Top 10 Smokers over $400 for 2008

In the world of serious barbecue there is one name that means smoker and that's David Klose. This Texan has made some of the best smokers on the market. He also makes many of the custom units you'll see at the really big cook offs. Klose smokers are top quality, handmade, serious smokers and the 20 inch unit is perfect for your backyard. If you want a Klose smoker your best bet is to contact him directly and set up delivery, you can get it anywhere.

The Good One smoker is one of the top competition smokers on the circuit. This one, the Open Range, is the smallest of these smokers. Heavy and solid, this charcoal smoker has incredibly precise temperature control via the three "spinner" vents that not only let you set the temperature exactly where you want but let you find out how many turns it takes to get there so you can set it every time. With a removable drip pan, cooking grates and ash pan this is an easy unit to clean. In addition to this, The Good One is amazingly versatile since it can smoke and grill at the same time, but can also be used as an oven.

For more than 40 years Cookshack has been making some of the best electric smokers on the market. They make both residential units and commercial smokers for restaurants and businesses. These smokers give you great, authentic barbecue without a lot of work. If you tend towards the easier to operate smokers then this is a great unit. Basically a kitchen appliance this smoker burns standard wood chunks and gives you control over the temperature, smoke quantity and timing.

This unit is sold as a grill but works equally well as a smoker. With an optional digital feeder control you can get a low and slow temperature that is perfect for smoking for many hours. This is a pellet grill so it uses small wood pellets, similar to animal feed, that burner cleanly and efficiently. These wood pellets create all the heat and all the smoke so it is as close to smoking with hardwood as you can get without splitting logs. The Traeger unit uses a controlled feeding mechanism so you won't have to keep too close an eye on this smoker.

This is marketed as a charcoal grill, but its ability to hold low temperatures for an incredible amount of time has made it and other Kamado cookers very popular amongst smokers. This "smoker" is based on an ancient Japanese design, made of ceramic and looks a little like a vertical water smoker. The ceramic shell absorbs heat and holds it. The top and bottom vents allow you to control the temperature and easily hold it at the ideal smoking temperature for many hours without attention.

Now these are serious units. The Pitt's and Spitt's smokers might be more expensive than many units but the solid construction and fantastic smoking characteristics make them some of the best units on the market. If you are really serious about barbecue this is a great unit. The firebox is mounted under the cooking chamber for efficient heating and the vent controls give you a level of accuracy that you just can't get in most any other smoker.

If you've wandered the online barbecue world then you've probably run across the term "SnP". This stands for Smoke'N Pit. It is one of the original great smokers of our time. There are a few modifications that you should make to get it up to full speed, but generally this is a great, classic offset barrel type smoker. You get lots of cooking area and relatively good fire control.