece of lump coal or if continue to burn it, it will reduce to ash in the pot. It smokes and maintains and even temp throughout the day.

Yeah it's unconventional but it works. I use this method all the time and kick out awesome food. Y'all go ahead and downvote away though lol

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MasterBuilt Smoke Hollow Electrcic smoker

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Which model?

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You don’t need a smoker

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Not for what I currently cook, but for what I want to cook.

If you're doing simple shite like that, get a propane grill and add tin foil with wood to the cooking process under the grates.

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but with 2 kids running around and a wife who like to go places, that's hard to pull off and entire day or just me sitting home.

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Yeah it’s tough. I put a brisket on at 6:42 this morning and I’m about to pull it within probably an hour. Granted it’s my second cook on this pit, but the longest I’ve been able to get away from it has even 20-30 minutes. Always stoking the fire, moving coals around, etc. It’s the complete opposite of set and forget. I love it because I’m a control freak and a perfectionist so I’ll never be satisfied, but I also don’t have any kids.

Yes, you need to check it every 30-60 Minutes. You don’t want the fire to get too hot and if it drops too low, it adds to the cooking time. Is it hard? No, it just requires you to tend to it. I have a wood smoker and an electric smoker. I use the wood smoker as a hobby, when I want to spend my day having something to do.