Myths about Horizontal cookers/ smokers
they take too much effort & you can't get a good nItes sleep.
You can't control the temperature .
To get one to work you have to spend a fortune or be a mechanic or engineer.
I've been cooking on cheap barrel smokers for almost 40 years , it's the only cooker at hunt camp & I have one at home. Over time & stealing oops learning from the ideas of others I've found easy fixes to the problems.
I can get 8 + hour burns on both barrels either indirect or using a fuse burn with a heat shield. Indirect requires a charcoal basket & a fire brick & the heat shield requires HD pans ( cheap) & fire bricks. With the shield method you don't lose cooking area but you vaporize the meat drippings, with indirect you get only the meat, seasoning & smoke.
You can't control the temperature
Well there are higher temp swings than automated cookers but my cookers may range from 200F to 300F but on a set & forget cook are largely between 225F & 275F
I don't think it makes a significant difference in that range.
3) good cookers are too expensive.
The cooker at deer camp we made & my barrel was about $250 10 years ago.
Sure I've modified, I'm a tinkerer, but barrel cooker need a lot of airflow, it's ok if they leak like a sieve.
A good CHEAP cooker for someone looking to go retro would be a Chargriller Outlaw.
A charcoal basket is easy to make , pans & firebricks are cheap.
LostArrow cooker
Home cooker using fuse
Home cooker using indirect
Wood is buried underneath charcoal & lit in one corner