Amnps and traeger pellets

[Craveman85]

Any of you guys having problems with traeger pellets and the amnps? I have the Apple ones and barely get any smoke and not really any flavor from them. I have the mailbox mod and they seem to keep going out . I lit both ends and did some ribs the other day and you could barely trade the smoke .

 

[hank2000]

Traeger pellets don’t produce much smoke and really don’t burn well in the amps. I have a traeger and an Amps I use traeger pellets in my traeger for fuil to make heat and Todd pellets for smoke in my amps or my tube

 

[normanaj]

The traeger apple pellets work very well in my AMNTS.Just the basic u-bolt mod and straight into the smoker it goes.I get about 3hrs of good smoke out of the 6" tube using the traeger applewood pellets.

 

[daveomak]

Flame consumes smoke... add the smoke to the cooking chamber...

 

[chopsaw]

I use Traeger pellets in a 12" tube with a mailbox . Huffs like a freight train goin up hill . Great color and good smoke flavor . I have to watch it , or it gets to much smoke .

 

[muddydogs]

From what I have been experiencing in the mailbox mod using Lumberjack pellets is they burn a lot better and put out better smoke in a tube over the tray. I'm thinking that the tube has more volume so more pellets are lit initially which helps keep things smoking. I just picked up 2 12" square tubes off Amazon and built one 18" tube out of them for longer smokes, I use the 12" for 8 ish hour smokes and have a 6" tube that gets me about 4 hours of smoke.

I messed with air flow through my mailbox because that's all you read on posts about the tray not working but it sure seemed like I had plenty of air flow when I first put the tray in the box before it slowed down. Finally got my first tube and tried it in the mailbox and could tell right away that there was plenty of air flow as the smoke rolled right along and when I look through the air vents in the front of the mailbox its drafting great. Even 4 hours in on a 6" tube when its about burned out the smoke is still drafting well inside the mailbox.

So I really think its more the tray then the pellets and would suggest you try a tube.

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

It is my understanding that Traeger uses flavor oils with their pellets rather than just using the wood you think you are burning for the smoke flavor. For example, your Traeger apple pellets may be of some kind of hard wood that is not apple but an "apple" flavor oil is used for imparting apple-like smoke flavor.

I buy 100% Lumberjack woods. So 100% Lumberjack Apple pellets are nothing but apple wood with no fillers or flavor oils or anything other than the wood on the label.

Other brands will claim a certain wood type but really they are selling a blend. For example Pacific Pellet brand Mesquite pellets are a blend of like 75% Alder 25% Mesquite pellets. So even there you aren't getting 100% of the pellet on the label, you are getting a less expensive hard wood mixed with the pellets on the label.

Blends aren't a bad thing if that is what you intend to buy BUT nothing beats buying 100% wood pellets of the kind you are looking for and then mixing with other 100% pellets to make your own blends the way you like them.

One of my favorite for things like bacon or sausage is 70% Apple and 30% Hickory. The possibilities are endless :)

 

[chopsaw]

Hi there and welcome!

It is my understanding that Traeger uses flavor oils with their pellets rather than just using the wood you think you are burning for the smoke flavor. For example, your Traeger apple pellets may be of some kind of hard wood that is not apple but an "apple" flavor oil is used for imparting apple-like smoke flavor.

I buy 100% Lumberjack woods. So 100% Lumberjack Apple pellets are nothing but apple wood with no fillers or flavor oils or anything other than the wood on the label.

Other brands will claim a certain wood type but really they are selling a blend. For example Pacific Pellet brand Mesquite pellets are a blend of like 75% Alder 25% Mesquite pellets. So even there you aren't getting 100% of the pellet on the label, you are getting a less expensive hard wood mixed with the pellets on the label.

Blends aren't a bad thing if that is what you intend to buy BUT nothing beats buying 100% wood pellets of the kind you are looking for and then mixing with other 100% pellets to make your own blends the way you like them.


One of my favorite for things like bacon or sausage is 70% Apple and 30% Hickory. The possibilities are endless :)

I buy Traeger oak pellets . The label says " 100% Oak "

 

[tallbm]

I buy Traeger oak pellets . The label says " 100% Oak "

Thanks for the info, I don't doubt one bit that you have 100% oak pellets there form Traeger :)
According to the following post, if you are on the east coast the wood used for Traeger pellets is 100% Oak and on west coast it is 100% Alder. The post also mentions that flavor oils are used for some "flavors" and that some other options are blends of the various woods.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/new-info-on-whats-in-traeger-pellets.116254/

Things may have changed since the time of the post, and I didn't speak directly to Traeger, so please take this info as it is. There are more posts of info like this that members have provided here on the forums and there is info posted elsewhere online just like this.

Info like this is where I am getting my understanding from, no insider knowledge on my part :)

The good news about the 100% Oak Traeger pellets is that Traeger seems to have a pure Oak option for those looking for one.

I did some looking online in the past and I believe that Camp Chef uses Alder as their base wood (they do blends) so when I wanted 100% Alder I just bought their Alder option lol :D

I hope this info helps shed some light on where I was coming from with my previous comments :)

 

[muddydogs]

Not all Lumberjack pellets are 100% one wood either, They blend with Red Oak on some of there's granted they do have a good list of 100%ers.

Who can really say which pellets are better? Traeger uses flavor oil in there wood, Lumberjack claims the bark is were the flavor's at. I know oils from many plants are way more potent then the actual plant due to the oil being more concentrated.

There are also internet arguments about brand but I have yet to see where the pellet sellers get there pellets, if its like most everything these days there's just a couple manufactures and all these sellers are just rebranding the same pellets to sell. Until a seller steps up and actually gives up the info on there pellets I'm purchasing the cheapest all wood pellets I can find and right now its Lumberjack in my area, if I get in a bind and need some the local sports store sells Camp Chef and Smokehouse pellets for a good price that smoke just fine.

 

[wbf610]

I ordered lumberjack pellets a few weeks back, apple and cherry. Both bags says 100% Apple and Cherry.

 

[tallbm]

One of my favorite thing about Lumberjack pellets besides them having a lot of 100% pure wood options is that you can get sampler variety packs! Places like "BBQ Pellets Online" allow you to mix and match the 3, 4, and 10 pound bag options where the 7 one pound bag options are fixed with the ability to add a couple of blend options at the end.

Yeah the price is a little expensive compared to getting a 20 or 40 pound bag of pellets BUT as a one time purchase to try all kinds of 100% woods you may not have easy access to, I think it is well worth the purchase!

Getting the 7 one pound bag variety pack let me try 100% Apple, Cherry, and Maple for the first time. For many it would be their first time to try Mesquite and Pecan. Also you can play around a little bit with making your own blends (70% Apple/30% Hickory, or 50/50 Cherry and Pecan, etc.), or try a high quality competition style blend like the Maple Hickory Cherry (MHC) blend they provide in the sample pack.

I was hesitant to do it at first because of the higher price but I'm glad I did because I was able to experiment and start my journey on pair different woods with different meats and making my own custom combos. Also it is hard to find a 100% Mesquite option and man once you go are doing TBS with Mesquite on Beef Briskets or Chuck Roasts you will be amazed at the flavor! :)

I hope this info helps :)