I know it's been covered numerous times before, but figured I'd ask again since many seem to love chiming in with their opinion.

Got a new house and I want a pellet grill. Had a Trager 575 at the old house and although it was good and easy, I felt I never could get it hot enough for searing steaks and hamburgers.

I enjoy smoking meats, butts and turkey mostly, but want to use the smoker for burgers, steaks and such as well. Would like to keep the price under $1000 if possible.

Debating going with a RecTeq but curious as to what everyone else's opinions are. I'd like to stick with a pellet grill, as they just seem easier to use and clean up after but I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

Pellet grills are for smoking so most won't sear very well. A few pellet grills have a searing area, but never used one so don't know if really works well.

Have the largest stainless steel WiFi Green Mountain Prime for many years and it has been great. It also grills & sears very well. Unit has settings from 150 F up to 550 F.

No recommendations, but I literally just sold my old Traeger about 2 hours ago. Going back to a kamado style.

Want to be able to sear/bake at higher temps and I had it fail on me a few too many times on overnight cooks.

RCR06 said:

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Pellet grills are for smoking so most won't sear very well. A few pellet grills have a searing area, but never used one so don't know if really works well.

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I'm on my 2nd Pit Boss. The searing station is an area directly over the flame pot that you can open and cook right over the flames. It works very well for searing.

I felt my Trager had hit spots and, like the other poster mentioned, the hopper clogged therefore failed me on a couple of over night cooks.

I understand traditional pellet grills are not great for searing but I'm just trying to find a quality "all in 1" grill. The pellet seems ideal for ease of use and smoking but that's why I added I'm open to suggestions

This is not what you are asking, but here is my opinion: get a regular pellet smoker plus a blackstone griddle. When I do steaks, I use the reverse sear method: start in my Traeger to about 120 degrees, then sear on my griddle as hot as I can get it. About 1 minute each side with a pat of butter on each side of the steak too. It's perfect and easy.

The griddle is also the best way to do burgers, fajitas, veggies. So I recommend getting both and you are really set up for everything.

I just jumped into the pellet smoker game and got a Z-Grills. I really like it. Super easy to make the things I've made and it gets hot enough to sear. I've had great luck with the Kirkland (Costco) pellets

I have a decorative pellet grill on my patio. Sometimes I lean against it while cooking things on my other grills.

When smoking everything tastes better on the offset. When grilling everything sears better on the gas.

The primary use I have found for it is, start a brisket on the offset and let it get real smoke flavor, then wrap it and finish it in the pellet so I can be lazy and leave it unattended. Also days when it is too windy to start the stick burner.

Rec-tec + blackstone for the win. + Weber for when charcoal is needed.

Rectec bullseye

I saw a bag of those pellets in HEB a few days ago. I thought it was rabbit food. I had to look closer at the label because I wondered why they had it just inside the door...

I bought the Recteq 410 and love it.

E-1_97_Guy said:

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This is not what you are asking, but here is my opinion: get a regular pellet smoker plus a blackstone griddle. When I do steaks, I use the reverse sear method: start in my Traeger to about 120 degrees, then sear on my griddle as hot as I can get it. About 1 minute each side with a pat of butter on each side of the steak too. It's perfect and easy.

The griddle is also the best way to do burgers, fajitas, veggies. So I recommend getting both and you are really set up for everything.

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This is probably the best idea if searing is really important to you.

I have a recteq 1270 (whatever the number is) also have my old KJ extra large and a small green egg. Haven't used either Kamodo since getting the recteq. To me the ease of use is just too big of a factor. HAve smoked a lot of ribs and briskets and never had it mess up on me. Chicken and burgers and stuff are easy.

As far as searing, mine will get up to around 650 if I put it on full and let it really warm up.

I have tried a few different thing for sear. Tried a cast iron plate thing. Helped a little but the quality was poor and rusted constantly. Tried the recteq searing plate thing. Comes in three pieces. After a while they no longer connected together well and I didn't thing they helped that much.

Have tried searing in a cast iron skillet inside then finishing on the recteq. Worked okay, but smokes up the kitchen.

At the end of the day, I have gotten to the point that I feel the steaks on the recteq on high without messing with a particular searing method still come out really nice. So haven't messed with other searing options in a while. If I were going to add something, I would add a Blackstone, but I haven't pulled the trigger, because I don't think I would use it much.

Obligatory pellet smoker memes.

I give my father in law hell all the time but they do make some tasty bbq especially for being able to leave the house and monitor remotely via phone app.

Recteq. I've had recteq, Pitt boss, gravity charcoal smokers, and traditional ones. Went back to rec teq. The pit boss got too hot under the meat because they used cheap parts. Maybe they've fixed that. Frustrating smoking meat for 8-12 hours to figure that out. Chargriller was awesome but rusted out in two years on the coast. Parts also liked to break and had a **** warranty. Cooked some of the best food though. Went back to rectec flagship for the stainless build, simplicity, and great warranty. Love it. I still have a charcoal grill, gas grill, and blackstone. I drive the wife crazy cause I have certain things I prefer to cook on each one. Just have to find ways to justify it lol

Grilla Silverbac is on sale right now…getting it with the all terrain cart and a cover for under $800 seems like robbery.

I've had a Pit-Boss that the auger gets clogged about once a year. It's a pain to fix because you have to take the bin off and undo a bunch of things.

