This guide reviews some of the best low to mid-range, affordable, and entry-level offset smokers available today. We also cover what you should look for when choosing one, what to avoid, and a warning on what sometimes looks like bargains!
Electric smokers are a great option for people looking to get into smoking meat but don’t want to worry about constantly tending to a smoker. They require minimal assembly and barely any smoking knowledge.
Most offset smokers are easy to maintain and incredibly durable. They have to be since they are being used for hours at a time, after all. Offset smokers can come as the more traditional southern model with two chambers, stand-up tower-like versions, or even shaped like an egg.
I researched the best offset smokers for beginners available out there. I look at what features you should find in the best offset smoker and a few that are unnecessary or can even hinder your cooking enjoyment.
Table of Contents
Best Offset Smoker for Beginners
Here is the list of best offset smokers for beginners.
| Image | Product | Feature | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Top Pick
|
Bradley Smoker BTDS76P Food Smoker, 4-Rack Digital Electric, Silver |
It is fully automated(The automatic hopper.) This gives you much control over the amount of smoke it can produce. |
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 |
Char-Broil Performance Gas Grill
|
The primary cooking area is 475 square inches. 40,000 BTU cooking system that delivers powerful heat and performance. |
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|
Top Pick
|
Royal Gourmet CC1830F-C Charcoal Grill Offset Smoker |
Adjustable charcoal pan Friendly Price Large primary grill grate |
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 |
Char-Griller 2137 Outlaw Charcoal Grill & Smoker |
Adjustable grill grate heights Flanged lid to prevent air leaks Careful air and heat control dampers |
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 |
Classic Pit Barrel Cooker |
The PBC is made of high-quality, durable steel. The standard grill grate has 260 square inches of cooking surface |
Check On Amazon |
 |
Dyna-Glo DGX780BDC-D 36″ Vertical Charcoal Smoker |
A wide grilling space Ceramic enameled coating interior Large charcoal chamber |
Check On Amazon |
 |
Dyna-Glo Signature Series DGSS1382VCS-D Heavy-Duty Vertical Offset Charcoal Smoker & Grill |
Ease of assembly Ease to Clean Poor quality(issues in longer term |
Check On Amazon |
I’ve selected a small group of recommendations of what we believe are some best types of smokers on the market, and we’ll be going over the pros and cons of each so that you can shop with confidence, armed with your newfound knowledge. So, let’s start!
Bradley Smoker BTDS76P Food Smoker, 4-Rack Digital Electric, Silver
Electric smokers are a great option for people looking to get into smoking meat but don’t want to worry about constantly tending to a smoker. Our Bradley smoker review will take you through everything you need to know about a Bradley Digital Smoker and help you decide if it’s the smoker for you.
Design
The main design feature is their ability to create a lot of smoke automatically. To do this, a digital controller sets and measures the times and temperatures of the main cooking chamber.
The main chamber of the smoker feels solid and has a nice finish. It has an insulated steel interior that makes it very capable of cooking on hot or cold days because the heat retention in the chamber is so good. It also allows for easy clean-up.
Ease of use
The assembly of the Bradley electric smoker is very simple. The instructions are good, and everything is fairly self-explanatory. It will take around 5 to 10 minutes to open the box to have a working smoker.
The best part of the Bradley digital smoker is how easy it is to use once you’ve got it going. Once it starts smoking, there is very little to do, and you’ll often never have to check it until it’s done.
This is a huge plus point for the Bradley as other electric smokers require you to at least add wood chips during the cook. Others require damper control to regulate airflow and temperature. But this literally will do everything itself.
Char-Broil Performance Gas Grill
Char-Broil has consistently produced affordable and best entry-level offset smoker propane grills for barbecue and grilling for beginners, with their Performance series standing as their best one yet. We’ve put in hours of use with this to ensure we’ve covered every square inch of detail to bring you the best review possible.
Size
One of my key considerations when comparing grills is size. Power and usability are both important, but when it comes to outdoor cooking, I like to get a lot of food on the go at once.
Perhaps it’s the inner caterer in me, but I like to feel like I can get a spread on quickly. Luckily, this grill from Char-Broil has 500 square inches of space, enough to cater to most of your grilling. Its total cooking area of it comes to 660 square inches.
