Best pellet smoker for newbie

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batman825

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2016
4
10
I'm new to smoking and I want to make ribs like my son does as well as other meats and fish.  What is the best pellet smoker for a newbie?  Thanks for your replys
 
Get ready for a flood of answers - and they all will be right. In the end, just about any pellet smoker is good for a newbie.

I have a PelletPro from Smoke Daddy. Had it for a little over a year and I love what I can do with it. Well built. Excellent value. Does a great job of smoking and grilling
 
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The GMG smokers are good too. They do several sizes to suit your individual needs.
 
Kind of depends on your Budget and how big it needs to be. The following are all about the same size... GMG $500 to $999. Rec Tec are popular at $1000. I have been looking hard at the Kuma Platinum SE but at $1800, there are a few other priorities. MAK 2 Star General is about as good as they get and for the $2600 price tag, they Better Be! How about a Memphis Elite, just shy of $4900...JJ
 
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After all the research I did, I decided on the GMG Daniel Boone.  On sale for $549.00.
 
I just got the daniel boone a few weeks ago. first thing i did was smoked 2 racks of baby back ribs.
I also did some burgers, i spatchcocked a chicken for the first time and for the 4th i tried my luck at an 8 pound brisket flat along with 6 racks of ribs.
I am as new as you can get and everything turned out great!

I bought the thermo blanket and had it on for the chicken and for the 4ths feast. By this time i purchased a maverick remote temp guage. I noticed that the temps are 25 to 35 degrees higher than what it says on the daniel boone. The meat probe however was within 2 degrees of the maverick.
Im going to test the smoker today with and without the cover on and see if that's why there was such a big discrepancy.
Dealer said to leave the blanket on year round for less pellet consumption so that's why i did. Maybe he's wrong?
Either way, you made a great choice!
 
I went from using a gas grill with a chip box for 5 years to a Yoder YS640. 

After looking at most pellet grills on the market I decided that I wanted to get something that was going to last. I had no interest in doing modifications and wanted something that would outlast me. It's been over two years and I know I made the correct choice.
 
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I agree - very cold temps at that.  In warmer weather the thermal blanket can retain too much heat in essence reducing the pellet flow to a point where the smoke flow is interrupted.  An exception to this is that there are "smoke modes" where the pellet feed is based on time rather than temp.  So in this case it would have no impact but the resulting temp may be higher than desired.
 
Hello and welcome, I am a newer addition to the forum. I also earlier this spring joined the pellet grill club. I did do quite a bit of research, I ended up with a Memphis Grill Elite. Have been nothing but happy with it. Using it 3-4 times a week, cooked various meats, bread, veggies, fruit and can't forget apple crisp :). I know Memphis makes ​three different versions I believe, this was the larger and more expensive of them, I found a leftover '15 model without WIFI which they now offer. I didn't see the need for that. I would highly suggest at least researching them to you, good luck in your search.
 
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This one's interesting. How do you swap out pellets? I didn't see anything on their site that

addresses this.
 
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