envy of your friends, when you’re just starting out with smoking you may find that a vertical water smoker is a much better investment. It’s easy to spot vertical smokers for sale, since they look a bit like an upright bullet (or kind of like R2D2 from Star Wars). They have a relatively small footprint, which makes them great for apartment dwellers or those with limited outdoor space. Vertical smokers are much easier to handle than offset smokers, but are still good enough for competition smokers.

Vertical smokers unique design allows it to almost guarantee consistent temperature maintenance at the smoking sweet spot of 225°F. The water pan (hence the name vertical water smoker) helps keep the meat moist, even after 10 hours of smoking. The three-part construction also makes it easy to add more fuel and access the meat.

Much of what makes the vertical water smoker appealing is how easy it is to use. First, you light the chimney starter and add the embers to the charcoal ring at the bottom. From there, you put the center section on top and then fill the water pan. This can be filled with anything from water, to beer, to cider, or another liquid that will help add flavour and moisture. The food then goes on the wire racks over the water pan. You add some wood chips to the coals and adjust the vents on the bottom and top to get up that 225 temperature for traditional barbecue. Then, check the temperature every half hour or so using either the smoker’s built-in thermometer or a temperature gauge you’ve inserted before you started smoking.

If your smoker runs too hot, close the bottom vents and most of the top vents to limit oxygen flow and cool the fire (or you can add cool water to the water pan). If the smoker runs too cold, open both the vents on the top and bottom, add a couple extra lumps of charcoal, and wait for the extra oxygen to work its magic.

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