Best Electric Smoker Under 400 Dollars 2023

Selecting the Best Electric Smoker

There are rare methods of food preparation that will make your meats more flavorful than when they are prepared in a dedicated smoker. I’ve been a fan of smoked meats like turkey wings, ham, and chicken since we would visit my uncle who had a smokehouse when I was growing up. Unfortunately, despite my love of this flavor, I don’t quite have the desire to purchase or build a dedicated smokehouse, but I found something just as good: an electric smoker.

The average electric smoker works similarly to the old-school smokehouses of yesteryear. You’ll need wood chips, water, and of course, meats. Theoretically, you can use a stovetop smoker, but I love the design of a standalone electric smoker because it can have compartments for your chips, your water, and some even have easy grease management systems that make the process more convenient. You really can get the same great smokey flavor without the charcoal with an electric smoker.

There are a wide variety of standalone electric smokers on the market today, but after I did a bit of thorough research, I feel there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Masterbuilt 20075315 Front Controller Smoker with Viewing Window. There are a lot of reasons why this particular product is exceptional, so let’s take a look at some of its out-of-the-box features.

Features

In my opinion, for a product to truly be the best, it needs to have great features that make it shine versus the competition. The Masterbuilt 20075315 Front Controller Smoker has these in spades. Here are a few:

A Large Viewing Window

When you have one of these devices around your home, it’s always a great idea to be able to see what’s going on inside the smoker. This visual data can tell you if your meat is getting too dry, is not cooking properly, or if you need more wood chips. The Masterbuilt 20075315 has a very large and clear window so that you can easily track what’s happening as your meat smokes deliciously.

With stovetop and even traditional smokehouse smokers, it’s somewhat hard to tell what’s happening with your meat as it smokes. This window just adds a huge degree of cooking convenience that lets you check on things as the meat cooks.

Remote Control Included

Everything has a remote control these days, so it shouldn’t surprise you that the best smokers include remote functionality. With that said, I found this feature to be amazingly convenient. The included remote control uses RF to communicate. It can control the on and off functionality of the smoker and also clearly displays the temperature, the time left on your preset cook, it can control internal lighting, and will also monitor the internal temperature of your smoking meat.

The remote is an easy little device to keep in a shirt pocket that you can use to monitor your smoke while you watch the game. All of these commands are situated on top of the smoker’s door, but it’s nice to be able to take it with you.

Thermostat

With traditional smokers, cooking often can be an uneven and unbalanced thing. Fortunately, the Masterbuilt 20075315 has an internal thermostat so that you can monitor the internal heating and ensure an even and thorough smoke.

An Easy to Use Wood Chip System

Wood chips are the bread and butter of a good smoke. You’ll need to measure these out so that you don’t overwhelm your smoker with their flavor. The Masterbuilt 20075315 does a great job of managing woodchips. With it, all you’ll have to do is pull out the chip hopper, place about a half of a cup of wood chips inside, push it back into the smoker, and turn it 180 degrees to deposit the chips into the burner. Underneath the burner is an ash collector that you can easily empty once you are done with your smoke. Just a tiny amount of chips will provide a lot of smoke; just remember to select the chips that are best for the type of meat that you’re smoking.

A Great System For Grease Management

As you smoke your food, grease will inevitably drip from the heat causing the fats to break down. When this happens, the grease will fall into a pan at the bottom of the unit. After this, it will naturally be directed to a hole at the base of the device where it will flow into a grease collector that you can empty when it’s full. This is a quick and easy way to manage the grease that results from cooking and even works well when you’re cooking multiple types of meat.

Cooking Space

This product really shines when it comes to cooking space. It has the space to smoke about 100 pounds of food, which is enough to feed a small army. In the past, I’ve tried to use a stovetop smoker and this device blows that old device away for the sheer amount of food that it can smoke at a time. The Masterbuilt 20075315 has 975 square inches of cooking space, and you can even remove the internal racks if you need extra space for a large brisket or an entire bird.

Meat Thermometer

Smoking is unfortunately not an exact science. When you’re not sure if your meat is done and has reached a well-cooked internal temperature, simply use the included meat thermometer, which is very accurate. This probe hangs from a wire that’s attached to the inside of the smoker, so it’s very easy to quickly pull out of its housing and use.

Considerations

This is a great smoker, but there are considerations that you should take into account before you purchase it. Firstly, this is not a pre-assembled smoker; you’ll have to do a bit of work before you can safely use this product to smoke your meat. It’s not a whole lot of work, but don’t expect to not have to use a little elbow grease when setting it up. The remote is a bit annoying when you need to replace the batteries because the spring is a bit temperamental.

Also, remember that this is a 75-pound device, so constantly trucking it from place to place will get annoying after a while. Finally, the grease tray can rust a bit. This is unfortunate, but if you are sure to dry it after use, then you won’t have to worry about too much rust accumulating as you use your smoker. But even so, this is the best electric smoker around.