Electric Smoker Vs Wood Smoker

 Ease of use

When we talk about ease of use we mean how much time and energy you are willing to put into your barbecue? This will be something that not only impacts your initial decision on which type to choose but will also impact every cook you do and ultimately how satisfied you are with your choice and how often you use it.

Many folks overestimate their willingness to prepare for, tend, and clean up after a cook. As a result, they lose interest in using their smoker and it sits in the yard unused. Regardless of the quality of the barbecue, if the time or hassle involved isn’t worth it to you, your meat smoker will go unused.

The time you’re willing to spend assumes that the smoker you choose is actually capable of producing a high-quality barbecue. As you’ll see below, many of the offset smokers available at Home Depot or Lowe’s are not worth the trouble.

Trying to control fire and smoke with them is like chopping down a tree with a sled hammer – no fun at all. That’s a bad situation and one that can be avoided.

Smoke and flavor

There is zero question that electric smokers produce a milder smoke flavor and less bark than wood smokers can produce. I own an electric smoker and it makes a fantastic barbecue – ribs, port butt, brisket, etc. However, there is no debating the difference when I use a charcoal smoker or wood smoker.

A wood smoker is going to provide an array of combustion gasses and more intense smoke that will enable you to duplicate the best barbecue you’ve ever had. So, if the flavor is your primary concern, and you don’t care as much about budget or simplicity, a wood smoker is the only choice that will meet your needs.

Cost to buy and operate

First off, if you have a decent gas grill you can achieve some pretty nice quality smoked meat using a 2-zone method and some wood chips.  You don’t need to buy a dedicated smoker if you don’t want to. There are numerous videos about how to smoke meats using your charcoal or gas grill and some wood chips.

There are dozens of smoker tubes on the market and they work really well. I highly recommend you give these a try before you make any decisions about a dedicated smoker. The results really are pretty good and you may be surprised to find that this is enough for your needs.

If however, you know you want a dedicated smoker, the cost difference between electric and wood can be significant – especially at the lower end of the market.

An entry level electric smoker can be had for under $200. Typically these do a pretty nice job, add a bit of smoke flavor, and produce some nice barbecue. They all work on the same principle – a heating element and some form of smoldering wood.

The knock on the entry-level units is they tend to be cheaply made, leak smoke, don’t hold heat very well, and are small requiring racks of ribs and packer briskets to be cut in half to fit.

Stepping up to a nicer level of electric smoker fixes all these issues but prices approach $500 and above for the popular manufacturers.

That said, electric smokers are very cheap to run using only electricity and a minimal amount of wood chips.

Wood smokers on the other hand – specifically offset smokers start closer to $300. Unfortunately, these do not typically do a decent job. They leak heat and smoke. provide poor drafting and temperature control, and they rust. In my opinion, buying a cheap offset wood smoker is the quickest way to sour on the smoking barbecue for a long time.

A decent offset smoker will run you $700 and up. I’m sure many folks will argue about this but if you do the research you’ll find the experts agree – do not buy a cheap offset smoker.

So, if you want to get into smoking barbecue and want to do it for a couple hundred dollars, the choice between electric vs. wood smoker comes down on the side of electric – hands down.