13 Best Vertical Pellet Smoker Reviews of 2023 You Can Buy

Tim Parry

Published: September 20, 2022

A vertical pellet smoker is quickly becoming the most popular way for people to cook their food. This is because they offer a lot of great features that traditional smokers can’t provide, such as vertical cooking and an electric start.

If you have been thinking about purchasing the best vertical pellet smoker, this article will give you some of the best models available on the market.

We will list the top 13 best vertical pellet smokers on the market today. There will be a brief description of each one’s features, along with links to more information about them if you want to learn more!

What is a vertical pellet smoker?

A vertical pellet smoker is a type of smoker that usually sits in the corner or out of sight. These smokers are made to be simple and easy to use, so they mainly have three functions: light it up, set the temperature, and come back when it’s ready. They can also hold wood pellets for an extended period of time, making them ideal for long smokes, like brisket or pork shoulder.

Vertical pellet smokers are typically more affordable than other smoker types and can come in a variety of sizes and features. These are usually very large, allowing you to smoke big cuts of meat in them. They also come with racks, so you can use them as an oven or slow cooker if need be.

How do they work

Vertical pellet smokers, also known as cabinet smokers, are a type of offset cookers. What this means is that the heat source (in our case, wood pellets) and the food to be cooked are separated by some distance. In other words, there’s an area in between where hot air from burning pellets can circulate. As a result, the food is cooked indirectly.

The heat source (pellets) will be placed in the lower part of the cabinet smoker, and then this area can either come with or without an offset firebox for you to add more fuel if needed throughout your cooking session. And speaking about sessions, it’s important to note that the cooking time will be determined by how frequently you need to add fuel.

The lower part of this smoker has a wire mesh, and it’s where food rests while being cooked. The upper section is made from steel, so if placed in direct contact with fire, it becomes incredibly hot (up to 600-700 degrees Fahrenheit). It is possible to remove the upper section, but this feature isn’t particularly popular.

Vertical pellet smokers are different from other types of smokers because they generate heat and smoke simultaneously. Heat will be transferred through convection while the smoke will come out with a little help from some vents placed in specific areas of the smoker (such as at the top).

Why should you buy a vertical pellet smoker?

There are many reasons why you should consider buying a vertical pellet smoker. For those who have never used one before, they can be somewhat intimidating to use since there is no real setup or breakdown process like traditional grills and smokers, which require charcoal and lighter fluid, for example, that often leaves the user with unwanted odors on their hands or clothing.

Vertical pellet smokers are easy to use and operate, which is another reason why they’re so popular. All that’s required of the user after a few initial uses is to set up an account on their preferred pellet supply website, select your desired flavors for the smoking session you’re about to have, whether it be hickory or mesquite then pour in the desired amount of pellets and begin the smoking process.

The grill is pre-heated to its optimal heat range for whatever meat you’ve selected then once it’s ready, your food will be cooked evenly throughout, leaving no cold spots or overcooked edges as long as you follow some basic guidelines like not opening the door too much during the cooking time which can cause your pellets to burn up faster than they should.

The best brands of vertical pellet smokers

PIT BOSS

PIT BOSS is a family-owned and operated company that has been in the outdoor cooking industry for over 40 years. They have built their reputation on quality and innovation, with the goal of always being on the cutting edge of new ideas and technology in the BBQ world.

Camp Chef

Camp Chef has been around for over two decades and is one of the most preferred brands in the market with a wide variety of products that include gas grills, wood pellet grills, smokers, and more. Their products are sleek and easy to use, with advanced features that make it easier than ever before to cook delicious food!

Louisiana

The company has been around since 1973 and makes some of the best vertical pellet smokers available on the market today! But that’s not all-Louisiana also sells a variety of other products to make sure you’re always grilling your meat like a pro! This company is one that really cares about their product and wants to make sure you’re getting quality, so it’s worth looking into them when you’re in the market for a new smoker.

