Best Gas Grill Smoker Combo

Nothing beats inviting your friends and family round for a home-cooked barbeque on a sizzling summer’s day. The sound of warm laughter lingers in the air as old friends catch up – a sound you can barely hear from all the way at the end of the garden where you’re fussing over food, grilling this, smoking that. Get prepared for summer and grab a grill and smoker combo so you can halve the cooking time and spend some quality time with your loved ones instead.

Table of Contents

• What is a grill smoker combo?
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Is a gas combo better than charcoal or wood-burning one? 
  • How much gas do gas grill smoker combos use and what’s that likely to cost?
  • Are gas grill smoker combos safe to use inside?

What is a grill smoker combo?

Imagine the smoky taste you find in a traditional steakhouse but in your own back garden. A smoker cooks meat at a low temperature whilst adding mouth-watering flavors to it. A grill is a traditional device that cooks various different foods needed for a cookout. Add them together – you get the talk of the town. 

Here are a few of our favorite gas grill smoker combos:

This big, cylindrical pot lets you smoke, grill, and roast foods all in one. The TRU-Infrared technology cooks foods evenly without drying it out, can hold up to 25 pounds, and has 180 square inches of cooking area. Use the smoker box for added flavor with its temperature control from 9,000 to 18,000 BTUs. With this, you can cook turkey, ribs, and every cut of meat under the sun!

The tall and narrow shape offers a different look than the other combos on this list, making it the ideal selection if you have a smaller space or would like the option to move it around easily. However, this comes with the potential drawback of less cooking space. This grill smoker combo would be perfect for a single person or a small gathering.

• Easy to assemble and use with convenient carry handles
• 1200 square inch smoking and roasting basket will accommodate large cuts of meat- fits up to a 25-pound turkey
• Oil is not needed to cook meats

• The drip tray and smoker door don’t fit well
• Cleaning bucket is proven difficult for users

Many have called the Weber Summit Liquid-Propane Gas Grill the best of the best, with four burners – a sear-section burner, side burner, infrared rotisserie burner and a smoker burner – that can all be used separately or together. It features 580 square inches of total cooking space, 468 of which are primary, making for a simplistic and easy task. It also comes with an enclosed cart; thermometer; two work areas; Grill Out light; six tool hooks and a 10-foot flexible hose to connect the combo to the gas outlet.

This barbecue is a Natural Gas unit that must be plumbed into your patio or deck to use it, but if you don’t have Natural Gas plumbing, Weber offers an amazing selection of Propane barbecues here.

• Lights around workspaces to see clearly, whatever the time
• Enclosed cabinet and fold out areas to keep it compact when not using
• Four burners for ultimate cooking efficiency

• Might be harder to assemble than other makes
• Reviewers found that it sometimes may be hard to light

This model is one of Smokey Hollow’s top offset smokers, with endless cooking space and the choice to use either charcoal or gas. The gas grill features a temperature gauge and cast-iron cooking grids over three independently controlled burners, and the charcoal grill side includes cast-iron cooking grids and an adjustable charcoal pan with a grate. 

The side smoker firebox includes a front access door as well as a side access door with air damper control, which heats up to 9,300 BTU. Whatever you want to cook, Smoke Hollow has you covered – cook anything you could ever wish for, at the same time (but not everywhere because it’s not a stainless steel grill)!

• Lots of space to both prepare food and cook it
• The instruction manual comes with tips on how to season the grill properly
• Two separate grills to cook different ways, simultaneously

• Takes more time to assemble than others
• Some boxes have arrived damaged, meaning buyers have had to get replacements or refunds

Why stop at two functions when you can have six? This grill from Z Grills not only smokes and grills (yes, you can smoke meat on a gas grill), but it also barbeques, roasts, bakes, and braises! The 2019 upgrade introduced a digital control board that auto ignites the grill and allows you to set the temperature from 180°f to 450°f, and the advanced wood pellet technology works with the gas to give you the wood fire flavor. With an electric feed system that maintains the heat for you and produces the optimal amount of smoke, there are no more babysitting duties for you – just set it and let it work.

