The best setup for cold smoking salmon and fish is a dedicated smoke tube paired with a large, well-sealed grill that holds low temperatures, and the standout combination is the Yoder Smokers YS640s Pellet Grill running with a smoke tube on a cool day.
The mistake most first-timers make is chasing a machine that "stays cold," when cold smoking really depends on generating clean smoke without adding heat, plus a proper cure and cool ambient weather. Hold the fish below roughly 90°F, watch your chamber temperature, and let a slow-burning smoke source do the flavoring.
Our pick: The Yoder Smokers YS640s Pellet Grill, with a cooking chamber built from 1/8-inch (10-gauge) steel gives you a heavy, well-sealed box that holds low temperatures steadily and doubles as a grill, oven, and smoker year-round.
Runner-up: The Yoder Smokers 20" Loaded Wichita Offset Smoker suits the cook who loves live-fire ritual, since its separated firebox keeps a small smoldering fire far from the fish for maximum temperature control.
If you already own a grill, start with an A-Maze-N Smoke Tube and a bag of BBQr's Delight pellets, add a FireBoard 2 Wireless Thermometer to watch your chamber, and cold smoke on a cool day.
If you've ever pulled a side of cold-smoked salmon out of your own setup, sliced it paper-thin, and watched it disappear off the board in minutes, you already know why this cook gets under your skin. This guide is for the home cook who wants to cold smoke salmon, trout, whitefish, and other delicate fish the right way, and who wants to know which equipment actually holds the low temperatures the technique demands. By the end, you'll understand what separates a setup that can hold cold-smoke temperatures from one that can't, and which pieces from the ATBBQ lineup get you there without guesswork.
Here's the thing that trips up most first-timers: cold smoking isn't cooking. You're holding smoked fish below roughly 90°F so it takes on deep, clean wood flavor while staying raw in texture, usually after a proper cure. That means the enemy isn't a lack of heat, it's too much of it. The right equipment is really about generating clean smoke while keeping the chamber cold.
What to look for at each price tier
A dedicated cold-smoke source that makes smoke without adding heat. This is the single most important piece, and it's also the most affordable. A smoke tube burns wood pellets slowly to produce hours of smoke while contributing very little warmth to the chamber. That's the whole game for salmon. Everything else is about the box you put that smoke into.
A chamber roomy enough to keep the fire far from the fish. Distance is your friend. The more space between your smoke source and your fillets, the easier it is to keep the fish cold. A larger cooking chamber, or a smoker with a firebox physically separated from the food, gives you that buffer naturally. Cramped little boxes fight you the whole way.
Precise, trustworthy temperature monitoring. When your target ceiling is 90°F and a warm afternoon can push you past it, you need to actually see chamber temperature in real time. A quality digital thermometer with an ambient probe turns cold smoking from a nervous guessing game into a controlled process you can walk away from.
Vertical rack space for volume. Cold smoking is a project, and most folks want to do a big batch when they commit to it. Racks that let you stack multiple fillets or hang fish multiply your yield without multiplying your effort.
Our picks
The smoke source that does the heavy lifting: A-Maze-N Smoke Tube (roughly $20 to $30 depending on size). If you buy one thing for cold smoking salmon, buy this. It's a perforated tube that burns clean wood pellets to generate smoke without meaningfully heating your chamber, which is exactly the balance cold smoking demands. The A-Maze-N Smoke Tube works inside a gas grill, charcoal grill, pellet grill, or electric smoker, and the tube sizes run for a real stretch of time. The 6-inch tube produces smoke for up to about two hours during cold smoking, while the 12-inch and expandable versions push that to roughly four hours before a refill. For a long salmon session, that burn time is exactly what you want.
The premium do-it-all that also cold smokes: Yoder Smokers YS640s Pellet Grill (premium tier). This is the brand's flagship and a genuine best seller, and it earns the spot for cold smoking because of its chamber size and build. Pair a smoke tube with the YS640s on a cool day, keep the grill itself off or barely running, and the YS640s gives you a large, heavy, well-sealed box that holds low temperatures steadily. It offers 1,070 square inches of total cooking area across two levels, so you can lay out a serious batch of fillets. Just as important, this is a true grill, oven, and smoker in one, so the same machine that cold smokes your salmon in November hot smokes a brisket, sears steaks, and bakes on the weekend. Its cooking chamber is built from 1/8-inch, 10-gauge steel and the whole grill is handcrafted in Kansas, USA, which is why owners describe it as a tank they expect to pass down. But the coolest thing about this grill (no pun intended) is it's temperature range which goes all the way down to 150ºF and can hold it there for what most cooks would call "cool smoking" or borderline cold smoking. So while we recommend a smoke tube for genuine cold smoking, you can "cool smoke" on a Yoder Smokers pellet grill with no added tubes or trinkets.
