Masterbuilt Electric vs Propane Smoker

Choose the electric when the smoker's required electrical connection safely reaches its outdoor location. Choose propane when it does not and a cylinder can be used and stored according to the manual and local rules. The complication is that the two fuels do not come in the same box. The electric is a 30-inch cabinet holding 710 square inches. The propane is a 40-inch cabinet holding 960. Pick a fuel and you have picked a size, whether the menu asked for one or not.

Why is the propane smoker bigger?

Not because it burns propane. No gas burner in history has made a cabinet roomier. The electric goes in the 30-inch body, the gas model goes in the 40-inch body, and that is the entire mechanism. The capacity gap is a cabinet gap with a fuel label stuck on it, settled in a product meeting long before you got involved.

Both totals are four racks added together. Read them as whole-box numbers, plan the cook that way, and measure the shelf that matters once the cabinet is standing.

The room comes bundled with the tank. Choose the gas cabinet because the cooking spot lacks suitable power, and you also accept the extra capacity, footprint and height. Both models still require the outdoor clearances in their manuals.

What each fuel asks of you

Electric asks for the correct outdoor power connection and removes the cylinder errand. Its controller manages the heating element, but the smoker still needs supervision, wood-chip checks and food-temperature monitoring. Follow the manual on outlet type and extension cords rather than improvising a connection.

Propane asks for a cylinder, and a cylinder needs safe outdoor storage: upright, protected from tipping and heat, and never in a garage or other building. The propane cabinet carries a Type 1 regulator with a fuel gauge, which is the answer to the classic complaint, arriving before you get to make it. Knowing what is left before the cook beats finding out halfway through it. The gauge still does not carry the cylinder for you.

Electric does not mean smokeless. It means the heat is electric. Smoke comes from wood on both of these, and wood is a consumable: you buy it, you keep it dry, and you reload partway through anything long. Neither cabinet changes that arithmetic.

Storage is the third ask. Both are tall boxes standing on a footprint smaller than a doormat, which is the format's best trick on a crowded patio. The electric stands 42.1 inches tall on 23.6 by 22.8 inches. The propane stands 53 inches tall on 28.7 by 22.8. If either has to climb deck stairs, get the assembled weight from Masterbuilt in writing and book a second pair of hands.

Why the two temperature numbers do not compare

They are not the same kind of number. Set them beside each other and read off a gap, and the gap you get is fiction.

The electric's board takes any setting from 100 to 275°F. That is a range with a floor and a lid, and it covers low and slow, which is the whole job of a box this shape.

The propane side is rated up to 375°F, and its floor is a behavior rather than a setting. A gas burner idles as low as it can without going out, and that point moves with the wind and the tank. The headroom earns its keep on poultry, where smoking low the whole way produces skin with the texture of a raincoat. Find the true floor with a probe on a calm day, before an eight-hour cook depends on it.

Neither figure is a grilling figure. Nothing in either cabinet sears anything. If putting a crust on a steak is part of the plan, that is a different machine, and it lives in pellet grills and smokers.

Running cost is a supply question

Consumption on a cabinet smoker moves with the set point, the weather and how often the door swings open, so any per-cook figure you find quoted for these two models was worked out by somebody who does not work at Masterbuilt, and it is worth exactly what you paid for it. The comparison you can actually run is on supply. An outlet you already have, against a tank you have to remember to fill.

Electricity wins that one on logistics. It is plumbed into the house, it never needs exchanging, and the cost per cook lands on a bill you were already paying. Propane costs an errand before it costs a dollar, and it runs out suddenly rather than gradually, which is why the gauge on the ThermoTemp's regulator earns its mention twice on this page.

Rack planning runs the same way on both. Four chrome-coated racks each, so if a particular brisket has to fit a particular shelf, measure the shelf once the cabinet is standing up, and plan the cook by the whole box.

Weather, inspection and warranty

Cold and wind increase heat loss from either cabinet, so fuel use and recovery can change by season. Use only an outdoor position that maintains every required clearance; a garage, shed or enclosed porch is never a weather solution.

Both models publish a 1-year warranty. Inspect the cabinet, racks, door, power cord or gas components before use, then follow the exact assembly and first-use procedure. Report shipping damage promptly rather than adjusting a latch, gas part or electrical component without the maker's direction.

What you spend after the sticker

Compare current prices after accounting for the different cabinet sizes and fuel requirements; a hard-coded dollar gap would quickly become stale.

Then wood, on both. Chips or chunks are where the smoke actually comes from, and that is a bag you rebuy for as long as you keep the cabinet.

The gas model needs a compatible cylinder. If you keep a spare, store it outdoors and upright according to official propane guidance and the smoker manual.

The electric needs the power arrangement specified by Masterbuilt. If the safe connection does not exist where the cabinet will stand, have a qualified electrician advise on the installation. Do not treat an extension cord as the default, and do not leave either smoker unattended.

A fitted cover can reduce weather exposure once the smoker is fully cold. Follow the storage and maintenance instructions rather than assuming a cover makes an outdoor appliance weatherproof.

The gap between these two prices is not a fuel surcharge. It is a larger cabinet and a different burner sold as a set, because neither fuel is offered in the other size. Compare the two and you are comparing a bundle.

Which one, and what else to look at

Get the electric if:

• An outlet reaches the spot where the smoker will stand
• You prefer controller-managed electric heat and will still supervise the cook
• Your typical food layout fits the 710-square-inch four-rack cabinet

Get the propane if:

• You smoke at an approved outdoor location without suitable power
• Your typical food layout uses the 960-square-inch four-rack cabinet
• You want a dial that goes past the electric's 275°F ceiling

If neither list is a clean yes, what you actually want is one machine that smokes and grills, and neither of these is that machine. Pellet vs electric vs propane smoker puts the third fuel up against these two. More covered models are in pellet grills and smokers.

Model by model: the 30-inch Digital Electric and the 40-inch ThermoTemp Propane.