• 450 square inches of cooking space, spread over two shelves
• Multiple reviews confirming that it takes less than an hour to set up
• Three years warranty, then only $21 for another four

• Wood pellets get wet in the rain and make for a difficult clean up job
• A few reviews stating that there were configuration issues within the first few hours of setup

Another grill that can run on charcoal and gas, Oklahoma Joe’s grill offers over 1,000 square inches of cooking space – 750 of which is primary cooking space – perfect for a large gathering. With two separate cooking chambers, one for smoking and one for grilling, as well as an offset firebox and a side burner, the versatility allows you to choose your preferred cooking method instead of being confined to just one. The gas grilling chamber holds three burners, all of which reach temperatures of 12,000 BTUs (36,000 BTUs in total), and the 12,000 BTU side burner accommodates a charcoal chimney starter.

• Plenty of cooking space, perfect for large parties
• Excellent customer service to help with grill problems
• It’s made of thick gauge steel, making it both durable and efficient

• The wheels could prove difficult to maneuver
• Partial to rusting in winter after a few years

When buying a grill smoker combo, you’ll want to consider your fuel source and be prepared to pay for the best sources. Some smoker grills work with charcoal as well as gas, for which you’ll want to use the best quality charcoal money can buy – no one wants the smoky flavor of lighter fluid. Others may work with gas and wood pellets, which really amp the flavor up. Popular wood varieties for smoking include apple, cherry, hickory, and oak. 

Have a think about what’s more important to your needs – grilling or smoking. Your personal preference will impact which grill you should buy, as although grill smoker combos can do both, some models complete one job better than the other. For example, Smoke Hollow’s combo has two large grills that take up two-thirds of the cooking space and only a small grill grate over a firebox for smoking. If smoking is of big importance to you, then you should perhaps browse different models. 

As any avid barbecue will tell you, the temperature is of vital importance when smoking meat. You need to keep a consistent temperature and for that, you’ll need a reliable thermometer. The market is full of analog and digital probes that will fit the bill, but some of these are easier to hook up to your combo than others. If you don’t want the hassle of fiddling around with a separate device, look for a combo with a built-in temperature gauge such as the Weber Summit. The temperature reading is consistently displayed on the front of the grill so that you don’t need to concern yourself with probing meats every couple of minutes.

Grill smoker combos can vary greatly in size. If you’re known for your impressive garden parties and cookouts, it’s important to not let the neighbors down and get a grill with plenty of space (a grill with 6 burners). However, with great power comes great responsibility. A larger combo often requires more maintenance, more cleaning, and more room to store. If this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, try downsizing to a smaller cooking space (like the gas grill with two burners). Plus, a smaller combo would be easier to move around, such as to a picnic or a campsite.

Although not essential, accessories are a small but mighty way to improve your cooking experience. Accessories can include racks, giving you an extra place to store extra fuel and other important supplies, shelves, to provide a space to set seasonings and serving platters, and hooks for hanging utensils. With these handy add-ons, you won’t need to worry about running back and forth from the kitchen every five minutes, reducing your stress levels, and enjoying your cookout in peace. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a gas combo better than charcoal or wood-burning one?

One of the biggest benefits of a gas grill is that you don’t have to wait on the charcoal to ignite. Many people who use gas enjoy it for convenience. Also, gas fuel tends to be cheaper, easier to clean up, and simpler than charcoal. However, charcoal grills are often cheaper as you can pick up a small one at a typical hardware store for $20 – although you won’t be getting a decent smoky taste from this. Also, many people find that charcoal can give your food a distinct, unpleasant taste. Ultimately, the decision of what fuel to use depends on your wants and needs, but between you and me, go for a gas combo (even with a built-in gas grill). 

How much gas do gas grill smoker combos use and what’s that likely to cost?

How much gas your combo uses depends on many different factors, including what temperature you use, how many BTU’s you’re using, and how efficient your grill is. Typically, a gallon of Propane contains 91,600 BTUs, and a standard 20-pound tank (typically costing around $35) has 4.72 gallons of Propane inside for a total of 431,613 BTUs. Assuming your grill uses an average of 36,000 BTUs an hour, one tank will last for around twelve hours. So, however, many days or weeks it takes you to cook for twelve hours, that’s how long your tank should last. As you can get your tank refilled for $12 at a local hardware store, it would cost about $1.20 an hour in Propane gas costs.

You can calculate how long your Propane gas tank will last with this formula.

Are gas grill smoker combos safe to use inside?

Unless specifically stated by the manufacturer, outdoor grills should not be used indoors, even in an enclosed garage. Gas grills produce large amounts of carbon monoxide and even small amounts trapped around you can seriously harm or even prove fatal. Every year twelve people are killed by using an outside grill indoors, so don’t do it. Indoor grilling must be done on a grill or grill pan designed for indoor grilling (such as tabletop gas grills).