Power and heat
Now onto the meaty stuff. Heat output for gas grills is measured in BTUs, which is. Broadly speaking, a measure of its heat efficiency. The best gas grills will have about 80-100 BTUs per square inch of cooking space.
So where does that put this Char-Broil grill? Well, at 36,000 BTUs over 500 square inches of cooking space, it’s good news that puts this grill firmly in that bracket. I’ve always been a fan of grills with porcelain-coated grates as this coating helps distribute heat evenly across its cooking surface.
I’ve found this particularly useful for longer forms of cooking as it helps reduce uneven hot and cold spots across your grill. This has about 10,000 BTUs, which is pretty powerful for a side burner.
Design
The primary cooking area of the Performance is 475 square inches, which compares well to other similar models. Char-Broil claim this is enough for 20 burger patties. I’m skeptical and would put that at closer to 10-15.
When considering the side burner, that cooking area quickly improves, totaling 660 square inches. The four burners are made of stainless steel and covered by porcelain enamel-coated grates.
Ample storage space is provided through the fully enclosed cabinet. The dimensions measure 56″L x 21″W x 44.4″H, which is great when compared with the competitive grills on the market. The weight of this grill is just under 108 pounds.
Performance
Equipped with a 40,000 BTU cooking system that delivers powerful heat and performance, this grill includes a 10,000 BTU side burner that provides a convenient method for cooking an entire meal outside.
The Char-Broil is designed with porcelain-coated, cast-iron cooking grates to give you juicy burgers and meaty ribs. It’s made with heavy-duty caster wheels, so you can easily move and reposition the grill on your patio.
Royal Gourmet CC1830F-C Charcoal Grill Offset Smoker
The Royal Gourmet CC1830F-C Charcoal Grill Offset Smoker attempts to offer this kind of capability while also being able to handle pretty much any traditional grilling method. It is the best smoker for beginners. For a proper guide, I have listed some of its features below.
Design
The main grill section of the smoker is made from quality materials and welds. The expanded metal shelf on the bottom of the cart provides a lot of rigidity holding the four legs securely together.
The vent is large enough to allow a significant amount of smoke to pass through. However, it is made from thin metal and is a little on the small side for heating the grill’s main grilling chamber.
Grilling Performance
This smoker does a pretty good job of being a direct-heat charcoal grill. With the charcoal pan adjusted to its highest setting, it can provide a near-steakhouse quality sear to burgers, steaks, and chops.
When the charcoal pan is adjusted to its lowest setting, it can easily handle bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. If you want to make a brisket or a pork shoulder, you should use wood chunks, which are less likely to flare up and last longer than wood chips.
Grilling Areas
The main grilling area is 438 square inches, which is large enough to handle grilling a large amount of food. The Royal Gourmet CC1830F-C also has a 179 square inch swing-away warming rack for 617 square inches.
Special Features
The side smoker box is nice for adding smoke to certain cuts of meat like fish or ring sausage. Yet, it’s a little small for smoking larger cuts of meat.
Ease to Clean
charcoal grills are always harder to clean than gas. The smoker attempts to make it a little easier with their removable coal pan, which allows you to pull out a significant number of spent embers. Anything else in the bottom of the main chamber will need to be scooped out by hand.
Char-Griller 2137 Outlaw Charcoal Grill & Smoker
Char-Griller has worked hard to carve out a niche in the charcoal grill marketplace. The Outlaw 2137 represents the largest charcoal model in their line. It was built with heavy-duty steel construction, including a double bottom for superior corrosion and firebox burnout resistance.
The lid was specially designed with a flange to reduce heat loss and air leaks. Not only does this limit flare-ups, but it also helps with thermometer accuracy. Let’s have a look at some of its features in detail.
Construction
The Char-Griller Outlaw was designed to be heavy-duty. It uses thick gauge steel with a double bottom, preventing the long-term firebox burnout that can afflict barrel-style grills over time. The legs are also very sturdy and tied together by a storage shelf.
