What Kind of Smoker Should I Buy or Build?

So you want to smoke your own yummy BBQ at home, while tailgating, or at some other venue such as a beach or park. Depending on where you are located in the world, there can be an overwhelming amount of options at a variety of price ranges. If you are like me and live in Russia, then your options become much more limited. If you want authentic American style smoked BBQ, then many of the options will not quite meet your needs.

I've done quite a bit of research on this topic over the last few years as we designed, built, tested, re-built, and ultimately created some great smokers here in Russia. The process can be extremely time consuming and a drain on your wallet as well so I decided to put together this article to help those interested in getting through the process with less stress and more money left in their pockets.

Let's take a look at the steps in making a decision. You need to answer a few questions before you begin the process.

1 - How many people will I want to feed with my smoker? It is best to put these sizes into categories of small (2 to 6), medium (6 to 12), large (12 to 25), and very large (over 25 up to about 80). Anything above the very large option will usually require multiple smokers.

2 - Where will you primarily be using your smoker? If it is just for home use, then you have the full range to choose from, but if you do a lot of tailgating or outdoor BBQ's away from home, you will need something you can transport.

3 - How much money do you want to spend on your smoker? In many areas, especially the U.S., the sky is the limit on how much you can drop on a high quality smoker. These range from small charcoal/wood smokers to expensive "set it and forget it" pellet smokers.

4 - Do I want to build my own or should I buy? This is important because producing a "good" smoker can be simple, but it can also be extremely complicated depending on your expected results. Do you have the time, expertise, patience, and tools to build it yourself?

5 - Which style of smoker should I choose? There are many variants including small/large kettle, vertical, offset, and reverse-flow, and smoke houses (not discussed in this article). We explain the differences of these variations to help you choose.

Many of these questions are complementary. For instance, if you don't have much space at your home to have a large smoker, then a smoke house isn't going to be an option. If you don't have a truck or trailer to transport your smoker, then you will need to pay (beg) someone to transport it for you. Again, size could be an issue.

The answer to the first 4 questions are all on you, the reader. I can't help you answer those because it will vary on your individual situation. However, I can be of assistance with number 5 because here is where I quite possibly have more expertise on the matter, hence you are reading this article. I am only going to discuss smokers that are intended to "hot" smoke meat and fish. Cold smoking is great, but that isn't what we were/are aiming for with our BBQ here in St. Petersburg. We want slow cooked, tender, and juicy pork, chicken and beef and that requires heat.

Types of Smokers: Charcoal, gas, electric, or wood-pellet.

Here is a list of pros and cons for each of the fuel variants.

Wood Charcoal:
Pros - Enhances Smoked BBQ Flavor, Low Fuel Cost
Cons - Cleanup, More Difficult Temperature Management, More Time Consuming

Gas/Propane:
Pros - Easy Temperature Management, Easier Cleanup, Less Time Consuming
Cons - Less Smoked BBQ Flavor (occasional chemical taste), Moderate Fuel Cost, Some Portability Problems

Electric:
Pros - Easy Temperature Management, Easy Cleanup, Less Time Consuming
Cons - Least Smoked BBQ Flavor, Moderate Fuel Cost, Portability Issues

Wood Pellets:
Pros - Great Smoked BBQ Flavor, Easy Temperature Management, Less Time Consuming
Cons - Portability Issues

Fuel is important and shouldn't be overlooked, but it also shouldn't be used as the sole basis for which smoker that you ultimately choose. It just needs to contribute to that decision. Therefore, let's take a look at the types of smokers available by design and discuss the differences. Examples of each are shown, but I do not endorse any of the manufacturers pictured.

Kettle or Bullet

Pros - Portability, Small Space Requirements, Gas or Charcoal Options, Easy Setup and Cleanup
Cons - Limited Cooking Area, Vertical Smoking Dynamic
Cost - Low to Medium

Cabinet

Pros - Small to Medium Space Requirements, Gas, Charcoal & Electric Options, Easy Setup and Cleanup
Cons - Medium Cooking Area, Vertical Smoking Dynamic, Low Portability
**Cost - Medium to High

Ceramic Egg

Pros - Small Space Requirements, Portability, Easy Setup/Cleanup, Gas or Charcoal Options
Cons - Limited Cooking Area, Vertical Smoking Dynamic
** Cost - Medium**

Offset Single Flow

Pros - Large Cooking Area, Portability, Charcoal/Pellet Options, No Direct Heat, Better Smoking Dynamic
**Cons - Large Space Requirements, Setup/Cleanup
Cost - Low to Extremely High

Reverse Flow Offset

Pros - Large Cooking Area, Portability, Charcoal/Pellet Options, No Direct Heat, Best Smoking Dynamic
Cons - Large Space Requirements, Setup/Cleanup
Cost - Medium to Extremely High

After going through our research, we chose to build an offset, reverse-flow smoker. The reason was that it met our cooking surface requirement, but it also has the best smoking dynamics (in my opinion and this is highly debated in BBQ circles). In the illustration below you can see how smoke is forced to flow completely around the meat from bottom to top. This provides very good smoke penetration into the meat without the need to constantly rotate it such as some cabinet (vertical smokers).

Also, we were able to construct it without breaking the bank entirely because the barrels were fairly cheap and we didn't go crazy on aesthetics as you can see from the picture of our prototype. Of course, our first production model is much nicer looking and will be featured in an upcoming post on how to build a barrel offset smoker.

Now that you know a bit more of what you should be looking for, take a look around at different shops and see what's available. There are a lot of resources online as well. If you've got more questions, leave a comment. If you want to share some of your expertise in the BBQ sphere, leave a comment. I could discuss BBQ all day long.

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Photos: Mine, Manufacturer, or Public Domain

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