Masterbuilt

This is a company that provides excellent outdoor cooking products perfect for any weather. They have everything that you need and will make you feel as if you’re right back at home in the kitchen cooking up your favorite recipes! Masterbuilt is serious about their customers and always wants to ensure that they are 100% satisfied with their purchase-because if they’re happy, then they know they’ll buy from them again. Give them a call today to find out more information on how to get started!

Cookshack

They are one of the best manufacturers of this specific type of smoker and have a wide variety to choose from ranging in price, features, design style, and more. These vertical pellet smokers are perfect for cooking up your favorite dish and have a wide range of customization options. If you’re shopping around for a new smoker, make sure to consider Cookshack!

Reviews of The Best Vertical Pellet Smoker On The Market

1. PIT BOSS PBV3P1 Vertical Pellet Smoker

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The PIT BOSS PBV3P1 Vertical Pellet Smoker is perfect for anyone in the market for a top-notch, fully-featured pellet smoker. The vertical design leaves it able to fit into corners and save valuable space while maintaining cooking capacity.
It’s equipped with high-quality components that operate electronically without compromising durability or efficiency, such as the full-color digital LED readout and meat probe.
Four porcelain-coated grates give you different surface area options depending on what type of food you’re cooking. Plus, they prevent flareups by giving you increased control over your firebox temperature management.
With 40lbs of capacity, the vertical pellet smoker gives you enough space to smoke your meat for days. It features a fully programmable temperature in the 150-450 degree range, so programming this smoker couldn’t be easier. It also includes a 300-watt igniter with auto shut off, so it was easy to avoid flare-ups and keep things low maintenance while cooking up some meat.

2. Camp Chef XXL Vertical Pellet Smoker (PGVXXL & PCPGXXL)

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Now you and all your friends can have a barbecue as big as the state of Texas. You won’t just cook up some BBQ with this backyard BBQ expert from Camp Chef, though, because it’s got 11 party-time features that are sweet: It can smoke 2 racks of ribs (each rack is one large 12.5″ x 14″ hole), 1 full turkey, or roast up 16 pounds of brisket at once!
And its dual meat probes give you updated alerts in 5 minutes or less, so that keep your food moist and delicious on those long summer days when no one wants to come back inside for hours after they’ve had a taste.
This vertical pellet smoker has a large cooking area, and it comes equipped with an ash-cleanout system to make your life easier. It features two racks for smoking, which means you can cook twice as much food at once. If you want to smoke meat, fish, or vegetables without having to use oil or butter, this smoker is for you.

3. PIT BOSS PB7000SP Wood Pellet Smoker

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The Pit Boss PB7000SP is the perfect smoker for the home chef who wants to smoke a variety of foods. The vertical pellet smoker can cook up to 1853sq in of food at once and has an adjustable temperature range between 150°F to 420°F with a cooking time of fewer than 4 hours.
The easy-to-use control panel allows you to set your desired temperature and then walk away without worrying about over or undercooking your meat.
With a 150-350 F temperature range, it can be used for slow smoking to baking. This vertical pellet smoker has 33,000 BTUs/Hr and a patented Ash Cleanout System that will keep the smoking chamber clean as well as increase efficiency by up to 15%. This is the largest vertical pellet BBQ on the market.

4. Pellet Pro 2300 Vertical Pellet Smoker

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With unmatched cooking capacity, the Pellet Pro 2300 vertical pellet smoker is the latest in home barbecue technology. Boasting a combined 1680″ grilling surface and 10cu feet of cooking space, you’ll have plenty of room for racks of ribs or pork shoulder to smoke all day long.
Designed with adjustable charcoal weight and a convection fan that blows heat across your food from front to back as well as up and down, this smoker will turn out perfect smoked meat every single time.
This durable, high-quality vertical pellet smoker is engineered with an 18 gauge double-wall steel construction and includes an exclusive PID controller that maintains your desired temperature within 5-10° degrees. When it’s time for dinner, celebrate what you’ve created–not how much work it was–with BBQ joy on your face and a healthy appetite on the inside.

