electric smoker recommendation

[Mike Shook]

I am now and always plan to be a charcoal/wood guy. If my WSM 22 won't handle it I'll find a friend with a catering rig and bribe him with good liquor and a cut of the meat. But a coworker wants to buy her hubby a good basic electric smoker for family / small gatherings and has asked me for a recommendation. Since I have no experience with electric, I am turning to you, the demigods of smoking meat, to impart knowledge upon this unworthy one.

Knowing the couple, I figure he will be a casual user at best - a pork butt or brisket flat once or twice a year, maybe a few chickens here and there. So I know she won't want to break the bank on a supercharged rig set up for a dozen birds plus three full briskets. If he gets into it more seriously, he'll likely want to go bigger anyway and he can decide for himself. And I'll steer him toward charcoal then.

Any suggestions on a good reliable electric, oh wise ones?

 

[timothy]

If they want lectric they should check out a pellet grill/smoker.
Having said that a few of my old coworkers used and liked masterbuilt.

 

[Mark Foreman]

May be too pricey, but the best home electric smokers are Cookshack, SmokinTex, and Smoking-it. I bought my Smoking-it model 3 8 years ago. It has worked perfectly. It has an analog controller. I think I paid $600 ($799 now) for it an it has plenty of room. It works well for cold smoking, low temp smoking.

I do use a WSM 14 & 22 as well!

I smoke sausages, fish, jerky, and even salt.

Customer service is wonderful.

There are also MES, Bradley (among others) and pellet smokers as mentioned above that can be bought at local stores. They are considerable cheaper but tend have more quality issues but are respectable smokers.

I would point out that one big advantage of the electric is that i can start it in the AM, temp never changes and have smoked meat when I get home.

Some of my projects.

Smoked Salmon, bacon, pastrami


Edited this post as the picture was supposed o be pastrami, not ribs.... my bad.

Hope this helps

 

[M Andreyka]

I have a cookshack SM055 that I have had for 15 years, thing will probably last 100 years.

It’s a great smoker, but I get way better results with a WSM so I rarely use it now

But... it’s probably the best pork butt cooker I have ever used, so simple... just season the butts and put them in at 225-250. 12-14 hours later you have some awesome BBQ pork.

There are many less expensive models like the master craft that work well also.

 

[Mike Shook]

Thank you, folks. I passed your wisdom on to the happy couple. She took off for several weeks for the holidays, so I will find out next week what decision she made. No matter what, I am sure he will be thrilled.

 

[MikeCantell]

1 thing to consider is it's a lot easier to get good smoke flavor with a electric vs a pellet imo, have had a Masterbuilt since they first came out , 40" has been great . you can get good flavor with a pellet smoker but it takes a little more effort

 

[Mark Foreman]

Here in my Smoking-it 3 on it's cart. Hold up to 45 lbs. On top is the what is known as a jerky drier which I use for smoked fish, jerky, sausage. temp range is 100F to 250F. I bought mine 8 years go and it has been rock solid!