The Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker: Go from Barbecue Novice to Meat-Smoking Expert

If you're really into barbecue, you could easily spend a small fortune on equipment, from brushes and sauce mops to a fully custom-built smoker. But you don't need all that to start out on the road to pitmaster glory. The Weber Smokey Mountain 18-Inch Smoker is a great starter model that also offers the options for fine-tuning and careful fire management required for absolute perfection.

With this smoker, setting up the fire is logical, cleanup is simple, and the temperature regulation is easy to understand. While some smokers limit you to either simple charcoal or more flavorful wood as fuel, this one lets you use either—or both at once. The tall, slim design has a smaller footprint on the patio, while its two cooking racks still offer enough space for a whole rack of ribs, a dozen wings, and some veggies all at the same time. The Smokey Mountain is consistently found on lists of the best overall smokers, and after putting it to the test multiple times at home and in the Lab, it has The Spruce Eats seal of approval. It even earned the top spot on our list of best smokers.

Maintaining temperature while smoking is extremely important, both for proper cooking and producing the right amount of smoke for delicious flavor without acrid bitterness. Like most smokers, the Weber Smokey Mountain uses rotating dampers to control the flow of air to the flames and, in turn, the temperature. In this case, there are three on the bottom and one in the lid. You open them all the way when lighting the fire, then partially close them to tame the flames, and then close them all the way to put out the fire when you're done.

But this grill also has another sneaky trick up its sleeve for maintaining heat levels: a removable water pan that sits directly above the coals. The water acts as a heat sink, absorbing and releasing energy from the flames in a controlled way that slows the rate that the temperature goes up and down. It also catches fat that drips off the meat, which could otherwise cause flare-ups. You can even fill the pan with liquids besides water to add flavor to the meat; apple cider with pork is one delicious option.

The downside of the water pan is that it blocks access to charcoal or wood that's behind it. You can try to reach around the pan to move things around, but you might have to remove the top of the smoker entirely when you want to add fuel. On the other hand, there's enough room for at least 2 hours' worth of charcoal or wood around the water pan before you need to adjust anything. (The pan itself also holds enough liquid for 10 hours of cooking without a refill.)

This smoker has a few other convenient features to further improve function. A bowl-shaped attachment on the bottom is a shield that protects your deck, patio, or whatever's beneath the smoker from heat damage. A silicone grommet on the side acts as a port for thermometer probe wires that protects them from direct contact with hot metal and seals off the hole so it doesn't let extra air through. However, the grommet was missing from the unit that was ordered for Lab testing, and that made a surprising amount of difference: The airflow via the small hole in the side of the body increased the fire temperature significantly and made it tough to control.

Since this smoker is tall rather than wide, you won’t be using it for a whole pig, but the vertical orientation puts a lot of cooking space into a small footprint. The height lets you cook a beer-can turkey vertically with no problem. A full rack of ribs or side of salmon will fit easily on one of the racks, and there are two of them stacked atop each other for double the space. We were able to fit a full rack of ribs plus 20 chicken wings. (It could have fit whole one, but we cut the rib rack in half for easier handling and even cooking. When it was time for saucing, everything fit onto the top grate.)

The Weber Smokey Mountain is laid out in three sections: the lid with stay-cool handle and integrated thermometer; the middle section with the water pan, two layers of cooking grates, and a door for adding, removing, and checking on food and fuel; and a bottom that holds the fire grate and ring, and attaches to the legs. The three sections don’t lock together, so you simply stack and unstack as needed. The whole thing weighs 51 pounds, so it's helpful that it comes apart into sections for moving, but there's not a way to lock them in place during cooking.

You will of course need some accessories and tools for this grill, and Weber offers lots of compatible items, like a chimney starter and a custom-fit grill cover. It can also work with any kind of wired or wireless thermometer, but the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub is a full-featured option that monitors the temperatures of up to four different items separately, and connects to your phone to monitor cooking and even remind you to flip items.

