Best Budget: Masterbuilt® 30-inch Digital Electric Vertical BBQ Smoker with Side Wood Chip Loader, Chrome Racks and 710 Cooking Square Inches in Black, Model MB20071117
Best Budget on this page is this exact listing. Match the title, the condition, and any bundle words before you compare a similar product.
Best Overall: Traeger Pro 22 Wood Pellet Grill & Smoker, 572 Sq In
Best Overall on this page is this exact listing. Match the title, the condition, and any bundle words before you compare a similar product.
Best Premium: Oklahoma Joe’s Highland Offset Charcoal Smoker and Grill with 900 sq. in. Cooking Area in Black
Best Premium on this page is this exact listing. Match the title, the condition, and any bundle words before you compare a similar product.
A smoker is a fuel. Smoker Black Friday Deals 2026 on this page are three cookers that do not burn the same thing. The budget listing is the Masterbuilt 30-inch digital electric vertical smoker, side wood chip loader, chrome racks, 710 cooking square inches, black, model MB20071117. The overall listing is the Traeger Pro 22 wood pellet grill and smoker, 572 square inches. The premium listing is the Oklahoma Joe’s Highland offset charcoal smoker and grill, 900 square inches, black. Electricity and wood chips, wood pellets, and charcoal with an offset firebox are three skills. Pick the fuel you will actually keep buying.
Best Budget: Masterbuilt electric vertical
Masterbuilt® 30-inch Digital Electric Vertical BBQ smoker is the modest cooker. The registered mark is part of the brand line in the title. Thirty inches, digital, electric, vertical, side wood chip loader, chrome racks, 710 cooking square inches, black, model MB20071117. Electric means a cord and a circuit that can take it. Vertical means the food stacks. 710 square inches is the cooking area in the title. It is not the Traeger’s 572 and it is not the Highland’s 900. The chip loader is for wood chips, which is flavor, while the heat is electric. Read how this model wants the chips used. Do not pour pellets into a chip loader and hope.
This is the budget smoker when you want electric heat and a chip loader and you have a place to plug it in, outside, with the clearance the manual requires. It is the wrong smoker when you want a pellet hopper. That is the Traeger. It is the wrong smoker when you want a charcoal offset fire. That is the Oklahoma Joe’s. Electric is the easy heat. It is still an outdoor cooker. Do not run it in a garage with the door shut. Smoke and carbon monoxide are not a patio feature.
Best Overall: Traeger Pro 22 pellets
Traeger Pro 22 Wood Pellet Grill and smoker, 572 square inches, is the overall pick. Pro 22 is the model. Pellets are the fuel. 572 square inches is the area in the title. A pellet grill wants the pellets this model burns, a dry hopper, and a start sequence you have read. It is not charcoal and it is not a chip loader on an electric box. Pro 22 is not every Traeger. Match the model. The hopper, the auger, and the firepot are the parts people neglect. Empty ash. Keep pellets dry. Wet pellets swell and jam.
This is the overall cooker when you want wood-pellet heat and smoke in the Pro 22 size. It is a poor overall cooker if you have no outdoor covered spot for a pellet grill, or if you refuse to keep a bag of pellets. It is a poor cooker if you wanted the offset ritual of a stick or charcoal fire. The Highland is that cooker. 572 squares is less than the Highland’s 900 and less than the Masterbuilt’s 710. Area is not the only difference. Fuel is.
Best Premium: Oklahoma Joe’s Highland offset
Oklahoma Joe’s Highland Offset Charcoal Smoker and grill, 900 square inches, black, is the premium listing. Offset means the fire is in a box beside the cook chamber. Charcoal is the fuel in the title. 900 square inches is the cooking area. Highland is the model. This is a more manual fire than an electric cabinet or a pellet grill with a set temperature. You manage the fire. You do not set a digital number and walk away for the same kind of afternoon unless you already know this pit. Grill and smoker are both in the title. You can cook more than one way if you learn the dampers. Black is the color.
This is the premium pit when you want that charcoal offset and you will tend it. It is the wrong premium when you wanted to plug in a box. Buy the Masterbuilt. It is the wrong pit when you wanted pellets. Buy the Pro 22. Offset smokers are draft, wind, and fuel. A windy patio changes the fire. Plan for that. 900 square inches is a lot of grate. It is also a lot of cooker to heat. Do not buy the area and then fear the firebox.
Fuel, clearance, and the first cook
The Masterbuilt wants electricity and the chips it is built to load, plus food that fits the vertical racks. Preheat as the guide says. Do not stuff 710 square inches so tight that air cannot move. Chrome racks should arrive straight. A rack that is missing is a short cooker.
The Traeger wants pellets, a clean firepot, and the start sequence. Do not start it empty of the steps in the manual. The first cook can smell like the factory. Run it as the guide suggests before you put on a brisket you cannot spare. 572 square inches still needs space around the grill for the lid and the hopper.
