Walk into any BBQ store or scroll through Amazon for ten minutes and you’ll find hundreds of smoker accessories. Most of them are gimmicks. A handful of them are genuinely worth buying.
This is the honest list. No fluff, no products that look cool in photos but sit unused after the first cook. Just the accessories that actually make a difference in your results and your experience as a backyard pitmaster.
A Quality Instant Read Thermometer — Non Negotiable
If you buy nothing else on this list buy a good instant read thermometer. Cooking by time alone is how you end up with undercooked chicken or a brisket that’s been on the smoker three hours too long.
The Thermoworks Thermapen is the gold standard. It reads in under two seconds, is accurate to within less than a degree, and will last years with basic care. It’s not cheap at around $100 but it’s the single most impactful piece of equipment you can own as a backyard cook.
If $100 is too much right now the ThermoPop from the same brand is around $35 and nearly as good. Either way — get a quality thermometer before your next cook.
A Wireless Leave-In Thermometer
Different from an instant read. A wireless leave-in thermometer has a probe you insert into the meat at the start of the cook and leave there. It transmits the internal temperature to a receiver or your phone so you can monitor progress without opening the smoker.
This is particularly valuable for long cooks like brisket and pork shoulder where you need to track temperature over many hours. The Thermoworks Smoke is excellent. The MEATER Plus is a wireless option with no cables that works well too.
You will use this on every single long cook once you own one.
Butcher Paper
Not foil. Butcher paper.
Pink unwaxed butcher paper is what Texas pitmasters use to wrap brisket during the stall and it produces a better bark than aluminum foil. It lets some moisture escape while still speeding up the cook — you get the benefits of the wrap without the soft steamed texture that foil can create.
A roll of pink butcher paper costs around $15 to $20 and lasts a very long time. Buy it once and never think about it again.
A Good Basting Brush or Mop
For ribs, chicken, and anything you’re glazing or basting during the cook, a silicone basting brush is essential. The silicone bristles don’t fall out into your food like cheap bristle brushes and they’re dishwasher safe.
If you’re doing large cuts and want to baste frequently a cotton mop is the traditional tool and it covers more surface area faster. Either works — just make sure you have one.
Heat Resistant Gloves
You will burn yourself without these. Guaranteed.
A good pair of heat resistant gloves lets you handle hot grates, move charcoal around, reposition wood chunks, and grab hot meat off the smoker without incident. Look for gloves rated to at least 500°F. Brands like Grill Armor and RAPICCA make reliable options in the $20 to $30 range.
The silicone gloves that look like oven mitts are fine for grabbing things but they don’t give you much dexterity. The glove style that looks like a work glove with heat resistant material is much more useful for actual cooking.
A Charcoal Chimney Starter
If you’re cooking on charcoal this is essential. A chimney starter lets you light charcoal quickly and evenly without lighter fluid. Lighter fluid leaves a chemical taste in food that you can detect even after the coals are fully lit. Never use it.
The Weber chimney starter is around $20 and is basically indestructible. Fill it with charcoal, stuff two sheets of newspaper underneath, light the newspaper, and in 15 to 20 minutes you have a full chimney of perfectly lit coals ready to go.
A Drip Pan
A cheap aluminum drip pan placed under your meat catches drippings and makes cleanup dramatically easier. It also prevents flare-ups if you’re running a hotter cook.
Buy a pack of disposable aluminum pans from any grocery store. They’re cheap, they work perfectly, and you throw them away when you’re done. No scrubbing the bottom of your smoker.
A Meat Injector
Optional but genuinely useful for large cuts. Injecting a pork shoulder or brisket with a mixture of butter, broth, and seasoning adds moisture and flavor deep inside the meat that surface rubs can’t reach.
A basic injector kit costs around $15 to $20 and makes a noticeable difference on competition style cooks. Not essential for beginners but worth adding once you’ve done a few cooks and want to level up.
A Wireless Bluetooth Grill Light
Underrated. Long cooks often run through the night and trying to check your meat with a phone flashlight in one hand and a thermometer in the other is frustrating. A good magnetic grill light that clips to your smoker hood solves this completely. Around $15 to $25 and genuinely useful.
What You Don’t Need
Grill grates cleaning robots — just use a wire brush. Fancy smoker boxes — wood chunks work fine directly on charcoal. Temperature controllers with apps — learn to manage your fire manually first. Specialty rub injectors — a standard injector works perfectly. Smoker covers that cost more than $30 — a basic cover does the same job.
