Best small electric smoker

Start with a Masterbuilt.

quote:

---

Looking into getting an electric smoker. Don’t have any experience with a smoker so thinking electric would be easiest. Looking for one that’s good for just family use. Any recommendations?

---

I'd skip electric, it use to be the easiest, but taste suffered as a result. Electrics still have their place with sausage, cheeses, and cold smoke setups, but you are going to want to use a pellet tray to do the smoke.

Pellet smokers are just as easy as electrics and do a decent job. Lots of different brands to choose from here, but I recommend something else.

Gravity smokers exist now. They give you almost as easy of use as pellet and electric, but a much closer taste to the traditional stick smokers.

Youtube some videos on Masterbuilt Gravity 560/800/900/1050 smokers. 800 comes with a griddle insert and 900 comes with a pizza insert. Highly recommend these for starting out smoking. If you wait til fall, Walmart will usually clearance these out for $200-300 if you keep an eye on them on brickseek.com.

If you are dead set on electric, Masterbuilt electrics where you disregard the chip tray and use AMNPS pellet 5x3 trays to do the smoking are decent, but by doing this you are already making it as hard as the masterbuilt gravity smoker to run.

Smokin It are decent electric smokers, especially if you are going for sausage/cheese/cold smoke things. Its a pretty good step below pellet smokers and a much further step below gravity smokers for taste on things like brisket/ribs/pork shoulder.

I used a Masterbuilt for years and it worked well. If you go the electric route get a pellet tube or tray for it. It'll provide up to 12 hours of smoke without having to add chips all the time. One thing I noticed as well was when using the smoker at lower temps sometimes it wasn't enough to get the chips to smolder. The pellet tube fixed that problem.

I second this. I used an electric smoker for years and it was okay. I transitioned to pellet this year and the improvement in how my smokes turned out is significant. Pellet is also a lot more versatile.
It's like getting married. You want to skip the first wife and go straight to the second wife.

So from what I am reading masterbuilt is the way to go. Follow up question on storage. Don’t really have a great place covered for it to be stored so was thinking about just using a dolly to wheel it in and out of the garage to use. Or are the covers good enough if it gets a little wet? Would be under a covered porch but might get some rain on it depending on how bad the storm is.

Cookshack. The new ones are all stainless and will last a lifetime. Small enough the store in the garage. Mine produces enough smoke. It makes everything I cook in it smokey enough for most tastes. I also have a Yoder Ys 640. The food definitely tastes slightly different coming off of one or the other, but they're totally different machines. The only problem with the small cook shacks are is that you have to cut your racks of ribs in half and there's no way you're putting a whole pack of brisket in it.

PIT BOSS COPPERHEAD 3-SERIES WOOD PELLET VERTICAL SMOKER

LINK

Put a 40# bag in the hopper, turn it on, and go about your business. No issues for the last 5 years and use it @ 3-4 times a month.

A use a smoke tube for more smoke. Adds 4 @hrs of smoke and a really nice ring.