The adjustable cast iron grill grates are a little double-edged sword. It’s nice to be able to alter the relationship between the meat and heat. However, the rack settings are a little flimsy and can sometimes be fiddly to adjust when they are hot. It would have been better if they had designed it with a crank or perhaps a lever system.
Ease of Assembly
For the general simplicity of the design, the Outlaw can be a little tricky to put together. A few nuts and bolts are hard to get to and tighten properly. A few are first-class “Knuckle Busters.” Be prepared to give yourself two solid hours to put it together fully.
Grilling Performance
The Char-Griller Outlaw has the size you need to do everything you want a quality barrel grill to do. It’s even large enough to set up a fire on one side with some smoking woods to produce nearly competition-level barbecue.
The flanged hood with reduced air leaks and the thoughtful dampers helps prevent flare-ups and give you superior heat control. This addresses a common complaint with many barrel-style grills and smokers.
Grilling Areas
The Char-Griller Outlaw has size on its side. It offers an impressive 725 square inches of primary and 338 square inches of warming rack, which is big enough and close enough to the fire to be used as a secondary grilling area for some dishes.
Ease to Clean
The Char-Griller Outlaw was designed with an easy-to-use ash dump tray. The issue comes with caramelized drippings caused by excess grease, marinades, and sauces. You might need to use a scraper tool to get it out before it gums up or causes corrosion in the double-thick steel firebox.
Classic Pit Barrel Cooker
This 18.5″ steel cooker is a variation of the classic Ugly Drum Smoker design. The Pit Barrel Cooker works a little like a convection oven, so it cooks with even heat from top to bottom, while the vertically hanging meat manages to smoke itself with its juices.
While it hasn’t been around as long as some other popular options, we’ve recently included the Pit Barrel Cooker in our guide to the best type of smoker for beginners. For a first-time smoker, this is a great option—reliable, durable, consistent, and great value for money at its current asking price.
Design
The Pit Barrel is a drum smoker that measures 18.5″ across the top opening and is 31 1/2 inches tall. It is a 30-gallon cooker with a 17 1/2 inches wide grate. The height from the top of the coals to the cooking surface is between 24″-26″, and the included hanging hooks measure 4 inches in length.
The Pit Barrel is made with 18 gauge cold rolled steel with porcelain enamel coating and includes a stainless-steel grill grate. The handles on the unit are made in the shape of bent horseshoes and are of a much heavier thickness than the grill itself.
Quality
The PBC is made of high-quality, durable steel. Originally a 20-gauge, it has now been upgraded to a sturdier 18-gauge. Its porcelain enamel coating makes it extremely resistant to weather. It performs well at high altitudes and can keep your meat cooking even if it’s minus 15 outside.
Cooking space
The standard grill grate has 260 square inches of cooking surface, considerably less than what you would find on an offset smoker, but if you choose to hang your smoking meat, there is much more space.
Easy to use
The theory behind the Pit Barrel cooker is the famous minion method, rather than pouring a chimney full of hot coals in at once and then needing to refuel every few hours. You’ll be very happy with how easy this smoker is to use.
What do I like about it?
The hook system increases your cooking capacity. Because you hang meat vertically rather than laying it out, you can easily fit eight racks of ribs or two pork butts. This is a very forgiving smoker for beginners and won’t require a lot of babysitting once you’ve mastered a few basics. Airtight construction helps you achieve very steady temperatures over a long smoke.
What do I not like about it?
You are somewhat restricted in how you control temperature. The adjustable plate can vary the temperature by 50 degrees to account for ambient air temperature and wind, but it’s not easily adjusted on the fly.
While you ‘can’ use this as a grill, it makes a better-dedicated smoker. Using the grill grate can be awkward as you must reach a bit too far when it’s flipping time.
Specifications
| Fuel type | Charcoal |
| Weight | 60 lbs |
| Dimensions | 30 x 20 x 20 in |
| Primary Capacity | 240 square inches |
| Warranty | One year on defective merchandise |
Dyna-Glo DGX780BDC-D 36″ Vertical Charcoal Smoker
For barbecue lovers, a good smoker would be the best purchase of their lives. Picking the wrong one will surely make them feel otherwise. That is the reason why it is always great to do thorough research.
