The Best Affordable Smokers of 2023

Pulled pork, Texas brisket, and fall-off-the-bone tender baby back ribs—what do all these delicious foods have in common? A barbecue smoker. Sure, you could make all of these meats in the oven or a regular gas or charcoal grill, but they’ll taste a heck of a lot better on a smoker. These devices are specifically designed to cook low-and-slow and have precise temperature control between 175°F and 350°F. A good one—like our top pick, the Masterbuilt Thermotemp XL Propane Smoker (available at Amazon) —maintains that heat without much intervention on your part.

If you have a smoker that's a joy to use, you’ll want to use it for everything. Turn a tough cut of meat like pork shoulder or brisket into a feast for a crowd at your backyard barbecue, or fire it up during the holiday season to make smoked turkey or double-smoked ham. They’re also a great way to free up the oven while infusing extra flavor into side dishes like mac and cheese. Once you dig into the possibilities, you’ll be outdoor cooking all the time. That is, if you have a product that’s easy to use.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case (especially with inexpensive models). Some require constant fiddling with dials or settings to keep the temperatures even. The problem tends to go away as the price increases, but not everyone wants to drop $600 or $700 on a cooking hobby (ahem, not to mention that some high-end models cost over $2,000)to spend a lot of money on a cooking hobby. We wanted to know if there were any good and affordable smokers out there for under $500. So, we picked up nine models—three each of gas, charcoal, and electric—to see if these no-bells-and-whistles models could compete with their expensive counterparts. We were pleasantly surprised by the results!

How We Tested Affordable Smokers

The Tester

Hi, I’m Lindsay Mattison, a trained professional chef, and outdoor enthusiast. During the summertime, you’ll find me outside grilling burgers on the patio, cooking a pork shoulder on the smoker, or building a yakitori grill on my fire pit. If I can cook it outside, I will!

One thing I’ve learned over the years is the importance of having a reliable smoker. The best way to build confidence in your pitmaster game is with a smoker that boasts precise temperature control and retains its heat without having to fiddle around with the settings every 30 minutes. It also makes you more likely to want to use it on the regular. I’d love to help you find the right one for you!

The Tests

Using my training and years of grilling experience as a starting point, I spent hours researching the latest, greatest, and most popular products under $500. Using price, quality, and brand reputation to narrow the field, I chose nine highly-rated models available from popular shopping outlets like Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowes to call in for testing. After receiving the test candidates, I built each one.

From there, I could have thrown any number of tests to assess its ability to hold low-temperature heat for extended periods of time. But, I wanted to see how each model could handle the hardest task: smoking a brisket. My mentor in culinary school was known for saying, “Brisket, don’t risk it.” That’s because these tough cuts of meat are challenging to cook. They have a ton of intramuscular fat and connective tissue, which requires hours at low temperatures to break down into collagen and turn the meat juicy and tender. Plus, their large size makes them expensive, and turning them into a dry hockey puck is certainly a waste of money.

So, I chose brisket for our smoking tasks. I set the temperature of each product to 250°F and added a trimmed brisket, seasoned simply with salt and pepper (so we could taste the flavor each smoker added to the meat). When the brisket reached an internal temperature of 165°F on the probe thermometer, I wrapped it tightly in aluminum foil and put it back until it reached 202°F. This process took anywhere from 8 to 11 hours, depending on the size of the brisket.

Along the way, I was able to assess several crucial elements. Did it reach the target temperature, or did it get too hot or cold? Was it easy to identify the temperature inside the smoker? Could it maintain steady temperatures during the smoke time, or did I have to fiddle with the dials to keep it where I wanted it? When it came to fuel, did it blow through propane or charcoal faster than it should? Did it have a wood chip bin and water pan, and were they large enough? And, finally, did the brisket have a smoke ring or a deeply smoky flavor, and did it turn out juicy and moist?

I finished our assessment by evaluating aesthetics and build quality. Products that rattled and shook lost points, and models that were built to last and easy to move around were awarded bonus points. I looked at the location of the vents, grease or ash pans, and grill grates to see if they were well-designed and easy to clean. After compiling the scores, some of these design choices made a huge difference in the grill’s overall ranking.

What You Should Know About Smokers

You might be wondering why you should spend money on a smoker when you can just hack your gas or charcoal grill to produce smoke? It’s true; it’s easy to set your regular grill to indirect heat, add a foil packet of wood chips to the hot side, and place a brisket on the cooler side. That would achieve both the proper temperature and smoky conditions of a smoker, so why should you spend the extra coin?

Unlike your grill, these outdoor appliances are specifically designed to hold low-temperature heat for extended periods of time. You can use indirect heat on a regular grill, but you may see temperature spikes (especially when adding in new pieces of charcoal). That can cause the meat to seize up and become overly chewy.

A smoker is the very best way to break down tough cuts into tender bites while infusing the food with smoky flavor. They usually have a built-in chip bin and water pan, which keeps the food juicy and moist as it cooks. Or, in the case of charcoal models, the charcoal bed is much larger than a regular grill, allowing you to add unlit charcoal to sustain the fire during long smoking times. If you opt for a gas or electric model, things are even easier: Just set-it-and-forget-it. Once you turn the dial or set the digital thermostat, it will hold the desired temperature for as long as you like. No fiddling, no fuss.