5. Pit Boss Grills 77550 5.5 Pellet Smoker

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You can’t go wrong with this smoky, professional-grade vertical pellet smoker. Monitors the internal temperatures so you know when your food is done cooking. The sturdiness and comfort that comes from handling Pit Boss grills are second to none! There’s no need to tinker when it comes to programming the device because a built-in timer will take care of all those details for you.
You can smoke up a storm with 24 hours of use before needing to refill the hopper, which holds up 40 pounds worth of pellets (or other smoking material).
This product features five porcelain coated cooking grids, 1548 sq in capacity, with a fully programmable temperature range from 150-450 degrees Fahrenheit!
The Pit Boss Grills 77550 5.5 Pellet Smoker has an automated start-up that makes it easy to use and relieves any worry for beginners who may not know how to safely handle the grill without risking injury or fire first-hand.

6. Pit Boss 5-Series Vertical Pellet Smoker

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The Pit Boss 5-Series Vertical Pellet Smoker is a super-efficient model of outdoor cooking. The vertical design and five cooking racks make it perfect for beginners or anyone with limited space in their backyard for a smoker.
With plenty of room to prepare food, this vertical pellet smoker has an adjustable temperature range, from 150-420 degrees Fahrenheit. When you’re on the go, it’s easy to pack up and won’t take up as much room in your car trunk! Whether you’re grilling chicken breasts or beef steaks, it offers ample square footage that will serve any need. The digital control board and meat probe ports are great options too!
It also comes with 55 lbs of wood pellets that can be hoarded within your controller board. And if that wasn’t enough, the thermometer measure up to 600 feet of distance! (For those tricky thick meats!).
With a vertical design and five cooking racks, Pit Boss 5-Series Vertical Pellet Smoker is perfect for the limited space of today’s backyard.

7. Louisiana Grills Vertical Pellet Smoker

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Louisiana Grills’ new Vertical Pellet Smoker is the ultimate instrument for living a relaxed and flavorful lifestyle. With an elegant, professional design, this smoker features all-natural hardwood pellets that are fused with fan-forced convection cooking in order to provide ever more easily accessible smoked dishes that deliver savory foods quickly and efficiently.
Its 2,059 square inches of cooking space ensures the success of any dish you have in mind while providing room for creativity as well. The smoker has an internal meat probe that will measure your food’s temperature, ensuring the best possible results every time without fail.
Constructed with both efficiency and satisfaction in mind, it reaches temperatures no lower than 150° and no higher than 450° to ensure optimal performance.
With the new technology found in this smoker, there are many additional features as well, such as easy assembly, an interior designed with flavor-enhancing inserts into the cooking chamber, plenty of space for both high moisture and dry smoking techniques, safety systems to help prevent harmful emissions into the environment. This is one of the best vertical pellet smokers for you!

8. Camp Chef XXL Vertical Pellet Grill and Smoker (PGVXXL)

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The Camp Chef PGVXXL vertical pellet smoker has a lot of features that make it prime for a tenting session with friends. Not only does this grill include multiple grills, but there are also three jerky racks so you can be sure not to run out of food while having the time of your life.
There are two temps read-probes as well as an adjustable cooking grate; this will keep you from overcooking or occasionally burning all of your meat.
The pellet hopper purge ensures that even if the wind changes course and blows dust and hot ashes onto your food, it is easy to clean up after they have cooled down and settled on the top tray.
It has featured a digital display for any adjustments needed to keep your cooking on-point.
The grease management system keeps dirt and grease from burning off directly onto your food to allow camp chef’s smart smoke technology to have more control over how your smoker creates its delicious flavors.
The ash cleanout system makes sure everything about this vertical pellet smoker is easy to maintain when it starts smoking perfect burgers or chicken.

9. Camp Chef Smoke Vault, 18″ Vertical Smoker

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The Camp Chef 18″ Vertical Pellet Smoker is the perfect outdoor cooking companion for your next barbecue party. This high-quality product handles all of your smoking needs and can be used to produce everything from ribs to jerky with simple adjustments.
The heavy-gauge steel wood chip tray at the bottom lines up with two adjustable smoking racks providing a cooking surface area of 95sq inches which would make it great for parties or catering events so more food can be grilled simultaneously.
We recommend using this vertical pellet smoker for its adjustable damper valves, which will help regulate airflow inside the smoke vault while you keep track of the temperature through an easy-to-read door thermometer that goes as high up as 550 degrees Fahrenheit!

