Best Pellet Grill Under $3k

[cgraz1187]

Currenty have a Traeger Texas Pro that is a few years old, it is getting tired, and I am looking to upgrade. I have looked at Zgrill and CampChef, and I am wondering what the absolute best pellet grill under $3000 is out there. I would definitely like Wifi ability.

 

[mike243]

Welcome, there are several that would be in that range, I have no idea but folks that own them will be thru and can give some good advice

 

[Thomas The Tank]

Rec Tec! Got a BFG and 340, love them both! Can’t beat the CS and the warranty’s!

 

[fivetricks]

for that price range I would guarantee that Yoder and rec tec are going to be the ones that get recommended to you. So you may as well start researching them first :-)

 

[civilsmoker]

For that coin you can probably get into a Memphis Wood Fire Grill. If you can swing a Pro Model you won’t regret it!

 

[jmtyndall]

Not sure why people would recommend you things like Z-grills and RecTec when you have the budget for things like Yoder, Pitts and Spitts or MAK.

I mean I love my Grilla, but you could have 3 fully decked out Silverbac's for your budget so you might as well invest that into a heavy-duty top-tier grill. Now...if you want to spend less, then I think the Silverbac offers a great value with regards to the features and cooking space you get compared to how much it costs.

 

[ttkt57]

If I had $2,999 and enough room I would buy a Maverick 2000 from Pitts and Spitts.

Some grills are for BBQ with family and friends, some are for competitions, and some are for church picnics in Muleshoe and Rotary Club cookouts in Lazbuddie. If your brother-in-law isn't a welder who's willing to make you something special in his shop in Waco, this is a close second I think, or it at least it has more of that "real Texas" feel to it than any other production brand I know of.

Maverick 2000 Wood Pellet Grill - Pitts & Spitts

The carbon steel cooking chamber is made of 7 and 10 gauge carbon steel. This grill comes standard with our signature 304 stainless steel lid and work shelf. Pellet grill purchase comes with four free bags of wood pellets. Use code 4FREEPELLETS at checkout. STANDARD ACCESSORIES Trap door drip...

pittsandspitts.com

 

[matt92037]

I love my Yoder but living 4 blocks from the beach i am getting lots of rust. Though rusting, it will still last forever. I would probably go with a Pitts and Spilts if i could do it all over, the stainless lid would help keep the rust in check.

 

[norwestie]

Mak Two Star General, no doubts.

 

[ostrichsak]

I second the Rec Teq recommendation. I don't know about $3k but I'm pretty happy with my sub-$1k investment for an RT-590 so far. Granted, I haven't even done a smoke on it yet but after inspection, assembly and the burn-in this thing is top notch compared to previous smokers that I thought were pretty good. If it cooks half as good as it's constructed this will be the last smoker I ever need to buy. With the budget you're talking about you can get the Cadillac with ALL the bells & whistles!

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

Yoder or RecTec. I have the 590 and am absolutely thrilled... I'm really interested in hearing from someone who has a Yoder though... so get one of those and let us know!

 

[ttkt57]

No list of Tier 1 pellet grills is complete unless it includes Outlaw. The designer--an engineer with a degree in physics and a background at Micron--started with a solid 11-gauge pit, re-engineered a Yoder-style burn pot and short auger, did extensive airflow analysis, wrote new firmware code, and basically welded up a real contender. These are made 20 minutes from my house; gratifying to see skilled American welders and fabricators working up here in Idaho.

 

[grandpax4]

Mak Two Star General, no doubts.

Absolutely agree!!

 

[sandyut]

Rec Tec is a great option that will leave you a significant amount of beer money after. I love mine.

MAK are great looking units and I am never heard of issues or complaints, but it will use all the budget. MAK was on my list but the cost ran too high for me.

 

[ostrichsak]

I second the Rec Teq recommendation. I don't know about $3k but I'm pretty happy with my sub-$1k investment for an RT-590 so far. Granted, I haven't even done a smoke on it yet but after inspection, assembly and the burn-in this thing is top notch compared to previous smokers that I thought were pretty good. If it cooks half as good as it's constructed this will be the last smoker I ever need to buy. With the budget you're talking about you can get the Cadillac with ALL the bells & whistles!

As much as I wanted to love this Recteq RT-590 (slightly smaller version fo the RT-700) I can no longer recommend Recteq in good conscious. I really really liked this thing when I first got it and I saw what all of the rave reviews were about. Unfortunately all Recteq WiFi smokers have a fatal flaw: The notifications will fail to work during high-demand times like holidays. These also tend to be the time when you MOST need your grills notifications to work. If I ruin meat on a random Tuesday when it's just the wife and I that sucks but at least I'm not letting a dozen family members, friends or both down. That's basically what happens. The notifications just quit working w/o warning. No alerts when your smoker hits the set temperature, no alerts if your temp strays to a temperature far from your set temp and (maybe most importantly) any temperature alerts you set for the meat probes also will not work.

