Hello Starrman44 - Welcome to SMF!
Like you, I to am from Oregon (Willamette Valley, born and raised). I'm going to reply to you the only way I know how... better get a blanket, because here comes story time.
I went through a mini-mid-life crisis when I turned 30 a couple years back - what happened was; I started shopping at Bi-Mart (Man, does that place have the perfect amount of everything!). Looking through their ad, I saw they had a Smoke Hollow propane smoker on sale for $70'ish (Can't remember exactly how much, but inexpensive IMO). I figured, well shoot - I am 30 now, so I should likely pick this up as another hobby... you know, a hobby a mature 30 year old adult male would have.
Having Zero, Zilch, Nadda experience smoking anything except... well never mind - I decided to do a little research... here's where I ended up and have never left (though I've been incognito for a while).
I 110% recommend the 5 day boot camp - I mean, it's free and you learn A TON of information! My favorite tidbit I'll never forget is "At what temp does meat stop taking on smoke?".... wait... one more comment to convince you to take the boot camp - Yellow Mustard! <--- You'll become a stock holder!
Alright, back on track (I get off topic a lot). With much advisement from this site's endless forums, I took smoking on with a vengeance. My first smoke, as fun and exciting as it was... all high hoped and everything... came out a gram less of sodium than a salt lick - Lesson here... use salt-less seasoning, then add salt to it. :-)
I've taken my little SH gas smoker with me on almost all of our camp-outs... and have been experimenting a lot - because, when you're camping, what else do you have to do? After several successful meals, My favorite is ribs... I'm talking fall of the bone, ribs.
From my experience here, reading forum after forum after forum... I've taken on a roll among my clan of fellow smokers as "answer man"... rather I know the answer to the question they're asking or not, they know I can find it (Here of course!). Well, my clan, they're Traeger Nation folks... which at first, made me chuckle. So much money for a smoker, to produce a meal which my little SH would eat for breakfast... but I digress. They did their thing, I did mine.
Sadly, yet fortunately, my little SH gas smoker, doesn't play very nice with the temp changes of a nice Oregon winter... it settled its self into the roll of 'Red Headed Step Child'. Sad really, but it gets better.
I stumbled into Costco... I'm sure you've heard of them :-) this past Friday (1/11/2013) during my commute home from the office. This particular Costco had a Traeger rep and product on hand. Now, as much as I like to get my 2% back from Costco at renewal period for my membership... I'm thinking, man - these are expensive. They're offering me this and that to buy one, pulling up my friend "Red Laser" on my intelligent phone, I did some price checking, and shortly realized the savings in buying a Trager at Costco, vs. a certified retailer (Roth's IGA grocery stores in my area). My wife looks over and sees "The Look" in my eyes... I kind of want one. She pulls out of her pocket, her little intelligent phone... I'm thinking, here comes a post about how silly she thinks her husband is for even considering a Traeger purchase, especially during out impending kitchen remodel.
I out an end to my conversation with the Traeger rep, to continue my hunt for the elusive Greek yogurt (Hey each Costco is different, and this particular one is laid out completely different than my "Home" Costco. I turn the corner heading down the refer aisle and my wife asks me "Are you getting one or what" - I miss a breath, my heart pounds, and I trip on my lace-less shoes. I look deep into her eyes, and ask if she's joking, she says "No". Having this information, I do the only thing I know how to do in a situation like this - I put the palm of my hand on her forehead and check for a fever. I discover, she doesn't have a fever.
My wife then goes on to explain, while I was talking with the Traeger rep, she was breaking down the cost too... yep, you heard it.. breaking down the prices, as in price per square inch of grilling space, and she says onto me - If you get one, you should get the Texas BBQ075 (The biggest one they were selling at Costco) as it's the least expensive in the long run. I cough, murmur something, then say: Are you sure? She confirms - and now it's entirely on me. Here's a purchase, in 100 years, I wouldn't have imagined myself making, as I tend to pride myself on doing more with less...It then dawns on me, we're commuting home, and I don't think it would fit in the our tiny little car. I make mention to her of this concern (thinking, we'll be over it and go on about our shopping)... she says, remember the tape measure you put in the glove box, when we were shopping for appliances last weekend? I say yes - she says, well you should go measure the car and then measure the box and see if it will fit.
