The best bang for your buck is typically 2nd hand when it comes to smoker/grills. I'd check your local Craigslist and see what comes up for options. You'd be able to stretch that $500 longer this way

I agree ^^^ Weber kettle, old classic! 

Used egg

I was torn when looking to 'move up' and eventually went with my XL over a pellet. Probably stupid but I thought the pellet grill was 'cheating' - Not like I was entering a contest. At the time I wanted to smoke and learn charcoal. Went with the BGE.
I eventually got a Traeger (after the wife came home from Costco and said there is a display,,,,rep said so easy She could flip a switch and Q if I wasn't home (she has yet to use it - probably cause I had to battle to get it to be a set it and forget it). Who is going to say no to the wife when she says go get another BBQ?

I like most everything better off the egg then the Traeger but its still fun to use.

I had one of the Weber Smokey Mountain 18'' for a little while but if I was getting my first grill (from Weber) it would be the Kettle.

Weber kettle is a great idea. 

If there were to be a poll here asking what our first grill was, I would predict that over 50% of respondents said Weber kettle.

I’d say a pellet grill for a beginner. They may not want to be a bbq master or care to push out high quality bbq. If they get bored or want more versatility, they can get the more expensive models or other cookers. 

I'm an outlier on a lot of discussions here, and this one's no exception.  I mean well, honest!    

But I really hated trying to smoke stuff on my Weber kettle, many years ago.  I found it a real pain.  The biggest problem was that I kept having to add more charcoal during the cook, which I found cumbersome and enough of a pain that I gave up and wound up just using it for grilling.

If the Smokey Mountain smokers are easier to add charcoal to than a regular Weber grill, I'd lean toward one of them if I couldn't afford a BGE.

scdaf said:

How is it even possible that everyone's first answer was not an Akorn? 

Legit question.

That's what I'd recommend.

Theophan said:

I'm an outlier on a lot of discussions here, and this one's no exception.  I mean well, honest!    

But I really hated trying to smoke stuff on my Weber kettle, many years ago.  I found it a real pain.  The biggest problem was that I kept having to add more charcoal during the cook, which I found cumbersome and enough of a pain that I gave up and wound up just using it for grilling.

If the Smokey Mountain smokers are easier to add charcoal to than a regular Weber grill, I'd lean toward one of them if I couldn't afford a BGE.

It's not difficult to get 10 hours of low and slow from one load of fuel on either a kettle or WSM (on a nice calm summer day anyway) which is usually fine for pork butts.

CornfedMA said:

Theophan said:

I'm an outlier on a lot of discussions here, and this one's no exception.  I mean well, honest!    

But I really hated trying to smoke stuff on my Weber kettle, many years ago.  I found it a real pain.  The biggest problem was that I kept having to add more charcoal during the cook, which I found cumbersome and enough of a pain that I gave up and wound up just using it for grilling.

If the Smokey Mountain smokers are easier to add charcoal to than a regular Weber grill, I'd lean toward one of them if I couldn't afford a BGE.

It’s hard to disagree with this. I love my Weber kettles. I’ve had several and try to keep one in the lineup all the time, but they’ve never been a smoking tool to me. I also have a UDS that I built, but hasn’t seen a fire since I got my XL’s. I don’t know why I didn’t think about a used egg. I just saw a large w/ a broken dome in my area for under $300. I’m guessing a new dome would go for about $150, so I could probably get him into a large egg for about $400, sans accessories. 

Now the wheels are turning 🤔

If the dome is not broken to bad, I would have no issues gluing it.

CornfedMA said:

@Photo Egg I assume it’s a goner, whatever happened to it. The post only showed a pic of the egg with no dome on it. 

Understand, thanks.

If he's primarily looking for a smoker, I would suggest taking a look at the Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC). Maybe pick up a 2nd hand  Weber kettle for cheap to cover the grilling needs. 

I know the WSM gets a lot of love, but I always liked a drum smoker more. Fewer parts to deal with. And they can crank out some great BBQ. I built two and loved them both. 

Bge was my first smoker and it has been awesome.

HeavyG said:

Hard to beat a Weber Kettle or Weber Smokey Mountain. If looking primarily to do low and slow smoking I'd opt for the WSM. If wanting a grill/smoker then the Kettle. If I were in the market for a Kettle now I'd probably go for the 26".

A great site for WSM users is https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ and they have a pretty active forum also.

I started on a WSM and the only reason I didn't stay there is I wanted to get down to one device.  The WSM is great for low/slow but grilling isn't its forte.

I also had a WSM 18.5" it was good, problem is that any kind of wind or extreme cold can cause that thing to be all over the place with temps. They are also a pain to clean out the ash. But if he is wanting to get into it that is my recommendation. They are easy to use and produce very good Q if controlled the right way. The only other option I would say is if you have an Academy near by get one of the Old Country Offset stick burners. One can be had for around $300-$400. If you get the lower end ones. Problem with those is they have to be babied. But to me its the best form of BBQ'ing.

I can't stand Pellet "grills". Having to plug in your smoker/grill seems like such a lazy millennial thing. 

Upon further review, I also would give the Pit Barrel a hard look.  It can crank out quite the volume and is a simple rig to set up and run.  FWIW-