Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best Pellet Grill???

Our Traeger was the well insulated model so keeps a pretty consistent temp. Quit once on us in three or four years and needed parts, but works well for the most part. I think it was $1800 new.

FWIW, reading in some other pellet forums, sounds like recteq is quite highly rated and it't price is comparable to treager.

I owned a couple tragers and I don't think I would ever own another.

What was wrong with them?

I love my Traeger with the exception that it fluctuated temps so bad. Traeger says "we will sell you the "upgraded controller for $250."

F THAT!

I went on line and found an after market controller for $62..00.


Works great!

There is no such thing as a decent pellet grill.

Don’t waste your time.

Traeger = POS

Complete waste of time and money.

For the money Rectec better. If no budget then yoder. The best pellet though is green egg

^^^^^^What he said^^^^^^^^^

1. Cookshack/Fast Eddy's FEC100 - Well built in the USA, highly insulated and lots of room.

2. Yoder TS480S or larger - Well built in the USA, not as much room as the Fast Eddy's, but damn nice units.

3. RecTeq RT2500 - Nice unit, but they sell internet only and have no dealer network (I like to have local dealer support for parts, service, etc.)

4. Blaz'in Grid Iron - Made in the USA. Pretty good quality, but like the RecTeq internet sales only.

5. Green Mountain Jim Bowie - Good entry level smoker.

The pre-China Traeger's are o.k. but the new ones are complete $hit when compared to the models listed above. Not well insulated, poor fit and finish and the controllers suck.

Like Tarkio, I am purchasing this for my wife.


She should be able to figure it out.


I'm not sitting around the house all day baby sitting the god damn thing!

Sam, do your wife a favor then and buy a bge that way she will thank you for not having to babysit. You can thank me later.

I thought you had to manually 'adjust' the BGE?


More fiddling around getting it going, etc..?


Obviously I (seriously)know nothing about this stuff.

If I want barbecue without having to do anything, there are half a dozen world-class joints in town.

I cooked the Thanksgiving turkey over four hours on the same hundred dollar Weber kettle charcoal grill I do pork shoulders, prime rib, steaks, lobsters, ribs...you name it. I've done pizza in it too. I think I've had this one ten years or so. Just a couple of weeks ago I replaced the draft control, cleanout parts....less than twenty bucks...less than ten minutes. I've got another one just like it at the inlaws for when we're there.

Every so often I get a bug up my azz to get a pellet grill or some variation of kamoto ceramic grill, then I think, "Why?"

Our Traeger has a meat probe to monitor the temp on the inside of the meat. I think it's automated and will send you a message when it reaches X temperature if you set it that way. We cooked a turkey for the neighbor last night and just put it in, set it to 225 with what they call "Super Smoke" and left it all night. Turned it up this morning to get the internal temp right by 11 am or so and that's it.

LOVE my Yoder YS640! Expensive, but darn well worth every penny.
Built like a tank and will last forever.

Different story here in northeast MT!

With the bge buy an electric charcoal starter for it. After you use it a few times and learn it the rest of the time will be set it and forget it. I also have A question for the gang does anyone with a pellet smoker cook out say below 20 degrees, because my previous smokers sure as heck wouldn't .

20F and colder a no go?!


Deal breaker.

Not the bge, that's my experience with the previous ones I sent down the road. My egg will do it all day long with those Temps. Talk to flave, bet he'll tell you the same.