Buying my first smoker... need advice **UPDATED 1st smoke w/ pics

Weber Smokey Mountain 18.5" is a great one.

I have an electric Masterbuilt and absolutely love it after being a charcoal guy forever.

Go with the offset if you truly want to say you are smoking anything, anything else is just lying to yourself and others.

I currently have the WSM 18.5, but like others have mentioned the only issue is when you want to do ribs, and fitting them on it.

You need to decide how often you are going to be using this, and generally how many people you will be cooking for.

If just you, the wife and maybe some people every now and then ( I cooked enough to feed 40 people on my 18.5 WSM for my daughters birthday )then go with the Weber, it is a tried and true smoker.

If you have the room, and the money buy a nice offset wood smoker. The ones at Academy, I think New Braunfels smokers are ok.

I've gad my Akorn over a year, no problems. Pair with an Auber temp controller and you can set it and forget it. 225 for over 20 hours.

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Just go with a Kamado Joe with the heat deflector set for indirect cooking. If you want a set it and forget it experience then add a BBQ guru to it. Then your Kamado will double as a grill when you aren't going low and slow.

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I agree with this. I have a BGE and it's versatility and forgiveness works great for novices like me.

Sorry for the delay in response. I was getting error messages trying to log into TD yesterday evening, and this is my first chance to check thread since then.

My price range would be in the $500 area, but I am willing to jump to the $1000 if it is worth it. Part of me wants a cheaper one to learn on, but the other part doesn't want to waste money by buying one now and another later.

My experience? I've grilled on a $100 weber kettle for years using hardwood charcoal. For small meats I would throw some hickory chips in with the coals to add a bit of smoke flavor. I did attempt smoking twice on my gas grill, but I never could maintain enough smoke to do a good job. I was using chips with a foil pack I would wrap and vent. First attempt was a pork butt and second a briskett. Both times the meat cooked well, but smoking was flawed. Sooo, I am very amateur.

My concern with the WSM is limited use. My ultimate goal is to be smoking multiple meats at once (2 briskets, or 2 butts, combination of briskett butt and chiken, etc), and reading that ribs need to be split to use is concerning to me. I am torn on the idea of constant attention vs set and forget. I guess I am somewhere in between? I think ideally the ability to set it at midnight and then lounge and maintain when I wake up is my goal.

My main purpose is that I would like to use chunks or even logs. I know that will take time and practice, which I am willing to do. Can electrics or propains make good use of this? Maybe that is more what I need?

Currently I am researching these three and am curious to everyones thoughts on them or even any other suggestions:

BGE (or other komodo?)
Oklahoma Joe offset
Lang offset (is it worth me biting the bullet and investing in this instead?)
all other suggestions welcome (I am about to research some of the ones already mentioned on this thread)

Good One Open Range

this looks interesting too. anyone have any knowledge or thoughts on this? design makes sense to me. I do like the idea of a smoker that can be used to grill on as well

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My concern with the WSM is limited use. My ultimate goal is to be smoking multiple meats at once (2 briskets, or 2 butts, combination of briskett butt and chiken, etc), and reading that ribs need to be split to use is concerning to me. I am torn on the idea of constant attention vs set and forget. I guess I am somewhere in between? I think ideally the ability to set it at midnight and then lounge and maintain when I wake up is my goal.

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Go ahead and get the 22.5 WSM then. It is huge. You can easily fit a brisket and three pork shoulders on it and it holds a full rack of ribs without cutting them in half.