What to Look For in a Smoker

OK, you’re sold? Now let’s talk about the essential components, whether it’s gas, charcoal, or electric (we’ll dive more into that debate in a minute). The most important consideration is temperature control. Ideally, you want to be able to set the temperature and walk away, like an oven. This means the smoker should have some kind of dial, electric thermostat, or vent system. Even better if the smoker has a thermometer that displays the internal temperature (although you can always add one if it doesn’t come with one).

Next up, you’ll want to take a look at the water or drip pan and wood chip tray. Some smokers can use any type of wood chips, while others are better suited for wood pellets. Charcoal grills don’t have wood chip bins, so you can even use large wood chunks for smoking. Consider the type of smoke you want to infuse into your food and proceed accordingly. You’ll also want to make sure that wood box is accessible; there’s nothing worse than reaching inside a hot smoker just to keep the smoke happening. When it comes to the removable water bin, you want one. It creates a humid environment as the food cooks, which is absolutely essential for keeping food moist during long smokes (like brisket or pulled pork). The water bin doesn’t have to be huge, but you do want it to hold at least a quart of water.

Then you’ll want to scope out the size inside the smoker. If you want to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving, you should make sure it will fit before you make your purchase! Some smokers have multiple racks, too. That’s helpful if you want to smoke multiple items at once, but pay attention to the width, depth, and height of each rack. Just because it has six racks doesn’t mean you’ll have space to smoke six pork shoulders.

Finally, consider everything else. Does it have handles to move around? Will you be storing it in the garage or a shed, making wheels a necessity? How about a cover to keep it from rusting in the rain? Does it feel sturdy enough to last a few years? Some of these seemingly aesthetic decisions can make a huge difference in your decision to move forward.

Wood, Gas, Charcoal, or Electric—How Do You Choose?

Most people have pretty deep-set feelings about gas or charcoal grills, but when it comes to smokers, all bets are off. The smoky flavor comes from the wood pellets or chips—not the fuel source—so how does that affect your buying decision?

First things first: If you’re planning to enter competition barbecue, pick up a log0burning or charcoal model. These smokers use wood as their fuel and typically don’t require the addition of any wood chips (although, we love tossing a handful of wood chips onto a charcoal smoker to add additional flavor to the meat). The reason these smokers are rated for competition is because they require skill to operate. Setting the temperature requires some practice in controlling the airflow via the smoker’s vents. Open them fully and you’ll fuel the coals to create intense heat; close ‘em up to choke off the oxygen and lower the temp. As far as fuel goes, you’ll need about a 20-pound bag of charcoal for an 8- to 10-hour smoking session, like we did for these charcoal tests.

Then, there are electric smokers, which are probably the easiest to use. Plug ‘em in and set the temperature, and you’re off to the races. No need to worry about fuel, but you do still need to pick up wood pellets or chips to create a smoky environment. Unfortunately, electric products tend to add the least amount of flavor into the food, as it’s difficult to ignite the wood chips over an electric element.

Finally, gas smokers are almost as easy to use with the same type of set-it-and-forget-it mentality of an electric version. But, they’re able to infuse a serious amount of smoky flavor into your food because a real flame does a better job of getting wood chips to produce smoke. Unlike regular gas grills, BTUs—British Thermal Units—aren’t important here because you’re not trying to crank the grill to maximum heat. And before you start worrying about running out of propane, don’t. A standard propane tank can produce approximately 430,000 BTUs. Our winning Masterbuilt smoker, for example, runs about 7,500 BTUs per hour, meaning you can cook up to 57 hours on a single tank. That said, it never hurts to have a spare tank around just in case; there’s nothing worse than running out of fuel mid-brisket.

So which one is right for you? For the flavor, set-it-and-forget-it benefits, and money, I’ll go with the propane options. But the right smoker for you depends on your needs.

What About Pellet Smokers, Log-Burning Offset Smokers, and Kamado Grills?

We eliminated pellet smokers, log-burning offset smokers, and Kamado grills (like the Big Green Egg) from our testing group. In our experience, inexpensive log-burning smokers are difficult to use. The more expensive ones work better, but they’re still challenging enough to use that we reserve them for true smoking enthusiasts. Similarly, pellet models available for less than $500 are problematic: The hoppers that feed the pellets to the fire source simply aren’t reliable. They break down, or the pellets stick to the side of the auger and don’t make it down to the burn pot. That doesn’t just mean your food won’t be smoky, but it also means the smoker will never reach the appropriate heat levels. We’ve had good personal experiences with Traeger Grills, but these models were over $500 so we decided to exclude pellet grills from this round of tests.

We also skipped kamado grills during this round of tests. We absolutely love our Big Green Egg, but these grills are primarily charcoal grills. They can be turned into outdoor ovens and smokers with additional accessories, but we wanted to focus on models specifically designed to be used as smokers this time around.

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Other Smokers We Tested

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