I would recommend getting something that is easy to clean. I think they all cook about the same.

investorAg83 said:

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Grilla Silverbac is on sale right now…getting it with the all terrain cart and a cover for under $800 seems like robbery.

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That's a heck of a deal on a great pellet smoker. Bought one for my dad a few years ago and it's been rock solid.

I have a Yoder that I absolutely love. Gets hot enough to sear (have had it up to 700F) and its heavy enough to smoke when it gets cold outside.

have a reqteq 1400xl and been very happy with it.

OldArmy07 said:

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I have a Yoder that I absolutely love. Gets hot enough to sear (have had it up to 700F) and it's heavy enough to smoke when it gets cold outside.

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+1 for the Yoder. Pizza oven is nice too with it. I've smoked and seared on it with ease. They sell Grill Grates that get super hot above the pellet tray.

WestTexAg12 said:

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OldArmy07 said:

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I have a Yoder that I absolutely love. Gets hot enough to sear (have had it up to 700F) and it's heavy enough to smoke when it gets cold outside.

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+1 for the Yoder. Pizza oven is nice too with it. I've smoked and seared on it with ease. They sell Grill Grates that get super hot above the pellet tray.

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I love the Yoders, too. I just don't use it enough to justify it costing the equivalent of 3+ grillas.

investorAg83 said:

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Grilla Silverbac is on sale right now…getting it with the all terrain cart and a cover for under $800 seems like robbery.

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I was debating on that or the OG. I wasn't planning on buying for another couple of months, but this might be too hard to pass up.

I have a Masterbuilt Gravity fed digital/charcoal (lumps - not briquettes)…like a traeger but lumps vs pellets…I love it

Since nobody else has mentioned it, I replaced my 8 year old Green Mountain with the newly redesigned Weber Searwood XL, and it has been fantastic. I have not had any issues whatsoever. It puts out way more smoke than my Green Mountain, and gets super hot for searing, you can actually see the flames shooting out. One of the best things is how fast it heats up, I don't know how they did it, but it gets up to temp fast. I've always had Weber kettles and even a bullet smoker for my charcoal cooking, and they have never disappointed me. Very impressed with the Searwood.

Got an email from recteq this week about their new 1250 pellet sear unit. Pellet smoker that will sear to 1250 degrees.

I have the old 1250 and love it. Will definitely replace with this high temp sear unit at some point. Don't see mine dying anytime soon. So will be far in the future or just because I want to upgrade at some point.


For those searching for the best of both worlds. I would check this out!

Currently have 4 pork shoulders in my traeger. We are sending pulled pork sandwiches with the high school baseball team this week as they leave for their first playoff games.

I'll be in Omaha so the wife will be prepping 40 ish sandwiches for the boys so the cooking happens today.

Is it the preferred method, not really but it's the easiest way to cook them while I've got other things to do as I prep to be gone for a week.

I just got a Recteq Flagship XL a few months back which has been great and I've already run about 100lbs of pellets through it. The new X Fire has me thinking I may need to move it to the lake house. The X Fire sounds like a really great concept if it works the way it's supposed to, going to be watching initial reviews closely.

I am an offset guy myself. I like stick burners and tending the fire. It's something I truly enjoy.

Question on pellet smokers. How do you tend them? How do you control smoke? Do you get blue smoke or white smoke? I'm asking because I don't know how they work. I use smoker pellets in my bee smokers and they basically smolder to create smoke. But it's white, and I've never liked that for meats. How do pellet smokers keep a flame or maintain a certain type of smoke? Are they just inherently clean?

My Yoder puts out a nice blue smoke once it's to temp so no issues there. It can then hold an exact temp +/- 5 degrees or so for hours on end.

Tending an offset is just something I can't commit the time to. I can still make great smoked meat for friends and family while also getting a good night sleep which is important to me at this stage of life with busy career and kid activities.

I don't think one is better than another, but pellet smokers enable a lot of people to enjoy smoking things that otherwise wouldn't.

Cheers!

Anyone have any experience with a wood fired griddle? I want a griddle but love grilling with pellets to get the smoky flavor. Seems like this could be a good compromise.

https://www.recteq.com/products/rt-600-smokestone

I've run the gauntlet.

I've had two digital Bradley smokers. When they work, they work awesome. Best smoker overall, but the Bradley wood pucks are expensive and the electronics effs up. Both ended up on the curb.

Next, I went to Masterbuilt. It sorta worked well. I had to keep sticking wood chips in every 40 minutes. I'm too lazy.

Then, I bought a PitBoss vertical smoker. No. Never again. Crappy design.

I bought a Traeger and returned it within two weeks after two major failures. I bought it at Costco and when i returned it, it was apparent that I was not a one-off. The guy sort of rolled his eyes and said, "Another?"

Next came Green Mountain. The low pellet alarm started sounding constantly after a couple of uses. I wired around it and it's worked well since.

For our ranch, I kind of punted and bought a Wal-Mart special for $300. It worked, but eventually starting leaking stuff, which the dogs lapped up, got gucked up, and got blamed for this by my bride.

I haven't used it since. I bought the RecTeq with the Weber-type smoker. It arrived damaged. I was able to fix it and have had good results since.

If Bradley's quality was better, I'd recommend it. As it stands, I prefer ReqTeq over every other smoker.

this is what I am looking at Weber Searwood XL

EFE said:

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Rectec bullseye

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This. The pro will get to 1000, hotter than ever needed.

Put on the brisket, leave it, and go sechs the wife.