The best smokers in Australia

Smokers cook low, slow and with wood smoke. The styles differ mostly in how much of your day they take, so choose by effort first.

Bullet smokers

A charcoal fire at the bottom, a water pan, and one or two grates above in a tall cylinder. The Weber Smokey Mountain is the reference and holds temperature for hours on a full ring of briquettes. The Matador Catalyst is the Bunnings equivalent for a third of the price, with thinner steel and a looser fit.

Offset smokers

A firebox on the side feeds heat and smoke across a horizontal chamber. Purists love them; they need a fresh split of wood every 45 minutes and the thin budget ones leak so much heat that they struggle in a breeze. The Char-Griller Competition Pro is the affordable one with steel thick enough to work.

Vertical cabinets

Pit Boss’s 3 Series stacks racks in a cabinet with a pellet fire below. Enormous capacity in a small footprint, no grilling.

Pellet grills and kamados

Both smoke well with far less attention. Pellet grills are the set-and-forget option; kamados add high-heat grilling in the same body. Each has its own guide: pellet smokers and kamados.

The picks

The Weber Smokey Mountain 37 cm is our overall pick, and the 47 cm at $999 is better for families. The Matador Catalyst is the budget bullet. Choose the Pit Boss 850 Navigator if you want to walk away, the Competition Pro if you want to run a real fire, the Kamado Joe if one cooker must do everything, and the Oklahoma Joe’s Canyon if you want three cookers on one frame.