10. Masterbuilt MB20250618 MWS 330B Pellet Smoker

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If you’ve been on the hunt for a high-quality smoker to give your meat the right smoky flavor, then look no further. Masterbuilt MB20250618 MWS 330B Vertical Pellet Smoker is an advanced smoker that’s designed not just to produce the perfect Woodlands style smoked chicken but also provides convenience and controls while providing you with a tasty barbecue throughout its automated cycles.
The four chrome-coated smoking racks provide ample room for adding different flavors of wood pellets while automatically maintaining precise temperature without requiring any adjustments from user input; this vertical pellet smoker can reach up to 355F and hold 8 lbs of wood pellets in its hopper, which allows plenty of cooking time before it needs reloading.
The digital temperature control panel has controls that make it easy to adjust time as well as high/low cooking temperatures with precision accuracy. And with a meat probe thermometer for knowing when your meat’s ready every time, you’ve never enjoyed bbq like this!

11. Cookshack FEC240 Fast Eddy’s Fixed Shelf Pellet Smoker Oven

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Cookshack’s newest FEC240 smoker was designed with the cook in mind. Made from stainless steel and reinforced polyester, it features fiberglass insulation for consistent temperatures and a convenient digital controller to limit flare-ups. All of these clever design choices make this commercial pellet smoker oven perfect for both small-town BBQ joints and large restaurants alike.
In addition, it offers many amenities that make it perfect for large-scale operations, such as an offset firebox and convection fan to continually circulate smoke and heat at a steady temperature.
However, in order to operate this unit indoors, you must be sure to appropriately ventilate the space, so all nearby occupants remain safe!

12. Masterbuilt MB20250218 MWS 340B Pellet Smoker

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This meat-smoking powerhouse is a springtime favorite! Why go through the stress of tossing out random chicken parts, spending hours prepping endless vegetables and potatoes, or waiting around for your smoker to heat up when you can toss it all on in one load? Just load this model up, plug them into the outlet and wait. The quality that Masterbuilt has shown is unparalleled even with other pellet smokers.
It has four chrome-coated smoking racks that will never rust or corrode. You can set your desired cooking temperature between 180˚F and 350˚F using its digital panel controls on/off, temperature, cook time, smoke time presets for efficient cooking with less concern about ever running out of fuel due to an adjustable pellet hopper.
Their auger system provides an easy-to-use product that won’t wear down after two seasons while still delivering delicious flavor every time. All these features make cooking for your family so much easier – not to mention tastier.

13. Masterbuilt 20250918 Sportsman Elite Pellet Smoker

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Sometimes you just don’t have the time to tend the grill, so that’s when this pellet smoker comes in. You can let it do all of the work for you with its six 330 square-inch racks for any meat lover’s cravings!
Plus, even if your cooking mood takes a turn for the worse, cleanup will be simple since this product is mostly smokeless, making clean-up quick and easy.
The smoke program is a separate, additional program that can run simultaneously with your temperature control system. The extra smoke it provides will come at the expense of precise temperature control.
The 20250918 Sportsman Elite Pellet Smoker heats up quickly (in about 5 minutes), and because it holds different temperature levels from 180°F to 350°F, preference dictates what each person makes — no other barbecue tools needed!

Features to look for when buying a new best vertical pellet smoker

Consider these important considerations when shopping for a vertical pellet smoker. So there are some factors that are more important or better when comparing products? This buying guide will help you to make the best decision when shopping for your vertical smoker.

Temperature Control

When choosing a vertical pellet smoker, it is important to consider the temperature control and range.

You need to make sure the temperature range you use is appropriate for the type of cooking that you are doing.

Some meats will be more sensitive than others to temperature swings. If you intend to slow cook for long periods of time, you will need a smoker that can regulate the temperature at a lower temperature.