With hundreds of choices in the market which might claim to be the best offset smoker for beginners, there is an affordable option that can bring out the best-tasting steaks and grilled food without breaking the bank.
Summary
It is well-built at an affordable price. The exterior is made with powder-coated steel. It is 4 feet and 1 3/4 inches in height, 21 and 1/2 inches wide, and 20 3/4 deep. It gives you access to a total of 784 square inches of grilling and smoking area.
It has a porcelain-enameled cooking chamber which is quite common to grillers and smokers. This material is easy to clean and maintain and will not rust. This also helps with better heat circulation and temperature management.
It has a two-door design that contributes greatly to heat retention and minimizes heat loss while cooking. For some vertical cookers, the common dilemma of users is the inability to top up charcoal once they have started grilling because it is inconvenient to access the charcoal chamber.
With the Dyna-Glo 36″ Vertical Cooker, you must open the bottom door and fill it with pre-started charcoal for continuous grilling. You can access the food and charcoal on separate occasions without too much heat loss.
The upper chamber has four layers of grates with adjustable height. It is also easy to remove the grates with cooked food and set in place a new one. This makes way for faster cooking and better productivity.
It is easy to use offset smokers for beginners because it is hardly intimidating to operate. It builds up your desired temperature easily with its multi-way temperature adjustment. There are three modes of temperature adjustment for this vertical smoker.
Best beginner offset smoker, there is a chimney-like smoke stack with various modifications for temperature regulation and airflow. Inside the bottom door, you will have a large-capacity charcoal chamber seated on a stainless-steel grate. Below this is a removable ash pan for quick disposal and cleaning.
Dyna-Glo Signature Series DGSS1382VCS-D Heavy-Duty Vertical Offset Charcoal Smoker & Grill
If you are looking for the best offset smoker for beginners, then this Dyna-Glo provides their Signature Series DGSS675CB-D as the answer. This barrel-style charcoal grill features an expansive main cooking chamber with 675 square inches of grill space.
The heavy-duty cast iron grates have also been specially coated with porcelain material to provide them with non-stick properties and superior heat retention. This allows you to create an almost Steakhouse level sear on a steak or grill a whole chicken.
Construction
the Dyna-Glo Signature Series DGSS675CB-D is made from robust materials and components. The stainless-steel grill grates are stout and coated with a special non-stick porcelain layer. The wide-grip, cool touch handles, and large diameter wheels also represent its quality and durability. However, the metal gauge of the lid feels a little thin for a grill of this size.
Ease of assembly
With some basic tools and mechanical skills, you should expect it to take you a little over an hour to put together fully. If you opt also to purchase the accessory smoker box, you should expect that to add another half an hour or so to the total assembly time.
Grilling Performance
The large primary grilling chamber is designed to hold a large amount of grilled food or to accommodate classic barbecue from the accessory smoker box. One factor that could complicate this sort of improvisation is the seals on the air dampers or draft doors.
They tend to be a little loose, which in some slow-and-low applications might lead to too much oxygen being provided to the fire leading to flare-ups and heat control issues.
Grilling Areas
The accessory DGSS287CB-D offset smoker box measures 24.2 inches wide by 18.4-inches deep and 21-inches long. Even if you don’t use it as a smoker during a particular grilling session, you could still multitask the accessory smoker box as a warmer or use it to grill side dishes.
Ease to Clean
Most of the time, the lingering heat of the fire will dry out any lingering material. You can then use a wire, or firm nylon bristled brush to scrape it away carefully. If you are dealing with a significant mess on the grates, they can be easily removed and soaked in warm soapy water before scrubbing them clean.
FAQs: Best Offset Smoker for Beginners
How to use a smoker for beginners?
Add some charcoal to a smoker and light it. Add some wood chunks to the charcoal and burn it. Add cold water to the pan. Add meat to the grill and cover the lid. Check the temperature regularly. Let the meat cook for 2 hours.
Final Remarks
Offset smokers take time and effort to learn how to use it correctly, so it’s probably best to take a few practice runs to ensure you have your technique down before trying to show off to friends and family.
In terms of best offset smokers for beginners, there are many good choices available in the market and online. We discussed some of the best type of smoker for beginners in detail so you may not get confused.