Smoking meat is a kick in the butt. I love messing with it from start to finish.
I recommend smoking with wood or charcoal. Probably one of the best known and well liked is the
Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker. I have one and I like it. One complaint is the thermometer isn't all that accurate. No problem, just drill two holes in the side at both grill levels, install a grommet in both holes and you can then run good meat thermometers inserted straight into the meat. I cooked for years without doing that. The WSM will last forever.
Because you can never have enough smokers I just ordered a
Pit Barrel Cooker. I keep hearing good things about and I've read very good reviews. It's a vertical smoker in that you hang the meat. The web site explains it. Everyone says the PBC greatly reduces cook time because of the way the meat is smoked. The thought of being able to smoke a big brisket in 6+ hours instead of 12+ hours is appealing to me if the quality of the finish product is not compromised.
You can also get into gas smokers and electric smokers and pellet smokers and big wood smokers. I've never tried a gas smoker. I did buy a small Bradley electric smoker once. The idea being that I'd try new recipes, rubs, sauces, etc without having to spend a day farting around with charcoal or wood. Set it and forget it. After the first Bradley caught on fire, they send me another one. The second one didn't even work. No electricity. Also, one corner was crimped when they assembled it in China. I sent that one back.
If I have to watch the damn thing to make sure it doesn't blow up it kind of defeats the purpose of set it and forget it. I was only using it as a test smoker but worrying about it shorting out or catching on fire was not what I wanted. I wouldn't have used it much anyway. If I'm smoking for real and for friends I'm always going to use wood or charcoal.
I hear that people in Texas are using electric smokers in competition but I think it's cheating, kinda like boiling ribs first before you smoke them. I would never, ever, ever do that. Ever. :naughty
There are many excellent smokers out there. Choosing is difficult. If you enjoy smoking you'll eventually have more than one smoker. I found that it's best to not to discuss multi-smoker ownership with your wife before you buy a smoker and definitely not before you buy
another smoker.