There seems to be many different options. Treager looks pretty popular but more expensive than some.

Anyone have experience with a lesser known/cheaper brand?

TIA

Green mountain has some great features such as wifi temperature control to monitor your internal meat temp.

I went with the rec tek because of the warranty and it's a thicker steel.

Interesting. Is the thicker steel for better insulation or longer life of the grill?

I have a blazn grill works. Thicker steel like the Rec Tec, upgraded controller that allows you to set a meat temp. The meat reaches that temp and the grill ramps down to 160 to hold the meat instead of overcooking it. It's probably a .ore expensive pellet grill than I would have bought I got it cheap of Craigslist. Even avoided a scary Big Ben situation when getting it.

http://www.blazngrillworks.com

Any Pitts and Spitts pellet grill owners out there?

The green mountains are popular around here. I have one with the remote and like it. They now are WiFi and can be controlled through your phone.

Friend introduced me to Traeger and I bought my dad one. Been awesome to enjoy through him. Granted, same friend told me consider RecTec now as it has some added features. So if I invest in one, I will probably go with that.

Bought a Louisiana pellet grill a few years ago to replace gas grill. Love it. Easy electronic controls for temp that are plus or minus 20 degrees.

BMCaginLTX said:

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Interesting. Is the thicker steel for better insulation or longer life of the grill?

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Both. The 40 lb pellet hopper is a great feature. I bought the 680 grill cause I can smoke a lot of meat on it if needed.

You want thicker metal, or even better, double wall insulation as that will effect both the tightness of your temperature control and the burn rate of pellets.

I just got a Camp Chef SmokePro DLX last month. It's been working great and I really like it a lot. Going to try my first brisket on it this weekend. I've done ribs, jerky, and bacon so far on it and they have all turned out great. Looking forward to adding the sear box to it next year.

My friend that has the bigger RecTec suggested I go to a pellet grill after I had been having problems with turning out a good brisket on my Old Smokey. He said it's nice to just set the temperature and forget about it.

I suggest joining and taking a look at some of the Facebook pages for each brand and also look at some smoking forums. You'll find a lot of information that will help you decide on which brand you want to buy. For example, Green Mountain Grills come in wifi and non-wifi; however, most have the same controller and you only need to add an external antenna to your "non-wifi" model to turn have wifi accessability.

Sorry for the long post.

Edit to add: you also want to take a look at what kind of warranty is offered from the different manufacturers. From what I've seen, Camp Chef makes the Cabela's brand pellet grill and they are backed with lifetime warranty.

May be a silly question but how does bark from a pellet grill compare to a regular smoker or even a BGE? I saw a briskey my buddy did on Traeger and the bark looked pathetic, but maybe it was him... but maybe it was the grill?

I just did a brisket on my Traeger this past weekend. 12 hr smoke at 225. Brisket turned out good. It was tender and juicy with a smoke ring, but there really wasn't much of a bark at all. Everyone still enjoyed it. I'll stick to my regular smoker next time.

lazuras_dc said:

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May be a silly question but how does bark from a pellet grill compare to a regular smoker or even a BGE? I saw a briskey my buddy did on Traeger and the bark looked pathetic, but maybe it was him... but maybe it was the grill?

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Good question,

If you want a good bark, wrap in butcher paper when internal temp reaches 206. I wrap mine in foil and there isn't much bark, but it's tender/juicy as heck!

You can absolutely get good bark on a pellet grill.

You won't get the intense smoke flavor you can get from a stick burner. If you like more smoke add something like this to your inventory. It can also be used for cold smoking cheeses and the like.

www.amazenproducts.com/product_p/amnts.htm

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If you want a good bark, wrap in butcher paper when internal temp reaches 206. I wrap mine in foil and there isn't much bark, but it's tender/juicy as heck!

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206 seems high to "start" wrapping? Unless this is when you pull and place in a cooler (always heard pulling between 195-203). To each his own. I've always wrapped (when needed) to accelerate through the stall. Then wrap and let sit in a cooler for an hour or more.

I try not to wrap during the cook itself, which gives you that great, black bark. But it also takes longer to get up to internal temp. Foil creates a barrier, trapping moisture in, and accelerating the breakdown of the fats and connective tissue. This moisture is the anti-bark during the cook itself. Butcher paper is a semi-sealed process that let's "some" of the moisture escape. If I"m in a hurry, I may wrap at an internal temp of 160-165.

You want that great bark. Get an offset. From there, I personally have seen slightly better bark on eggs (vs. the pellet), but not by a large margin.

BlueSmoke said:

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Quote:

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If you want a good bark, wrap in butcher paper when internal temp reaches 206. I wrap mine in foil and there isn't much bark, but it's tender/juicy as heck!

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206 seems high to "start" wrapping? Unless this is when you pull and place in a cooler (always heard pulling between 195-203). To each his own. I've always wrapped (when needed) to accelerate through the stall. Then wrap and let sit in a cooler for an hour or more.

