Pellet grills

At the risk of high jacking this thread, I have a question for IDman.
I have a charcoal Brinkmann smoker that does a fabulous job, but looking to upgrade. My cousin has an electric that does a mediocre, if that job of smoking meat. My charcoal smoker requires attention if smoking for a prolonged period. Looking at a Traeger type pellet smoker, but realy wonder if they offer the same or at least close comparison to a charcoal smoker.
Thanks and pardon the interruption.

I have had a Traeger Texas Grill for more than a couple years. It replaced a propane gas grill.

The biggest pro for propane that could be a con for pellet is temperature. My pellet grill will get to just over 400-degrees. My propane grill would get hotter than the sun. The pellet grill takes longer to get to temperature and if it loses temperature (i.e., you leave the grill open while goofing around with flipping burgers) takes longer to get back up to temperature. HOWEVER...

Everything cooked on a pellet grill tastes better than something cooked on a propane grill. My Traeger will cook at roughly 150-degrees for something like 30+ hours and I never have to lift the lid. I've never done that, but I very often cook at 225-degrees for 12 - 15 hours. What's that mean? It means you can put a pork butt/shoulder on the grill at 10:00 p.m. at 225-degrees and pull it off at noon. After 14 hours of hickory smoke you'll wonder why anyone goes out to eat anymore. Vegetables grilled are amaze-balls. You'll wonder how you ever ate pizza before having it "wood fired."

The biggest con of a pellet grill is what happens when you invite people over for dinner. You have to hear them go on and on about how good your food is. They expect you won't have another meal cooked on the pellet grill without them. They'll tell you to open your own bbq joint, they'll start setting dates to come over again. They'll tell you what they want smoked next time. They'll even bring you salmon (for example) and ask you to smoke it so they can have smoked salmon to take on their next camping trip. Your neighbors will ask you what you were making for lunch, why you never invite them over when you're grilling burgers.

So, bottom line is if you're making food at 400-degrees or lower, or smoking/grilling, or even cold-smoking, the pellet grill can't be beat. If you want set-it and forget-it cooking (nothing easier) then it's the way to go. If you like tri-tip, smoked/pulled pork, ribs, steaks, etc., then you'll wish you'd have purchased a pellet grill a long time ago.

X2 for Traegar. The only issue I have is that mine doesn't get quite hot enough to grill steaks. Excellent for everything else, though.

The small Green Mountain smokers get good reviews.

I have two Traegers and love them both!! It is nearly impossible to mess up anything on a Traeger and food is always perfect. In 7-8 years of smoking, I had one problem on a Sunday morning around 6:30 MST. I called 800 service number, thinking I would leave a voice mail since it was 5:30 at Traeger. A very friendly man answered, solved my problem, and sent me a part without charge! (Try that with some other company today.)

I have referred many friends and associates to Traeger and they are always as happy as I am.