The fuel capacity of the Smokey Mountain is pretty impressive. It easily held the 60 charcoal briquettes in testing, though it was actually able to hold a total of 90. It's fairly easy to adjust and maintain temperature using the dampers—but only once it's reached full heat while fully assembled. The best method is to start the fire, put the racks and lid on the grill, and let it get hotter than your cooking temperature. After that, you can start adjusting the dampers to bring it down to the target. During a six-hour rib-smoking session, the temperature stayed within about 20 degrees of the target for almost the whole time. (That's not to say you can completely ignore the smoker while it works; Weber recommends you check the temperature every 15 minutes using either the integrated thermometer or a wireless probe.)

Putting the Smokey Mountain together isn't very hard, but there's somewhat more work required than with similar grills. You need a flat- and a Phillips-head screwdriver, along with a wrench, to attach the legs, brackets, and even the plastic heat shield that goes around the lid handle. The simple diagrams in the included instructions also leave a few things unclear. For example, there are identical metal and fiber washers for the legs, and it took some poking around the website for a while to figure out that the fiber ones are meant to go between the legs and the body of the grill to protect its painted surface from chips.

The cleaning process is fairly minimal, including scrubbing the grates with a grill brush or crumpled aluminum foil and scrubbing out the (removable) water bowl. Disposing of ashes and unburned charcoal is easy, as you can separate the bottom section and dump it into the trash—but make sure everything has cooled completely before you do so. If you plan to use the lid thermometer instead of a probe to monitor temperature, make sure to wipe down its temperature-measuring stem after each use for best accuracy.

It's pretty normal for the interior of any smoker to develop a patina from the accumulated smoke and ash. However, the accumulated smoke can get thick enough to flake off the interior after several cooks. It’s a good idea to scrape down the underside of the lid every once in a while so burnt bits don't fall into your food.

Though the Weber Smokey Mountain produced great results, there are a few complaints about its materials and construction. The aluminum door that allows access to the food is fairly flimsy and tended to fall off, which lets in too much air and can make the fire too hot. The dampers are also thin aluminum, and you have to manually bend them into the right shape to cover the ventilation holes. If you do this wrong, you can't fully close them.

The body of the smoker, however, is made of powder-coated steel that can deal with wind and weather, and the stay-cool handles work remarkably well. The cooking grates are chrome-plated and easy to clean.

The Smokey Mountain isn't just a smoker, either. You can easily convert it to a standard grill by moving the fire grate and ring up to where the water pan would normally sit. This puts the flames and their high temperatures closer to the food.

In all, this is a smoker built for performance. It's easy enough for a beginner to master and much-praised by people who are experienced smokers. Though it is pretty pricey, the Weber name comes with an expectation of quality, and perhaps you’re paying just a little more for the nameplate.

Weber vs. Kamado Joe

When it comes to vertical smokers, the Kamado Joe brand is beloved by barbecue obsessives. It features heavy-duty (and very heavy) ceramic cooking vessels that hold incredible amounts of heat, but its machines are also really expensive. The Kamado Joe Konnected Joe is its top-of-the-line machine, a fully automated smoker that controls starting the coals and adjusting the temperature digitally and automatically. It is super impressive and did remarkably in testing, but with a price tag around $1,700, you could buy four Weber Smokey Mountains for the price of one Konnected Joe.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Longtime The Spruce Eats writer Donna Currie tested the Smokey Mountain at her home for this review. With a mom who loved to cook and a dad who was a machinist, she loves to play with kitchen gadgets and all the fun things they can do. She's also written for publications including Serious Eats and Fine Cooking, and she's the author of "Make-Ahead Bread," a cookbook that simplifies the baking process.

This story was updated with additional detail from Lab testing by The Spruce Eats commerce writer Jason Horn. He's been writing about food and drinks for almost 20 years, for publications including Liquor.com, Serious Eats, Travel Channel, Playboy, and more.