What are you looking for, just the flavor and expierence? How many people do you often cook for?
I started on gas grill, then moved to open fire cooking (grate over a firepit), then moved on to a Saffire Kamado. I was curious as well since everyone was chasing that "offset flavor".
My dad had an old Brinkmann that sat outside in the weather by the shop for 30+ years, and all I did was take a sanding wheel from Ace on a battery hand drill and clean it up. There was more rust and metal on the ground than there was left on it, no joke. There was holes throughout and wood front table and handles were rotted off. I just sprayed it down with pam really, really, really good, like running off of it, lit a fire using a full chimney of charcoal, and just sat there for hours feeding it fist sized chunks watching my signals temp meters and learning the pit. I then just resprayed it if I saw the coating coming off, mainly in the firepit since it was thin it didn't hold heat so the fire was burning it off quick. That was 2 years ago or so, and I haven't used it in 6 months since I got my Workhorse 1975t. It's got 3/8" thick steel throughout, and here in the FL sun it stays 150F internal temp without a fire the past 3 months. I still look over at it and respect what it taught me, and still use it to store my cooking tools and grate thermometers.
Running the 16"x31" or so Brinkmann offset is what sold me of offset cooking. I actually think that it had a little better flavor than my 1975t, just because I was constantly having to play with the fire every 5 mins for 10 minutes or more most of the time, and had constant semi-dirty to clean smoke, which tasted clean and very smoky and not bitter. It was nice and light so I just threw it in the back of my truck and would take to other homes cooking for them, and it made dang good food, but I needed more room since I cook enough food for a minimum of 6 people for a week at a time, and I was having to cook for a solid 2 days every week, killing my days off.
I got my 1975t and didn't know what to do with my time. I throw a log on every 30-45 minutes and it just runs clean smoke. I can now mow the yard, clean the garage, or just sit there and enjoy the outside if it's not too hot. I got the cowboy firebox, so I can throw some charcoal in there and light it with my food torch, an in 10 mins or so I'm grilling steaks and smoking chickens at the same time.
So I say by a small one and run it to see if you like the flavor, and the labor that goes into it. I wouldn't be scared of missing out of flavor, since I could get as good or better on my tiny, holey and worn out Brinkmann that I can on a $4,500 cooker, just a lot more work and trial and error to see what size splits you need to use.
I'll add get you a good axe like a Fiskars X15, and the Black and Decker Lopper Chainsaw. I used these even to this day, but I buy wood splits from Academy and used this to cut them into thirds length wise, then axe to split into thirds width wise, and that was my perfect size for a clean fire. I used a lit chimney of B&B hickory lump charcoal, then added my chunks on top of it. I could start cooking almost immediately this way, since the smoker reacted to wood being added, because the temp would go up from ambient temp to 375F in the small space completely in 5-10 seconds, then settle down to 275-300F a minute or two later, and would slowly come down over 10-15 minutes once I got my wood the right size, before I added another.
That's my experience that may help you or others. If it weren't for me cooking for my family and my dad and grandma once a week for a week's worth of food, I would defiantly be getting an Old Country Brazos or something similar with 3/16" or 1/4" metal. And get the option of having a door on the firebox and grate so you can grill as well. That is 10x better flavor with lump and a split thrown on, over my 26.75" weber kettle.