Building Your Kit Over Time
You don’t need everything at once. If you’re just starting out prioritize in this order — instant read thermometer first, then heat resistant gloves, then a charcoal chimney if you’re on charcoal, then wireless leave-in thermometer, then butcher paper.
Everything else can wait until you’ve done enough cooks to know what you actually need versus what looks good on a product listing.
Buy quality once and buy it right. The cheap thermometer that reads two degrees off costs you a ruined brisket that costs twenty times more than the thermometer did.
ARTICLE 7 How to Season a New Smoker — Don’t Skip This Step
You just got a new smoker. It’s sitting in your backyard assembled and ready to go. The last thing you want to do is follow some prep process before you cook your first piece of meat.
Do it anyway. Seasoning your new smoker is one of those steps that feels unnecessary until you understand why it matters — and once you understand why it matters you’ll never skip it.
What Is Seasoning a Smoker?
Seasoning a smoker means running it at high temperature for a period of time before your first cook. The process burns off manufacturing residue, oils, dust, and any protective coatings applied during production. It also coats the interior surfaces with a thin layer of carbon and smoke residue that protects against rust and helps regulate temperature on future cooks.
Think of it like seasoning a cast iron pan. You’re not actually cooking food — you’re preparing the cooking surface for the cooks ahead.
Why You Shouldn’t Skip It
New smokers smell like a factory. That smell comes from manufacturing oils, metal treatments, paint, and other residues that you absolutely do not want on your food. Running the smoker empty at high heat burns all of this off before any food is involved.
Skipping the seasoning step on your first cook means your food picks up those metallic and chemical flavors. It also means you haven’t checked that your smoker holds temperature correctly, that the vents work properly, and that there are no obvious issues before you put a $60 brisket inside it.
What You’ll Need
Cooking oil with a high smoke point — vegetable oil, canola oil, or Crisco work perfectly. Avoid olive oil which has a low smoke point and will smoke excessively before it polymerizes properly.
Paper towels or a clean cloth for applying the oil.
Charcoal and wood or pellets depending on your smoker type.
Approximately two to three hours of time.
How to Season a Charcoal or Wood Smoker
Start by wiping down all interior surfaces with a thin coat of cooking oil. Grates, the interior walls, the water pan if your smoker has one — everything gets a light coat. Don’t drench it. A thin even layer is what you want.
Light your charcoal and bring the smoker up to between 250°F and 275°F. Add a few wood chunks to get smoke going. Run it at this temperature for two to three hours. You’ll see smoke and some residue burning off — this is normal.
After two to three hours open all the vents and let the fire die out naturally. Let the smoker cool completely before your first cook.
That’s it. Your smoker is now seasoned and ready.
How to Season a Pellet Smoker
Pellet smokers are even simpler. Load the hopper with pellets, set the temperature to the highest setting on the controller — usually around 400°F to 450°F — and run it for 45 minutes to an hour.
You don’t need to apply oil to a pellet smoker. The pellets themselves produce enough residue during this initial burn to coat the interior surfaces adequately.
After the burn run is complete lower the temperature to 225°F and run for another 30 minutes before shutting it down. Let it cool completely.
How to Season an Electric Smoker
Electric smokers are the easiest to season. Apply a thin coat of cooking oil to the interior walls and racks. Load a small amount of wood chips into the chip tray. Set the temperature to 275°F and run for two to three hours. Done.
After Seasoning — Ongoing Maintenance
Seasoning isn’t a one time event. Every few cooks it’s worth wiping down the interior grates with a light coat of oil after cleaning to maintain the protective layer. This is especially important if you’re in a humid climate where rust can develop.
After a long cook let everything cool and remove ash from the bottom of the smoker before your next session. Built up ash holds moisture and accelerates corrosion over time.
Don’t power wash the inside of your smoker or use harsh chemical cleaners on the interior. You want to maintain that layer of seasoning you’ve built up — aggressive cleaning removes it.
What If You Already Cooked Without Seasoning?
You’re fine. Your food might have tasted slightly off or picked up a faint metallic quality but it wasn’t dangerous. Just run the seasoning process before your next cook and move forward.
Final Thoughts
Seasoning takes two to three hours and costs nothing except the fuel to run your smoker. The alternative is putting expensive cuts of meat into a factory-fresh smoker and wondering why the flavor seems off.
Do it once, do it right, and then get to the actual cooking. Your smoker will perform better, last longer, and your food will taste the way it’s supposed to from the very first real cook.