Pure speculation: it seems to be during holiday weekends and times when more people want to use their smokers to prepare meals for friends and family. This leads me to believe that it's a bandwidth capacity issue on Recteq's end. I don't care what the details are that cause it to be honest. I just care that this seems to happen EVERY holiday weekend or other times when more people will be using their smokers (Super Bowl is another example I can think of) and need the notifications to work. This is one of the biggest reasons to even having a WiFI enabled grill in the first place so if this aspect isn't functional I would just have bought a less expensive smoker w/o this feature and planned accordingly. Instead, I paid more to have a smoker that has two meat probes that I place in the meat I'm smoking, set the desired temp and then go about my business. The problem is that no notifications happen. I would have to constantly check this manually either at the grill itself or via opening the app on a regular basis. Now that I know that, that is. The annoying part is how you find out the first (or in this case, second) time it ever happens.

Easter weekend I put a ham on that I wanted to double smoke and then honey glaze. No problem, fire the smoker up and once it hit temp I put the ham on and inserted the two meat probes. I set the alert for 140 degrees and went on about my business expecting to have delicious and perfectly cooked ham for my friends. What we ended up with was ham flavored leather since it blew past that into the 170's because I never got a notification.

If this was the only time this happened I would give them a pass. It isn't. It happened again previously during a high-demand weekend. I was told by Recteq customer service that it was the first time it had ever happened, they were aware of the problem, it would be addressed and that it wouldn't happen again. Wrong. The first time I ruined a pretty spendy dinner consisting of dry-aged prime ribs due to no alerts/notifications from the grill.

Shame on me for not paying more attention this time around and trusting when they said that it was a one-off issue they were aware of and would be correcting. I was sold a feature that came at a premium that doesn't work. Recteq's official stance appears to be a mixture of "Well, it's not like your smoker doesn't work w/o the WiFi feature" (which I paid for, BTW) and "We're aware of the issue and are fixing it so that it doesn't happen again" with not enough resources being put into the latter, obviously.

At this point, I'm not sure what I would even recommend. I sold several of these for RT to friends and family members based on how well built they are coupled with the advanced features and functionality... when it works. Now I've just got some unhappy friends and family who listened to me when I told them these grills from Recteq were good to go. I just know that I will now add Recteq to the list of manufacturers that I can no longer recommend and it looks like my search for the perfect smoker/grill begins anew, sadly.

 

[NBK]

Recteq...

 

[NoCoPK360]

If I was willing to spend 3k I would buy a Pitts and Spits, Mak, or Outlaw. I'm sure the RecTec is a decent piece of equipment but I don't think it's in the same ball park as the others which is reflected in the price. I have a Weber Smokefire myself and love it but it's more of a middle of the road price point so I don't expect it to last for a decade or more which I would if I spent 3k.

 

[schlotz]

Did my research 7 years ago not wanting to climb the smoking equipment ladder with repeated purchases, which ends up costing more in the long run. Back then it turned out MAK was by far one of the top performers, and after smoking on one for the last seven years, they are still at the top of the list. These units are highly engineered, extremely well built and consistently perform. Their customer service is the gold standard.

 

[kstone113]

I have zero zero zero regrets on getting the RecTeq Bull with a bunch of accessories.

If I had that budget(I was close but wanted lower), I would look at RecTeq, Yoder, Mak and Pitts and Smith. I always hear great things about Mak and Pitts and Smith and they seem to be like the best of the best materials wise and production wise.

Yoder is more than RecTeq and I just couldn't wrap my head around the grill rusting which will happen. If I did have a covered area though, I might of considered Yoder more.

I personally think RecTeq is just the best bang for your buck that not only will last, they guarantee it on the Bull for 6 years bumper to bumper. I've already had a few interactions with their support and they are the best support I've ever dealt with in ANY industry.

I did want to mention the alerting issue with the app mentioned above. I too have had issues with the app alerting. I can't exactly remember but they did re-vamp the app and the alerting has been a ton better. I can't say it works all the time b/c I have had issues but I believe it has worked everytime since they re-vamped it. But I do believe the poster above about just this past Easter. Maybe other pellet grill companies have done better? I don't know b/c no experience but before I had my pellet, I had an aftermarket maverick RF thermometer for alerting and I haven't used once since I got my RecTeq over 2 years ago. A few times I got lucky I was up already and sometime I've just been watching and didn't work. But I have had it wake me up before also. Can I count on it, I won't say 100% but like I said, I haven't been so concerned that I used my old maverick which still works. So that says something. If you have no backup from a previous smoker, then maybe this tilts the scale to another company that has done a better job with the alerting working.

I would research these 4 companies but remember, a pellet grill is a pellet grill and they all give the same lighter smoker flavor than any other smoker using real wood/charcoal. Part of that is the pellets but also part of it is the fan that keeps the smoke moving. So any company that pretends to give more smoke flavor than the other is lying in my opinion.

Good luck with your research!

 

[Apparition]

I currently have a MAK 2 Star on order. The 1 star is also an option if you want to keep the price down.