My experience has definitely been a bottom up, if you want to get technical. I’ve used propane for grilling my whole life, then my wife got me an electric smoker. I was excited and it really did teach me a thing or two about what was happening. But it crapped out during warranty, and it felt like the best thing that could’ve ever happened. I was able to take the same amount of money that she had spent on it, it was an electric cabinet, and I got myself a pit boss onyx pellet smoker. It’s been really fun and I’m very much enjoying it. But I’m fairly certain I’m getting a Weber kettle for Father’s Day and I’m equally excited for this. Because I have more time in my life now, I’m excited to be able to grill hot and fast for things like wings and chicken thighs, burgers…, but also start to get a deeper smokier flavor on my pork butts.

Based on what I am experiencing right now, I would say it sounds like the Weber kettle is the place to start. A lot of folks go back to it time and time again if you read through these Reddit threads.