I pulled comments from 40+ threads where people were asking about or discussing smokers/what's the best smoker, then ran sentiment analysis to see which brands consistently get love vs. which ones get roasted (pun intended).
What stood out: Masterbuilt electric smoker absolutely crushed it with a 93/100 score. Meanwhile, some brands I expected to see higher, like Weber, had more mixed feedback than I anticipated.
Quick disclaimer: "highest rated on Reddit" doesn't mean "perfect for your specific situation." Your budget, space, fuel preference, and what you're smoking all matter, but this can be a helpful starting point.
The process:
- Scraped 40+ smoking-related threads from various subreddits
- Ran the comments through LLMs (GPT-5 + Gemini 2.5) to identify smoker mentions and analyze sentiment
- Scored using a weighted system: 70% based on positive vs. negative mention differential, 30% based on positive-to-total mention ratio
- Cleaned up brand variations manually (e.g., "WSM" → "Weber Smokey Mountain")
This scoring method keeps smokers with high engagement but divisive reviews from ranking too high just because they're talked about a lot.
You can find the full breakdown with all scored smokers and the raw comment data from the reddit threads at: RedSummary (dot) com/best-smokers
Would love to get your feedback on this!
by LoneKnight25
38 Comments
Oh wow this is impressive (and helpful!) thank you
That’s nice to see my boy at #1.. guess i did something right
I started out with the MB Electric. It lasted me 10 years. I now have the MB XT Gravity.
I got my start on an electric Masterbuilt smoker. 30” model, was a great unit. Gave it to a friend who still uses it. Changed out the controller on top once. I switched to a KamadoJoe Big Joe, but have no complaints about the Masterbuilt, from price to performance.
I have a campchef pellet smoker that I like but the bluetooth doesn’t work at all (not a big deal to me personally). They may have fixed that issue in subsequent models.
Rockin’ number 17 baby!
Weber kettle 22″ 😭😭😭
surprised to see an electric smoker on top!
A lot of professionals prefer and use ugly drum over Weber. It’s ranked last because you typically have to build it or have it built to spec. Expensive but extremely high quality but the price point deters almost everyone. All in including shipping is like $2000 (I priced one last week)
Doing the best work. Thank you boss.
That does not look like my workhorse pit hahah
I wonder how many of the comments are guerrilla marketing bots.
My old country brazos offset isn’t even on the list. It’s an excellent cooker and better than some i see on the list
Looking at that Oklahoma Joe offset with flimsy metal and much less usable cook area
Huh, if I didn’t see the scores I would assume this was just a random assortment of smokers in no particular order. Funny how that works out with Reddit comments. One small thing, your workhorse pits photo is incorrect.
Was there any process to filter the feedback based on people who claim to own the smoker in question? As an example I’m surprised by all the negative feedback for the Millscale and Franklin offsets – I assume most of that was people complaining about price with no actual experience using the smokers.
The fact that Lyfetyme isn’t on here breaks my heart.
Picked up #2 on marketplace for 60 bucks. Ex-wives let these go cheap when they take them in the divorces. $1,000 new.
I’ve had a Bradley (#3) for many years. The only maintenance I’ve had to do outside of normal cleaning is replacing a corroded sensor wire.
It’s a fantastic unit. The only downsides are that you have to buy their wood pucks. You can’t use pellets or chips, so they have a monopoly on the wood that you can use.
It also has a max 4 hour timer, which I guess is for safety but it’s less than ideal for long overnight smokes. I guess it forces you to go out and empty the burnt puck tray and refill it with water.
I started with the master built electric smoker which was a great way to start but eventually I moved to a WSM. It’s been very reliable and easy.
Lol. Im a data analyst in the sports industry. I will say that it feels really flawed what you came up with. Still fun though.
25 “workhorse pits offset smoker”
Has picture of a PK 360.
I’m going to go ahead and disregard this entire post as garbage.
Could this be set up to make the reddit mentions and comments clickable? I don’t get how the scoring works. The offset rankings don’t seem to match up to how many thumbs up/positive mentions each one gets. And this is definitely a situation where the AI seems to be comparing apples to oranges. If you want a pellet grill, you aren’t going to be searching for an offset, and vice versa. Generally people want the rankings within a particular type of smoker – pellet vs. pellet, offset vs. offset, drum vs. drum, etc.
So, this is an interesting exercise, but take it with a grain of salt. I would be interested in seeing the rankings within each category, and also the actual Reddit comments behind the rankings.
I have the MB electric, I’ve had it two years and I had to replace the heating element, $20, because it got rained on but that was my fault.
I did buy a roll of smoke gasket tape to put on the door, otherwise it leaked a ton of smoke, but otherwise a fantastic purchase
I’m glad masterbuilt Gravity is above Traeger and other pellet “smokers”
Number 25 is the wrong image you’re showing a pk360, not a workhorse. Can’t believe anyone would sully the image of my beloved 360
Is this all time or within a certain time frame? I’d be curious what the more recent, say less than 5 years, gets.
As production of various brands have moved around or brands being bought out and quality changes may be skewing these results.
Weber 22″ original kettle is not here, did not rate at all???
Weird.
The cheap shitty ones, like the Masterbuilt one, are ‘crushing it’ because more people buy them, and when they realize they bought a cheap shitty smoker, they cope hardcore and blindly defend them.
Budget will play a big deal though. The most popular does not equal the best
No Weber Kettle?
Ain’t no way masterbuilt electric is #1 lmao the fact that the top 3 are electric tells you everything you need to know.
The results are skewed because more beginner users are inclined to purchase those smokers and also leave feedback that is more positive because they don’t have sufficient experience to cross analyze with an actual quality smoker.
Whereas more experienced pitmasters are going to be way more hyper critical over small things and the quantity of these users is far less.
Great job OP, thanks for pulling this together. Is this a screenshot from a website btw?
Trager over recteq lol
I have a msterbuilt electric smoker. It’s not bed but it doesn’t get to the temp set. I have to set it about 30 degrees over
Didn’t work correctly is my take and a random chatbot isn’t going to be the best at getting this data.
So much for that. The top 3 ruined it for me.
I’m probably going recteq next but I’d love a Yoder.
The Ninja smoker made it on there but not the Traeger Ranger..? Something must be wrong.
https://preview.redd.it/bwaao3mxyysf1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a6bbfc16a31eca20c95b91f68ee5a2477d23db2
My shitbox barrel grill was shockingly not included.