What is the Best Electric Smoker for a beginner?

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magic mike

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2013
1
10
Hello from Magic Mike in Central Florida. Living in Florida allows me to Bar-B-Que year round.  We love to cook and use our grill for several meals a week, cooking a variety of meats, fish and chicken.  I am new to smoking however and found SmokingMeatForum.com while researching the net for advice on purchasing a smoker.  As a newbie I'd like to get some input from the group on the best smoker to purchase. I already know that I want an electric smoker (charcoal is such a pain) and we like the flavors of smoked meats.  I'd like to experiment with several woods to see (and taste) the results.
 
Hello Mike,

          Welcome to the forum. Lots of great people to help you with any problems or questions you may have. As for you your question, I own an older model 30" Electric Masterbuilt and love it. Others have their own opinions and that is all good. Do a few searches in the search bar and you can read about the different opinions. As for my Masterbuilt, I can use wood chips that easily available at my local stores were some use pellets or puck like bisquettes like the Bradley that you may find harder to find. It is all each to your own. I hope you find one that works for you.

Happy Smoking.

Doug

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I run a Smokin' It #3 electric...little spendy but mostly built like a tank. Plenty of room in it for multiple racks. Just did a 8# butt overnight smoke for 17 hours and it performed perfectly......Willie
 
:welcome1: to SMF!!! We're happy you joined us! We have over 50,000 members now who just love to share what they know. You've come to the best place on the net to learn and share everything Q!!!
 
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to SMF!  We are so glad you joined us! 

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Kat
 
High from Nebraska.
I'm a beginner smoker. Use a masterbuilt electric for my smoking recipes. Hope you can help me out with a few good recipes. Looks like a great web page. I will be watching deforms on any info that will help me out.
 
Welcome to the SMF Family...As far as Electric Smokers go, your Budget and Max number of people you may feed and what you plan to smoke would be helpful. I have 2 Ist Gen Masterbuilt Electric Smokers that will easily smoke 8 racks of ribs, more with rib racks, or 8 Pork Butts, 4 whole packer Briskets or 8 whole Chickens. They sell for around $365. There are smaller, less expense units all the way up to the $2000-$4000 Cook Shacks....JJ
 
Welcome, Mike!  I used to own a Masterbuilt 40" electric (MES), and liked it very much...easy to use, consistent temps, and turned out great food.  They're pretty affordable too.  

One thing:  Many members would steer you away from buying the new generation MES because of design and quality control issues in the newer models.  You'd be better to hunt for the older generation model, which are still available if you look around.  The way you tell the difference:   The newer generation model has the control console right in front of the top panel, just above the door, and the exhaust vent is in the left side panel, near the top.  The older gen models have the control console on the back of the top panel and the exhaust vent on the top right.  The glass window is also bigger in the newer gen models.

Here's a pic of the older gen model...you can see where the console and the vent are in this pic.


Like JJ said, there are lots of serviceable electric smokers on the market, depending on how many you are cooking for and how much you want to spend.

Good luck!

Red
 
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Hello, and Welcome from Texas. This is a great site with worlds of information.

Gary
 
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