Pellet grills

I also love my Traeger. I have a Junior Elite and have used it for nearly 2 years. One thing not mentioned here is that it is a GREAT oven. I have made 2-3 double size aluminum pans of Smoked Mac and cheese that were huge hits. This is like 15 lbs of great Mac & Cheese which is a great disk for big crowds when out camping. I have never had anything come off my Traeger that was not very good. The little Junior will hold two small aluminum pans or one big pan. The website has a LOT of recipes. I carry my Traeger in the basement of my MH wherever I go. Just took the legs off it and carry a folding table for it and many other uses.

Ted

My favorite rig (gone now since I'm rotating Ewe-stun to Los Anchorage) was a stick burner offset smoker. I believe that the only way to get to truly and completely smoke something was with wood chunks or sticks as the fuel.

If one end of the spectrum is a stick burner and the other end of the spectrum is a propane grill or (yikes!) and electric grill, the 3-4 times I've cooked over a Traeger seem to indicate that the Traeger (particularly with quality pellets) gets to about 85% of the stick burner smoke experience.

For me a big part of the overall smoking experience is the babysitting of the stickburner....but I wouldn't hesitate to use a Traeger (or other quality Pellet grill) and will likely get one once the rambling days are over.

I have the Green Mountain Davey Crockett and it is terrific. The legs fold up so it is very compact - as a full timer that's important.

IMHO, everything tastes better when cooked over a wood fire - and that's what these grills do. I think what I like best is that you are cooking on a wood-fired grill/oven/smoker that keeps a very constant temperature. And that temperature can be anything from about 170 to about 500 degrees on my grill. Just put something on the grill, set the temp, load up the hopper and go off to do 'whatever'. Come back to goodness.

I will say that I agree with Super Dave. I do not think you get that deep smoked flavor from these grills. But it's pretty good and the fact that you're cooking over real wood is a bonus. I read somewhere that when you get Hickory pellets, for example, they are not really 100% hickory wood. So maybe that's part of the reason. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that.

I use mine as much as I can. My Weber Q propane grill is sitting in the corner now.

My .02

Tim

Yet another vote for Traeger. They are very reliable. Ours is over 20yrs old. The only issues I have had are a broken cotter pin(my fault for leaving pellets in it). The other issue is a rusted drip tray. Tried to get a replacement but the grill is obsolete and aprts are no longer available. Not rusted bad enough to stop using the grill. Not bad for living on an island in the Atlantic.

Pelletheads.com is a great place to get info. In all of our research, Rec Tec and Green Mountain Grills seemed to be at the top of the pack in their price range. It was a tough decision but we opted for the Rec Tec Mini over the Green Mountain Davy Crockett because it was a little bigger and the grates were heavier. We can get our Rec Tec up to 500 and cook steaks on it regularly. They may not have grill marks like you can get on a propane but they are definitely tastier.

After reading reviews about the small Traeger, we stayed away from it. Lots of complaints about it not holding temp. I didn't read as many negative reviews about the bigger Traegers so they must hold heat better. My BIL has one and loves it (and the food off it is delish).

If/When we are ready to get a larger pellet grill, we will get a Rec Tec or Green Mountain.

We have the Davey Crockett Green Mountain Smoker. One of its best features is dc power so we can use it when dry camping. We tapped into a dc light in the pin box area and installed a dc connector and it will also work with ac power. We find that even as amateur smokers, our efforts are better than the majority of BBQ joints we have tried including some award winning restaurants. And we love steak smoked on the Davey Crockett. We smoke at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, remove them, crank up the heat on the smoker to 500 degrees, and finish cooking the steaks. They are melt in your mouth tender and the flavor is so good that we never order steak out any more. We are fulltimers and for us, this is a perfect smoker. We use it almost every day.

I like my Green Mountain. It is simple to use, holds temperature as good as my oven from 150-450+. Much more versatile than a normal grill or smoker. I even baked cookies in mine to see if I could.

Super_Dave wrote:
Sorry, mowin, I confused you with garmp1's reply.

No biggie. Easy to get confused. I enjoy your posts on smoking and bbq, and have learned a trick or two from them.

Sorry, mowin, I confused you with garmp1's reply.

Super_Dave wrote:
Ace, smoking meat is right up there with religion and politics, so rarely is anyone converted that already has an opinion. Smoking is also very subjective as everyone's taste buds are different. With the OP loving his charcoal fueled over a friends electric, I just don't think that he will be as happy with pellets.

I'm the OP, and I never said I love my charcoal over friends electric.
I have smoked on all types. There were things I liked and disliked about all of them. I highly doubt any smoker will be absolutely perfect, but a pellet muncher may be close.. time will tell.

As fas as pellet smokers not putting out the same flavor of bbq, that subjective. Pellet smokers are winning many competitions. So many that the traditionalist are complaining that there too easy and should be disqualified.

With that, I'm looking for opinions on those that have a pellet grill/smokers, and what they like/dislike about them.