Louisiana champion or yoder YS640

[beej210]

Looking to consolidate my green mountain and my gas grill. The Louisiana Champion at costco looks awesome but can't find a ton of reviews on it. $1199 shipped. Smoking box on the side plus a sear station in the main compartment. Seems like I could do ribs and hamburgers at the same time (brisket would already be in the cooler). The other option is the Yoder YS640. These are the only 2 that I know of that really give you the opportunity to grill over a live flame and actually char something. I know the Yoder gets great reviews, but it's $1900 (with the accessories) vs $1199 and it doesn't appear you can smoke and grill at the same time like with the Louisiana.

Any opinions on either of these? This would be an all-in-one unit for me so it has to do everything well. Thanks!

 

[mike243]

good luck picking 1,lot of choices these days

 

[sweetride95]

I'm always fearful of "all in one" machines. It always seems to compromise something, somewhere.
The Louisiana seems to have decent amount of OK to not OK reviews. I would be very cautious.
I would say Camp Chef with sear box, but CC has been unpopular here lately. It's hard recommending anything.

 

[oldsmokerdude]

I've owned one of the Louisiana Champion grills for a year now. I think it's a great smoker and can't think of anything bad to say about it. I've cooked everything from burgers to steaks to brisket to ribs to chicken with good success. While I have yet to use the cold smoke chamber I do notice the temps in there are right where you would want them to be (assuming a cool enough ambient temperature). I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.

 

[Scooter Trash]

Looking to consolidate my green mountain and my gas grill. The Louisiana Champion at costco looks awesome but can't find a ton of reviews on it. $1199 shipped. Smoking box on the side plus a sear station in the main compartment. Seems like I could do ribs and hamburgers at the same time (brisket would already be in the cooler). The other option is the Yoder YS640. These are the only 2 that I know of that really give you the opportunity to grill over a live flame and actually char something. I know the Yoder gets great reviews, but it's $1900 (with the accessories) vs $1199 and it doesn't appear you can smoke and grill at the same time like with the Louisiana.

Any opinions on either of these? This would be an all-in-one unit for me so it has to do everything well. Thanks!

Hello, I signed up just so I could respond to your post. First off, I am a stick burner guy and have been for many years... IMHO you simply cant beat the flavor etc. In March 2017, I decided to purchase a pellet smoker so I could free up my day, stick burners have to be somewhat watched the entire time. After MANY months of research, I decided on a Yoder YS-640. I had a lot of issues with the equipment and it was like pulling teeth to get things done. Long story short, I sold it for half of what I paid for it...it was the most frustrating experience I ever had...I rarely give reviews and that was my first negative review ever! My nephew bought the 480 and had the same experience...his was sold to one of the guys that was interested in mine on Craigslist. I can attest to the fact that Yoder will NOT allow a negative review on their website so, buyer beware. I have lots of friends and family that own various brands and models of pellet smokers, we have not had any issues with Rec-Tec, Pitboss, Treager etc. I was buying LJ pellets by the Ton and just recently went to Pit Boss pellets...having excellent luck with them! Best of luck to you and be careful what you read from manufacturers website...they are heavily skewed.

 

[jlud]

I looked at the Yoder website and found some negatives and some replies from Herb. I looked at Rec Tec and found zero negatives on any grill or ANY accessory...all were 5 stars. Having said that I felt Yoder was more likely to be honest based on allowing some not so positive posts.

Disappointed to hear your issues as my 640 arrives on Tuesday. I’ll take any lessons learned..

 

[SlowmotionQue]

If you want to find negative reviews of Rec Tec items, well then like Yoder, you won't find very many, if any, on the company site, which only makes sense. Neither company needs some non owner or disgruntled owner trolling their site, so I blame neither company for the approach that they take on any restrictions to negative reviews of their products. No need to endure having your products bad mouthed on your own site.

