How to Pick Your First Smoker (Or Build One)

“What smoker should I buy?” is the question I get more than any other. The honest answer is that it depends on three things: how often you’ll cook on it, how much space you have, and how much you want to fiddle with the fire. Once you answer those, the choices narrow down fast.

I’ve been running smokers for two decades. The one I keep coming back to is the Weber Smokey Mountain. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone, and there’s a real argument for building one yourself if you’ve got the time and the basic shop skills. Here’s how I think about it.

The buy: Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM)

If you’re going to buy one smoker and keep it for a long time, this is the one. The 18.5-inch model handles a brisket, a couple of pork butts, or three racks of ribs without breaking a sweat. The 22.5-inch handles full-on competition loads.

Three reasons I keep recommending it:

It holds temperature with almost no babysitting. Load it up with charcoal using the minion method, set the vents, and walk away. I cook kalua pork on it overnight without setting an alarm. The water pan moderates temperature swings and adds humidity that keeps bark from setting too hard. You won’t find that combination of stability and ease at this price point in anything else.

It’s the right size. Big enough for real cooks — full brisket, multiple pork butts, the whole turkey from my Weber Kettle turkey recipe scaled up. Small enough to fit on a patio and to move when you need to.

It runs on charcoal, which is what I want. The smoke flavor from briquettes and wood chunks is exactly the profile I’m after. I’m aware pellet smokers are popular — we’ll get to those — but a properly run charcoal cook is hard to match.

The 22.5-inch model runs about $500 new. The 18.5 is around $400. They go on sale occasionally — used to track the Amazon price drops obsessively. Memorial Day and Father’s Day are usually when the discounts show up. If you’re patient, you can save $50-100.

If money is tight, a used WSM is one of the best deals in BBQ. They last forever, and people upgrade or downsize and offload them on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. I’ve seen them go for $150-200 in good shape.

Other options worth considering

Offset / stick burner. If you want the most authentic Texas BBQ experience and you’re going to cook frequently, an offset is the move. The cook on a real offset is unlike anything else — you’re managing a live wood fire for 12 hours and the result tastes like it. The catch is they’re work. You need to feed the firebox, watch the temps, and clean wood ash regularly. The cheap offsets (Oklahoma Joe’s Highland in the $400 range) are okay but have thin steel that loses heat. The real ones (Workhorse, Mill Scale, Franklin) start at $2,000 and go up from there. If you’re cooking once a month, get the WSM. If you’re cooking every weekend and you love the process, look at offsets.

Pellet smoker (Traeger, Pit Boss, Camp Chef, etc.). Pellets are popular for a reason. You set a temperature and the smoker holds it. No fire management at all. The trade-off is the smoke flavor is gentler — closer to a hot oven with a hint of smoke than a real BBQ pit. For people who want convenience above all, pellets win. For people who want the bark and the smoke ring you get from charcoal-and-wood cooks, pellets don’t quite get there. I don’t own one. I’ve cooked on plenty, and the results are fine, just not what I’m chasing.

Kamado (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, etc.). Excellent for high-heat cooks and steaks. Holds temperature well for low-and-slow too. The downside is price (an XL Big Green Egg is $1,500+) and weight (these are ceramic and heavy). If you want versatility — grilling AND smoking AND pizza on one rig — a kamado is hard to beat. For pure smoking, the WSM costs a third as much and does the job.

Electric smokers (Masterbuilt, etc.). They work. They produce smoked food. The flavor profile is the weakest of any option here — there’s no fire, so no actual combustion smoke, just smoldering chips. If you live somewhere fire codes prohibit charcoal smokers (apartment patios, some HOAs), electric is your only option. Otherwise, skip them.

The build: if you’d rather get your hands dirty

Now to the DIY side. I’ve never built my own smoker — the WSM was always good enough that I never needed to — but I’ve followed enough plans over the years to know what works.

The trashcan smoker (around $50). This started years ago when Alton Brown built a smoker out of a cardboard box on an episode of Good Eats. The idea was great. The execution was questionable. Cardboard is fine for packaging and pretty nifty cutouts of your favorite celebrities, but it’s a poor material for sustained heat. The modern version uses a galvanized garbage can instead. Way more durable, similar build effort, total cost around $50 if you don’t already have the parts. Search “garbage can smoker plans” and you’ll find well-documented step-by-step builds with photos.

The trashcan smoker isn’t going to compete with a WSM on temperature stability or capacity. What it will do is teach you how a smoker works. You’re basically building the WSM concept from scratch — a charcoal pan at the bottom, a water pan above it, a grate above that, a lid with a vent. Once you’ve built one and cooked on it, you understand why the WSM is shaped the way it is.

The propane tank offset (free if you have the tanks). If you want to build something serious, look up plans for an offset smoker built from old propane tanks. The big residential propane tanks (250-500 gallon) make excellent cook chambers. The smaller ones (100 gallon) make great fireboxes. There are free plans online — extensive step-by-step builds with photos of every stage from raw tanks through cutting, welding, hinge fabrication, paint, and the trailer mount. Cost is mostly your time plus welding supplies. If you have access to old tanks, this can run under $500 in materials.

You need real welding skills for this. If you’re new to welding, find a friend or a local fabrication shop. A poorly-welded smoker leaks air at every seam and you’ll fight the fire for the rest of its life.

The drum smoker (UDS — Ugly Drum Smoker). I’ll add this one because it’s the build I’d actually do if I had to do it over. Take a 55-gallon food-grade steel drum, drill some intake holes near the bottom, add a charcoal basket, a cooking grate, and a lid. Done. Total build time is a weekend. Total cost is under $100 if you can scrounge a drum. The UDS runs hot and clean, holds temperature for hours, and is a favorite of competition teams. The plans are everywhere online — start with the Big Poppa Smokers community forums or the BBQ Brethren archives if you really want to nerd out.

How to choose between them

If you want to cook good BBQ this weekend with the least effort: buy a WSM. 18.5-inch unless you’re cooking for big groups regularly. You’ll have it for 20 years.

If you want to learn how a smoker works and you have a weekend: build a trashcan smoker or a UDS. The investment is small. The lessons are real.

If you want the deepest Texas BBQ flavor and you don’t mind tending fire: save up for a real offset, or build one from propane tanks if you can weld.

If you want set-it-and-forget-it convenience: pellet smoker. Just know what you’re giving up.

If you want one rig to do everything: kamado.

There’s no wrong answer if you cook on it often. The wrong answer is buying a $500 smoker that sits on the patio rusting because you only used it twice. Match the smoker to the cook frequency you’ll actually maintain.

What I cook on mine

A non-exhaustive list of what’s come off my WSM over the years: Texas-style brisket, Hawaiian-style kalua pork, Big Bob Gibson’s pork butt, smoked turkey, smoked fatties at competitions, beef ribs, lamb shoulder, whole chickens, two different sous-vide-then-finish experiments that I won’t talk about.

Same smoker, same fuel approach, twenty years of cooking. That’s the recommendation I’m making — not because the WSM is the best at any one thing, but because it’s good at almost everything and it never quits.

Pick one. Start cooking. The smoker is the easy part. The fire and the meat are where the craft lives.