I'm thinking surely now, I'll get out of this corner, measure the car and find it's too small... I measure the car and head back in. I measure the box, and at the least, it's going to be extremely tight. I let her know, it's probably not worth looking a fool in the parking lot of a wholesale store, trying to put a giant square peg in a tiny round hole. She said she had called her brother (who lives in this particular area) who would be available to pick it up and store it at his home until I can come back in our truck. I'm thinking, there's no way out of this now, I've got nothing to convince myself not to purchase it.
I finally tell her, OK lets do it! While she's waiting for the Trager rep to return with a flat bed cart, I take a little jaunt back over to the New York Strips I was eyeing earlier, mentally noting how long it's been since I enjoyed steak (Kitchen remodel has really turned my diet upside down - but hey, we now have an infinity of ways to use a crock pot!)
We buy it, along with our cart full of other Costco necessities and we head out to fine our needle in the haystack... Sorry, I mean out little tiny car. I make the necessary adjustments in folding the rear seats down, sliding both the driver and passenger seats forward and erecting their back rests as vertical as they'll go. We get the grill in, which nearly consumes the whole car, but the hatch closes... so we load all of our Costco goodies around the Traeger, like we're packing it for shipping.
We commute the remaining 40 miles home, but will likely need a chiropractor now. I unload it into the middle of the dining room... eventually anyway, as it's really just a storage area for our new appliances until the cabinets get installed. We eat, we sleep, we wake Saturday.
I assemble the Traeger to completion, but now it's time for us to head out to watch the NFL Playoffs with our friends... many of which are in my clan I mentioned above, who are eager to tell me everything they know about their Traegers. I appease and listen to them.... thinking, goodness, I haven't even done the initial burn in on it yet... until yesterday.
I get the grill outside, run through the initial firing instructions - then complete the burn in (I did an hour on high vs the 45 minutes). Remember those New York Strips... They're going to my test subject. The time between the initial burn in and dinner time, literally felt as if it was standing still... until it was time - to start cooking. I start the Traeger... smoke is on, close the door to get it to temp, I stand gawking at the smoke rolling out from underneath the China hat - it's a beautiful site. I smoke the New York Strips for 30 minutes, pull them off and get the grill up to high. I put them back on, turning once for a sum of 18 minutes, and bring them in to rest. They ended up being without question, the most successful, flavorful, medium rare New York Strip, we've ever ate. I'm sold - and am now a junior Traeger Nation aficionado.
I'm sitting at work here today, with a new love of SMF, smokers, smoking meat - thinking about the pork loins we have which were destined for the crock pot - HALT - not anymore :-)
This story is true, it's not intended to sway your decision from a GMG to a Traeger, however, it's to merely let you know, I believe wholeheartedly, with your budget of $1500, you'll be more than accepting of which ever you decide to purchase, the moment you taste your first (albeit successful) cook.
*Side notes: I currently own/use the aforementioned Smoke Hollow propane smoker (less lately), a Weber charcoal grill, and a Propane BBQ. Now, I'm considering Craigslisting 1, 2, or all 3. They each have their advantages to keep, but then again, I've been called a pack rat a time or two... The smoker, is still ultra portable (camping), the Weber - well, it's only used for Carne Asada - not sure how that will fare on a Traeger, and the propane BBQ - well, it has a side burner, which may be missed. Awesome huh - now I have more decisions to make.
Thank you for lending me your post, so I could have fun writing all of the above. Good luck in all of your endeavors - and don't forget "Yellow Mustard"! :-)
Hotwhls55