If one wants to find negative reviews of Rec Tec and Yoder products, then perhaps one place to look may be on social media sites where actual discussion of their products and postings from actual owners are likely to be present. From there one can judge the legitimacy of some of the complaints for themselves.

 

[Scooter Trash]

I'm glad some real world reviews are getting out! My friends and family have just about every brand (not model) of pellet smoker ever sold and they all have an issue from time to time. I used my Yoder for 19 months and wasn't impressed but, the cabinet was very well built with the exception of the lid fit. Purchased a Pit Boss Austin XL when my daughter came for Christmas and requested some smoked foods, I really like the amount of smoke that thing puts out as opposed to the Yoder. My gripe with the 640 was that as much trouble I had with it, it was not a set it and forget it deal like the Pit Boss is. I used smokin weggie ?? and other means of injecting smoke flavor with the Yoder and dont have to with the XL...took too much time to actually get started with the cooking process...in my book I could get better results with my stick burner if I had to babysit the darn thing all day. I probably smoke three times a week, even in the winter so, if it wont work as advertised it ends up on Craigslist! I tell all my buddies that if Yoder had a controller that allowed lots of smoke like Pit Boss...they would have something!

The guy who purchased my 640 has two of them now and cooks for events in the KC area, he obviously likes them! Hope you enjoy your new pit...keep us posted.

 

[Scooter Trash]

If you want to find negative reviews of Rec Tec items, well then like Yoder, you won't find very many, if any, on the company site, which only makes sense. Neither company needs some non owner or disgruntled owner trolling their site, so I blame neither company for the approach that they take on any restrictions to negative reviews of their products. No need to endure having your products bad mouthed on your own site.

If one wants to find negative reviews of Rec Tec and Yoder products, then perhaps one place to look may be on social media sites where actual discussion of their products and postings from actual owners are likely to be present. From there one can judge the legitimacy of some of the complaints for themselves.

Oh, one word of caution...on long cooks the auger tends to back burn which I'm sure could eventually catch the hopper on fire. I had a 22 hour cook with brisket, when I got up in the morning and looked things over I saw ever so slight smoke coming out of the hopper...got very lucky!!

 

[jlud]

I’ve gone through all Facebook media and company forums for both. Rec Tec even told me in an email to look at Amazon reviews as they couldn’t control those....thus admitting they scrub and control their own. To me I saw what I felt were more honest and representative views with Yoder, and they are made in the USA which I like. I will also say my company has a facility in Augusta where the only Rec Tec location is, and I asked a few people about them. They all had extremely positive things to say about the support and product.

Either way I’m over thinking it and they probably both make a great product. It’s a body, controller, hopper, and a firebox not rocket science. They were very similar in price points by the time added accessories to get them equal, but I did add fireboard which I can use for other cooking. Maybe I’ll get Rec Tec to ship me a bull for free and do a cook off? Lol...now that would be sweet.

 

[Scooter Trash]

I’ve gone through all Facebook media and company forums for both. Rec Tec even told me in an email to look at Amazon reviews as they couldn’t control those....thus admitting they scrub and control their own. To me I saw what I felt were more honest and representative views with Yoder, and they are made in the USA which I like. I will also say my company has a facility in Augusta where the only Rec Tec location is, and I asked a few people about them. They all had extremely positive things to say about the support and product.

Either way I’m over thinking it and they probably both make a great product. It’s a body, controller, hopper, and a firebox not rocket science. They were very similar in price points by the time added accessories to get them equal, but I did add fireboard which I can use for other cooking. Maybe I’ll get Rec Tec to ship me a bull for free and do a cook off? Lol...now that would be sweet.

Yep, I live about three hours from ATB (Yoder), if you ever get a chance to pop in there and look at their stick burners...they build some really solid smokers! I think you can have good and bad experiences with any pellet smoker...it comes down to what you want and how much patience you have. Yea that would be nice to have a fleet of smokers so you can use them head to head for a real review!