I try not to wrap, which gives you that great, black bark. But it also takes longer to cook. Foil creates a barrier, trapping moisture in, and accelerating the breakdown of the fats and connective tissue. This moisture is the anti-bark. Butcher paper is a semi-sealed process that let's "some" of the moisture escape. If I"m in a hurry, I may wrap at an internal temp of 160-165.

You want that great bark. Get an offset. From there, I personally have seen slightly better bark on eggs (vs. the pellet), but not by a large margin.

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You are right, I mispoke. I wrap at 160 and cook until 206.

I'm with you. I used to pull @ 195, then migrated to 203 (Franklin vidoes), and now I'm sneaking up towards 205. I always prefer the meat to fall apart vs. having more of the "pull". Most winds up as chopped beef anyway (kids preferred style to eat) and burnt ends from the point. Also cooking slightly hotter (250+). May audience doesn't knwo the difference, but I like to keep perfecting the process.

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I'm sure these are cool, but it seems like it takes the fun and skill out of BBQ. I like BBQ because of its primal nature and never really knowing what you'll get.

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It removes a single facet. A consistent temp. It's critical. But you still have meat selection. Wood/lump/pellet selection. Trimming. Rubs. Wrapping/not wrapping. Post-cook wrapping/cooler time. Slicing/serving (point and the flat sliced different - 2 seperate muscle groups).

I get my egg dialed in (as best I can), then get to all my other stuff. House. Soccer games. Etc. In a perfect world I'd have a big, custom offset, but I just don't have the time to tend it all day.

queso1 said:

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I'm sure these are cool, but it seems like it takes the fun and skill out of BBQ. I like BBQ because of its primal nature and never really knowing what you'll get.

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It really comes down to what you enjoy doing. My family and I like to actually eat BBQ. Having a pellet grill makes it easy for me to make BBQ at any time instead of having to babysit a pit all day. I can still get plenty done and don't even have to be home. Freshly cooked BBQ on a work day is awesome, can't really do that on a stick burner and is hard on an egg without a controller to lower the temp when meat hits set point.

Get a Yoder!

Just got one as a gift...not here yet though. Had pretty much made up my mind that I wanted to go with GMG with wifi so that's what I was gifted.

However, based on the research I did, I don't think you can go wrong with either of the Rec Tec, GMG, or Camp Chef Woodwind (sear plate option is pretty cool).

Yoder and it isn't even close

I probably would have gotten a Yoder if I hadn't gotten a steal of a deal on my Blazn. But Mak is the ultimate name in pellet grills if you can stomach the price.

https://www.makgrills.com

yaterag said:

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I probably would have gotten a Yoder if I hadn't gotten a steal of a deal on my Blazn. But Mak is the ultimate name in pellet grills if you can stomach the price.

https://www.makgrills.com

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If you're looking at the top end, It is actually really hard to beat Memphis pellet grills. You get pretty much the biggest temperature range in the market and a double walled stainless grill that looks sharp. They go up to either 650F or 700F depending on the model.

IMO, Memphis does a legit job at competing against an egg in most ways while being even easier to use. You definitely pay for it, but it is pretty much a do it all grill.

If you are looking at the Treager price point, go with green mountain. Has more features and more precise temperature settings. I've had a gmg for 4 months now and it performs well

Gonna smoke a 40 lb pig in a couple of weeks on my rec tec 680. We'll see how this goes!

I just bought a camp chef with the sear plate. Is there a certain brand of pellets that is better than another or should you utilize the same brand as your pit?

Whatever pellets you buy make sure they are 100% hardwood without any fillers. I buy a competition blend from amazon I really like. You can also search around and maybe get in on a group buy if pellets to lower the costs.

Join the Camp Chef Facebook page, it's called Camp Chef Smoker Smokers. They usually have some good recommendations on bbq pellets. The members of that group are very active and know a lot about the CC products.

yater, I actually saw those on Amazon yesterday. Thanks for the advice

Pharmer, didn't even think about that but good idea. Appreciate it.

I have the Green Mountain portable one for tailgating. Works great for smoking and gets hot enough to grill/char. It is not light.

As for pellet smokers, they are great if you don't have time to monitor. I used to love using the big Klose pit that I have and stay up all night and get banged up with buddies.

Flash forward: three kids, kids sports and responsibilities. Now use pellet smokers. Full night of sleep. Reliability. I also live at 8k feet and it gets cold. Smokers have thermal blankets that help conserve pellet use.

My big pellet smoker is a Yoder. Yoder

Works like a champ. Most competitions that I am aware of ban pellet smokers. There are also a lot of good gourmet pellets out there. There are also a lot of ****ty ones.

Looking to buy a pellet smoker today. Price range is $700 or less. Leaning towards campchef pg24 based on online reviews but could certainly be convinced otherwise.

Ease of use (including cleaning) and ability to walk away for long time periods and have a dependable result are the two main factors I'm looking for.

The PG24 is the same as the smaller pellet grill Cabelas sells under their own name. The only difference is that the Cabelas one has a glass window in the lid and instead of a 3 year warranty, it has a lifetime warranty.

I have the PG24 and really like it. Bought the cabelas brand jerky racks (made by CC) this weekend and can't wait to do another batch of jerky.