[fxpose]

I also picked up the electric Brinkman smoker at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. It sure is an easy, fool-proof way to get into smoking. I've already smoked some spareribs and just yesterday smoked a Boston Butt for 10 hours on it. My very first Boston Butt pulled pork and it came out pretty tasty.
At least with the electric model you can pretty much turn it on and leave it unattended for many hours as the temp remains pretty constant at around 230 degrees......as long as you keep enough water in the pan which generally should last an entire smoking session.

I looked at the WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain) and they were very pricey. I would probably make my own UDS (ugly drum smoker) if I were to ever go to charcoal smoking. They're supposed to be very efficient as far as heat retention and in charcoal usage. Very little charcoal is needed to keep it fired up for several hours without any replenishment.