Not a ton. I smoked the best baby back ribs and chicken I have ever eaten last summer, bar none, on a cheap Char-Broil vertical propane smoker that was under $200. So it doesn't have to be expensive to get excellent results. I know some of the pellet smokers can run into 4 digits...not looking to do anything near that.

 

If your looking to stay around that same price range I'd stay away from the pellet grills. You won't find a decent one for under the $400 price range and at that price point it's going to be a small one. Take a look at the MES 30" smoker from Masterbuilt. It's just under $200 if you opt for the one without the glass window, there is no point in having the glass window honestly since it's just going to get smoked up. Add one of the A-Maze-N products I liked earlier and you'd have yourself a worry free smokin machine for around $225.

If your looking to stay around that same price range I'd stay away from the pellet grills. You won't find a decent one for under the $400 price range and at that price point it's going to be a small one. Take a look at the MES 30" smoker from Masterbuilt. It's just under $200 if you opt for the one without the glass window, there is no point in having the glass window honestly since it's just going to get smoked up. Add one of the A-Maze-N products I liked earlier and you'd have yourself a worry free smokin machine for around $225.

 

Yep I think I'm going to go the electric route. Found a Masterbuilt I like that gets good reviews, and a Smoke Hollow one as well.

Masterbuilt has a great reputation and a friend of mine has one, seems like a really nice smoker to me. He spent the extra money for the windowed version, but to be able to see inside he has to clean the glass every time he uses it and it's still hard to see through at this point. Outside of that the only thing he has added to it is one of the pellet smoke boxes to improve the smoke profile. I have a hard time out cooking him and he really doesn't have to do much hah. I've heard of Smoke Hollow but don't know anyone that has one so I can't really comment on them. The Masterbuilts are great though.

So I got me the 30" Smoke Hollow electric smoker I found at Rural King Saturday. Has the glass front, which is neither here nor there for me, but I do kind of like being able to look into it and see. I seasoned it Saturday night and smoked 2 large salmon filets last night, which turned out very excellent. Water chamber is small, but it doesn't go through the water anywhere near like my propane smoker does. About 2 1/2 hour smoke and water chamber was still about half full. It went through the wood chips though...got those nice and hot and they burned to char, had to keep an eye on those. May need to soak them longer. Contrary to what I had heard, I got plenty of smoke out of this thing and plenty of smoke flavor as well. Salmon fillets came out looking beautiful and tasting great. I used about half of one of the fillets to make a very yummy smoked salmon dip. My first foray into that (making the dip) but I was happy with the results, Will do it again and tinker with the recipe.

Awesome @BigVMan23! I'm sure you'll love it. When you first fire it up with the wood chips remember to leave the top vent open for a bit. Those things seal up so well that if the upper vent is closed when preheating and there is wood in the chamber it can cause combustion inside once the wood starts to ignite and reach the oxygen trapped inside the smoker. It's not a real common thing but it can and has happened, usually resulting in the chip box blowing out, but there have been instances with the door blowing off as well lol. Honestly it's not a real big concern, just don't keep the top vent closed to preheat and you will be fine.