Dyna-Glo Wide Body Vertical Offset Charcoal Smoker

A straight vertical charcoal cabinet with no offset firebox - the charcoal chamber sits directly under four 196 sq in grates and the heat rises through them, with a separate wood chip box for smoke. Double doors keep the fuel access separate from the food access so refuelling does not dump the cooking chamber's heat. At around $149 it is the entry point of the whole charcoal-cabinet category and the cheapest smoker in this catalog that still gives you four full racks.

Dyna-Glo's volume model and a fixture of Home Depot and Lowe's floors: four burners making 48,000 BTU over 461 sq in of primary grate, 136 sq in of secondary, 597 sq in total, with a side burner. The open-cart layout leaves the tank visible but drops the price against cabinet grills of the same size. Stainless steel with a black powder coating rather than bare stainless.

The propane answer to Dyna-Glo's charcoal cabinets and the natural replacement shopping target now that the Camp Chef Smoke Vault is discontinued. Two cast-iron burners totalling 20,000 BTU sit under a porcelain-enameled wood chip box, with four height-adjustable grates rated to 25 lbs each for 1,235 sq in, electronic pulse ignition and a top damper. The wide-body chamber takes a turkey across rather than front-to-back.

The 14-inch sibling of the Classic already in the catalog, rebuilt in 2026 as the Premier series. It is the same sealed drum design — charcoal basket in the base, meat hung from rods on hooks rather than laid on a grate — shrunk to a 14-inch barrel that Pit Barrel rates at four to eight people or up to six racks of ribs hung vertically. The Premier revision adds an elevated lid handle, a detachable single-tier heat shield so it can sit on a deck, and an attachable ash pan; it ships with the hook tool as standard, which used to be an upsell.

The Pit Barrel Cooker Classic is an 18.5-inch porcelain-coated drum smoker that hangs meat vertically over the coals on hooks. It's beloved in owner discussions for being nearly foolproof - light it, hang the meat, and walk away.

The smallest of Weber's three bullet smokers: a two-rack water smoker on a 14.5-inch charcoal bowl, the same diameter as the Smokey Joe. It runs the identical design as the 18-inch already in the catalog — charcoal ring at the bottom, water pan in the middle, two cooking grates above — scaled down to 286 sq in and 23 lbs, which is the point: it is the only WSM light enough to carry to a campsite or a tailgate. The small fuel ring is also the catch, since it holds enough charcoal for roughly 6 to 8 hours rather than the overnight burns the larger bullets manage.