Good morning, you seedy gents. I've been in the market for a pellet grill for a while so I've been treating this evenings insomnia with a healthy dose of all things meat and bbq centric.
Any of you guys have a pellet grill? I know Traeger's are generally considered the top o' the line, however I'm seeing some stuff online about them not being ideal for standard grilling. Certainly going to be smoking a lot once I have one in hand, but my go-to's are steaks, burgers and chicken, so I don't want to throw down 1000 bucks or more on something that is going to deliver good results doing the basics
Any recs or info you could provide would be greatly appreciated, BBI
Oh yeah...and let's fucking go Rangers
If you want a few more bells and whistles like WiFi go with the Woodwind
Stay away from Traeger pellets. Use something like Lumberjack
If you want a few more bells and whistles like WiFi go with the Woodwind
Stay away from Traeger pellets. Use something like Lumberjack
As stated I'm new to this. Why Lumberjack over Traeger?
Traegers are fool proof for smoking. Plug and play. But they aren’t regular grills. The top of the line has a max temp of 500 so sear stations are actually induction burners. It’s a nice piece of equipment but it is electric.
Depends on what you want to do but I have a weber Smokey mountain for versatility in charcoal grilling and smoking, and I also have a weber propane gas grill for speed and volume.
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Great pellet smoker and it has the slide function to expose the fire pit and do more direct grilling
If you want a few more bells and whistles like WiFi go with the Woodwind
Stay away from Traeger pellets. Use something like Lumberjack
As stated I'm new to this. Why Lumberjack over Traeger?
Traeger uses alder and oak as filler wood and the filler is in a higher proportion than the wood that actually adds flavors (mesquite, hickory, cherry, applewood etc)
I’ve used both and notice the Traeger pellets produce a lot less smoke and wood flavor.
Traegers are fool proof for smoking. Plug and play. But they aren’t regular grills. The top of the line has a max temp of 500 so sear stations are actually induction burners. It’s a nice piece of equipment but it is electric.
Depends on what you want to do but I have a weber Smokey mountain for versatility in charcoal grilling and smoking, and I also have a weber propane gas grill for speed and volume.
Agreed. I use my Weber genesis for grilling and searing ( higher temps) and my pellets smoker for low and slow (250 degrees and under).
I did a lot of research before I went this direction.
https://www.recteq.com/ - ( New Window )
Other brands I'd consider are Yoder (would be 1B but very pricey), Traeger (biggest name brand and quality product), Green Mountain Grills, and Grilla Grills (very underrated). Those consistently perform at high level and built to last.
Pitt Boss is prob the best of the next tier. Still a pretty good pellet smoker but have had buddies complain every now and then.
I have a several different types of smokers (270 smoker, drums (Cotton Gin, Gateway} BGEs, Webers, RecTeqs, yakitori style) and pellets are definitely convenient, reliable, and can definitely deliver some great tasting food.
I have a Masterbuilt Gravity series 800. It uses regular charcoal, not pellets.
Also with the 800 Series, I also have a baffle that is installed in the heat box to convert it to a griddle.
It's the best of ALL worlds. a tad pricey, but absolutely 100% worth every penny - check it out -
Masterbuilt 800 - ( New Window )
They're not what I'd call a grill, though. I don't think I'd use them for that. I still have my trusty old weber (18yrs) for that stuff.
Other brands I'd consider are Yoder (would be 1B but very pricey), Traeger (biggest name brand and quality product), Green Mountain Grills, and Grilla Grills (very underrated). Those consistently perform at high level and built to last.
Pitt Boss is prob the best of the next tier. Still a pretty good pellet smoker but have had buddies complain every now and then.
I have a several different types of smokers (270 smoker, drums (Cotton Gin, Gateway} BGEs, Webers, RecTeqs, yakitori style) and pellets are definitely convenient, reliable, and can definitely deliver some great tasting food.
My buddy has one of these. Asked me to download the app and have access to it. I like to mess with him and shut it off sometimes...
All that being said, I personally got a Weber SmokeFire after doing some deep dives a couple years ago. Zero complaints. It had some bad reviews early on but that was mainly due to software/firmware issues. Those have been fixed with patches/updates. It gets and stays low enough (~160-180 degrees in "smoke boost" mode) to do things like jerky and what not and gets hot enough (600) to sear steaks, burgers, etc.. I've done burgers, whole chickens, veggies, brisket, pork butts/shoulders, ribs, steaks, skewers, etc.
My suggestion would be to find some facebook groups of the grills/smokers you're looking at and check the comments, feedback, etc. There's sure to be a lot of fan boys in each one along with some people just there to be negative, but will certainly be honest ones as well. For the SmokeFire, if you wanted to check it out, check the group "Weber SmokeFire WoodFired Pellet Grill: Owners Group", that is the one I'm in, 6,600 people. There's also people with different pellet grills in "North Texas BBQ Addicts".
Hope at least some of that helps, happy to answer any other questions if you have them.
https://www.grillagrills.com/products/silverbac-alpha
For the price it was a good value.
If I ever replace it, I would go Rec Tec.
The build quality seems much better.
I had a co-worker tell me about this brand. I got the 590 for 1000 and it's been fantastic. Out of the box it's entirely made of 304 stainless steel. Most other ones including Traegor will have some of it be just normal painted steel. It's built to last decades.
I recently just did a 16 hour smoke making pulled pork and it kept temp almost perfectly I got one alert from the app the entire time saying it went more than 10 degrees over temp I set it at. I highly recommend the Recteq. It smokes great almost always at temp.
One last note I cook burgers, chicken, fish on it no problem. It has no problem getting up to 500 and staying there. I regularly cook at 425 and it keeps it steady with no issues. I hope that helps.
I used to have an offset barrel smoker, and I don't think that the pellet cookers get as much smoke on the food, but the convenience factor looms large. Set it, and forget it.