The Highland wants charcoal, a way to light it safely, and time. Do not use lighter fluid if the manual says not to. Do not leave a charcoal fire unattended. The offset door and the cook chamber door get hot. Gloves. 900 square inches invites a big cook you have not practiced. Cook something cheap first.
All three stay outside. Clearance from walls, eaves, and anything that burns is the manual’s number. A holiday smoker against vinyl siding is a fire. Ash goes into a metal can when it is cold, not into a paper bag while it is hot. Pellets stay dry. Charcoal stays dry. Chips stay dry.
Do not mix the fuels to be clever. Pellets in the Masterbuilt chip loader, charcoal in the Traeger hopper, and chips as the only fuel in the Highland are how cookers jam or cook badly. Use the fuel the title names.
What these cookers will not do
They will not all plug in. They will not all burn pellets. They will not all burn charcoal. They will not fit on a small balcony if the clearance is not there. They will not make the first cook perfect. They will not be indoor ovens. They will not share racks and controllers.
A discount advertised on a charcoal bag or a pellet bag is not the cooker, unless you already own the cooker that burns it.
Weather, neighbors, and the second cook
Wind is the Highland’s problem first and everyone else’s problem second. An offset firebox in a crosswind will run hot or stall. Park the cooker so the firebox is not the side taking the gust, if you can, and still keep the clearance. The Traeger’s temperature is easier and still moves when the lid is open in a cold wind. The Masterbuilt’s electric heat is the most set-and-watch of the three, and the chip smoke still blows. Tell the neighbors if you are new to this. A first pellet cook or a first offset cook can smell stronger than you expect. That is smoke, not a reason to move the cooker into the kitchen.
Grease is the fire you did not plan. Pellet grills and offset smokers both collect grease. Empty it on the schedule the manual gives, and empty it when it is not on fire. A grease fire is a closed-lid, shut-down event, not a squirt of water into hot oil. The electric vertical has drips too. A pan of water or a drip tray, if this model uses one, is there for a reason. Read which. Do not invent a water pan the guide does not want.
The second cook is the one that teaches you. The first cook burns off oil and teaches the start button or the match. The second cook is chicken or a small pork roast you can afford to overcook. On the Masterbuilt, learn the chip loader so you are not opening the door every ten minutes. On the Traeger, learn the pellet level so the hopper does not run dry mid-cook. On the Highland, learn the dampers with a cheap cut before you put on a brisket that needs all day. Area numbers, 710, 572, and 900, tell you how much grate you have. They do not tell you how much food you are ready to manage.
Tools that are not in the box still matter. A leave-in thermometer is more honest than guessing. Gloves that are not coated in old grease are safer. A metal ash can is not optional for charcoal. Pellets need a sealed bin if the bag is open. Chips need a dry jar. None of that is the holiday cooker, and without it the cooker sits. Buy the fuel the title names in the same trip if you do not already have it. An electric smoker with no chips still heats. A pellet grill with no pellets does not. An offset with no charcoal does not.
If you are choosing one, choose the afternoon you want. A plugged-in vertical cabinet is the Masterbuilt. A pellet grill you set and check is the Pro 22. A fire you tend in a box to the side is the Highland. The premium is the offset because of that work and that area, not because the food is automatically better. The budget electric is the right cooker for someone who will not manage a fire. The pellet grill is the middle path only if you will store pellets and clean the pot. Be that person before you buy the machine. Keep the manual in a bag on the handle for the first month so the start sequence, the chip loader, and the damper diagram are outside, not in a drawer in the house. A cooker you cannot restart at the pit is a cooker you will not trust twice. After the practice cook, wipe the grates while they are still warm enough to clean and cool enough to touch with a glove, then cover the cooker once it is cold. A cover on a hot smoker melts. A cold smoker in the rain without a cover rusts. Both mistakes are ordinary and both are avoidable.
Smoker Black Friday Deals 2026 checklist
- Budget: Masterbuilt® 30-inch Digital Electric Vertical BBQ smoker, chip loader, 710 square inches, MB20071117. Needs a safe outdoor outlet.
- Overall: Traeger Pro 22 Wood Pellet Grill, 572 square inches. Pellets. Keep them dry.
- Premium: Oklahoma Joe’s Highland Offset Charcoal Smoker, 900 square inches. Charcoal. You tend the fire.
- First cook is practice.
- Cold ash only, in metal.
- Fuel is the decision. Area is the second number.
The Masterbuilt electric is the modest vertical smoker. The Traeger Pro 22 is the overall pellet grill. The Highland is the premium charcoal offset. Smoker Black Friday Deals 2026 can change the price of a cooker. They cannot change the fuel it burns.
Measure the patio before the truck arrives. The vertical electric cabinet, the Pro 22, and the offset Highland have different footprints, and the offset needs room beside the firebox as well as in front of the doors. A cooker that blocks the only door is a return you will not enjoy making. Season or burn in each one the way its own guide says, then cook chicken or a small roast before you invite anyone. Electric heat, a pellet fire, and a charcoal offset do not taste the same and they do not forgive the same mistakes. Learn the one you bought. Leave the other two for a cook who wants that fuel.