The stick-burner's cold-smoke platform: Yoder Smokers 20" Loaded Wichita Offset Smoker with Casters (premium tier). If you love the ritual of managing a live fire and you want maximum separation between smoke and fish, an offset is a beautiful tool for cold smoking. The firebox sits off to the side, away from the cook chamber, so on a cold day you can run a small, smoldering fire in the firebox and keep the fish end cool. The Loaded Wichita is built from heavy 1/4-inch steel for excellent thermal stability, gives you 1,610 square inches of cooking surface, and includes a removable heat management plate so you can fine-tune airflow. Like every grill from Yoder Smokers, it's built in Kansas, USA and ships by freight to your door. This one is for the cook who wants hands-on fire control, not set-and-forget convenience.
The rack that multiplies your batch: Yoder Smokers 3-Tier Wire Smoking Rack (accessory tier, around $249 to $279). When you're curing and cold smoking a big run of salmon or a load of trout fillets, vertical space is everything. This stainless steel rack sets right on top of your standard cooking grates and gives you three removable tiers to configure however you like. On the YS640 size, that's 479, 405, and 241 square inches across the three levels. It's handcrafted in the USA and built to shrug off years of smoke and grease.
The monitoring that keeps you honest: FireBoard 2 Wireless Thermometer (around $199). Cold smoking lives and dies by chamber temperature, and this is where a good thermometer pays for itself. The FireBoard 2 supports up to six probes and pushes live readings to your phone over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with alerts if your chamber creeps toward that 90°F ceiling. Clip an ambient probe near the fish, set a high-temperature alert, and you can step inside without babysitting the smoker. For a slightly more compact monitoring option, the Fireboard Pulse Wireless Meat Thermometer (around $149) is a customer favorite that streams temperatures wirelessly to the FireBoard app.
The pellets that flavor the fish: BBQr's Delight Wood Pellets. Whatever smoke source you choose, the wood you feed it is what actually flavors your salmon. BBQr's Delight pellets are among the most popular items ATBBQ sells for good reason, and milder woods tend to flatter fish rather than overwhelm it. Load your tube with the flavor you want and let it ride.
What most guides get wrong
Most cold-smoking advice obsesses over the smoker and skips the part that actually determines whether your salmon is safe and delicious: the cure and the ambient temperature you're working in. Cold smoking holds fish in a range where you're relying on a proper salt cure, not heat, to do the preserving. That means you cure the fish first, and you pick your day. Trying to cold smoke salmon on a warm afternoon is a losing battle no matter how nice your equipment is, because the chamber will drift above your target. Cold and cool seasons are prime cold-smoking weather, and a smoke tube plus a good ambient thermometer is a far smarter investment than chasing some mythical machine that magically stays cold in July. Cure well, work in cool conditions, watch your chamber temperature, and the equipment does its job.
The recommendation
If you already own a grill and just want to start cold smoking salmon this weekend, buy the A-Maze-N Smoke Tube and a bag of BBQr's Delight pellets, add the FireBoard 2 to watch your chamber, and go. That's the smartest, lowest-cost entry into the craft.
If you're ready to invest in one machine that cold smokes fish beautifully and then handles every other cook you'll ever want, the Yoder Smokers YS640s Pellet Grill Pellet Grill is the pick. Its size, heavy steel build, and grill-oven-smoker versatility make it a lifetime tool, and paired with a smoke tube it holds cold-smoke temperatures with room to spare. Plus, if you want to "cool smoke" at 150ºF the YS640s can hold that temperature on its own, no smoke tubes needed.
And if you're the cook who genuinely loves tending a fire, the Yoder Smokers 20" Loaded Wichita Offset Smoker gives you a separated firebox and the hands-on control that makes cold smoking feel like craft. Whichever direction fits you, you're buying from a lineup ATBBQ's own team cooks on at home, backed by more than 7,000 five-star reviews across the site and friendly folks who are happy to talk salmon with you before, during, and after your purchase.