Hopper Size

A vertical pellet smoker’s purpose is to slow and slowly cook meats. The hopper is the fuel for your smoker. Pellets are fuel. Pellet smokers with small hoppers need to be continually refueled.

Pellet smokers typically burn between half and one pound of pellets an hour at smoking temperatures. Your hopper should be able to hold 10 pounds of pellets if you plan on cooking non-stop for 10 hours.

Heating Element

There are many types of heating elements you can choose from. You will need to choose between an electric heating element and a gas heating element when looking for the best pellet smokers. The majority of traditional pellet smokers have an electric element that can easily be controlled digitally.

You can use pellets with almost any grill. A vertical pellet smoker with an electric element is a great choice if you want an easy-to-use option that offers consistent temperature settings.

Warranty

You run the risk of your vertical pellet smoker crashing if there are electronic components. A warranty is the best way to protect your purchase. The industry-standard warranty typically lasts between 2 and 3 years. If you are unable to decide between two models, go with the one that offers the best warranty.

Material

To minimize heat loss, a quality vertical pellet smoker will have a strong steel body and tight seals around its doors. A thick, tempered glass window should be installed on the door to allow you to see food being cooked.

A pellet smoker’s interior will usually have stainless steel walls and porcelain-coated metal racks. This rack is more durable than those made from rust-prone materials such as cast iron. Because they are nonstick, porcelain-coated steel is easier to clean up after a day of cooking.

For mobility, most vertical smokers use casters. These casters can support the heavy smoker’s weight and are often made of metal or hard plastic.

Water Pan Capacity

Pellet cookers can dry the meat faster than other types. A water container is a solution. It will evaporate water and keep the meat moist. Look for a container with a greater capacity.

Keep in mind that the more you open the door to change the water, the more fluctuations you will experience in the internal temperature. The best vertical pellet smoker should be able to hold at least three liters.

Portability

Although you might not consider your vertical pellet smoker portable, it can be used for large events such as picnics and neighborhood gatherings.

It is likely, however, that you will want to be able to move it around on your patio or deck.

It is important that the wheels or casters of your vertical pellet smoker are strong and can be moved easily. To prevent the smoker’s movement during use, they should have a locking feature.

You will also need the power to run the fan, auger, and control system.

Vertical Smoker vs Horizontal Pellet Smoker Grill – Which To Buy

Frequently Asked Questions

– Is a vertical pellet smoker worth the money?

Yes, a vertical pellet smoker is worth the money. You won’t regret making that investment.

– What is the best vertical pellet smoker on the market?

There are a few very good options, and this really depends on your individual needs, so it’s important to do your research before making a decision! Some of our favorites include vertical pellet smoker brands like Camp Chef (which offers some great mid-range priced models) as well as PIT BOSS with their top-of-the-line model.

– What are the advantages of a vertical pellet smoker?

The main advantage of a vertical pellet smoker is that it’s more compact than a horizontal one and thus easier to store. This also means less hassle when it comes to clean-up, which makes smoking daily possible even if you live in an apartment with only a small balcony or deck!

A vertical pellet smoker is also angled at 45 degrees which allows for excellent smoke management as well as easy access to your meat while smoking so you can control how much smoke gets into it without opening the door and messing up your temps.

It also provides excellent airflow, eliminating common problems like cold spots on meats from areas around the vent holes formed by upper racks near heating coils or in chambers below lower racks where food and water gathering.

– What is the difference between gas and electric smokers?

Gas pellet smokers are less expensive, produce good quality smoking wood flavor, and add a side order of heat for cooking. But they do not stay hot enough to cook well without adding more chips during the cooking. Electric models better maintain cooking temperature; refill with pellets is needed far less often than most gas units.

Conclusion

The best vertical pellet smoker is the one that suits your needs and budget! If you want to explore before making a decision, then we recommend checking out our blog post about 13 of the top-rated options on the market today. We hope that this guide will help you find what you’re looking for so that it’s easy to get started with grilling or smoking delicious meat in no time at all. Happy cooking!

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