Does brand / type matter? Used Recteq brand that came with the grill up until now. Does the cheap stuff you can buy at Academy (B&B) do the job? I don't care about flavors, just that it's going to burn right and not junk up my grill.

It'll be fine. Look at lowes everything Ike you go, I usually find some on clearance.

Found kingsford brand maple one time for $6 a bag. Put 400 lbs of em in my Leaf.

I order the 40 lbs bag of pitboss competition brand from walmart and have them deliver it to my door. Cost about $15 a bag. I get about 3 or 4 bags at a time. Easy peasy!

Cheap stuff = ash = clogged burner and no relight on next cookout without cleaning… real PIA

I've had good luck with B&B from Academy. The only brand I had problems with was Kingsford, but it may have just been the bag. I've found the cheaper stuff burns the same as the expensive.

Chetos is 100% correct.

Cheap pellets will burn less efficiently- resulting in you using more pellets ($) to keep the same temps, and more ash junking up your grill.

Crap pellets are just junk wood scraps with flavor oils on them. Better pellets are a mix of affordable woods with hardwoods for flavor. Higher end pellets are 100% hardwoods for full flavor and effecent BTU's.

I REALLY like Bear Mountain BBQ pellets. Easy to order online, and pretty affordable. They have several 100% hardwood options, I like those really well. They also have good mixes. You can get BOGO's or 2'nd bag 1/2 off sales pretty often. I order 40-60 pounds whenever they have a sale.

PitBoss Competition are good too, but I get less ash and better flavor out of Bear's. I am the kind of guy that will change the pellets based on what I'm cooking, so flavor makes a difference to me. It doesn't to eveyrone.

Treager pellets are just junk wood with oils, and priced way to high for what they are. They have some new ones, but I'm not conviced they are just branded differnetly, and are acutally hardwood pellets. I've tried Kingsfords too, and didn't like the 1 bag I treid. Just my opinoin.

B&B Post Oak gives me the best brisket bark out of all I've tried.

I am looking at this bear mountain you mentioned. You do the blend, or just pick out what tree you want for each bag? I have never done a blend and am kinda intrigued.

I have had great success with the blends- I like the Bold & Sweet BBQ's. I can for sure taste different profiles. The Gromet didn't taste all that unique to me. Haven't tried Savory or Bourbon yet. I am for sure going to get some bourbon, as my wife and I make a smoked bourbon caramel chocolate cake- and I want to try cooking the whole cake on the smoker!

I also enjoy just getting several bags of the single woods, and blending them myself. For briskets and beef, I do oak, mesquite, hickory, and a little pecan (from another brand). For a lighter taste, I've done maple and apple, with some oak or alder in there.

Their descriptions on the website, and recommended meat pairings, are pretty helpful. You can't go wrong with some hickory and oak to start out with.

https://outdoorgrillsales.com/shuping-texas-beef-mix/

^ my favorite pellet

B&B are fine, biggest learning for me was to keep the containers I put mine in off the back porch. Especially if there's rain in the forecast.

Use Bear Mountain here as well too. To me the are the best pellets to buy. If I can't get Bear Mountain then second best pellets IMO are CookinPellets 40PM Perfect Mix pellets.

BBQR's Delight Is #3 on my list and Pit Boss Competition would be #4.

I know this is a random bump, but bought a recteq yesterday and was curious about pellet quality. Kind of interesting that before I even searched for them, Bear Mountain showed up in my FB feed with their Black Friday sale. Picked up 4 20 lb bags based on your recommendation.

Awesome, glad it helped! Congrats on the new grill!!!