Louisiana Grills SL1000 Pellet Grill..opinon

[tx smoker]

Well buddy, I was gonna stay out of this but thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences with you. I got the Rec Tec RT700 several years ago and it has been absolutely bullet proof. No issues at all and has performed flawlessly since day 1. Yes, there are cheaper cookers out there but I've always believed that you get what you pay for. I got a good one and have been thrilled with it. Here's a little experience I gained from hanging out here in the forum. If you start small and inexpensive then get hooked on it (which is gonna happen) then you're gonna want to upgrade to a better unit....and possibly an even better one after that. In the long run you're far better off and will spend much less money is you get a good one up front versus buying 2 or 3 of them over a short period of time.

Robert

 

[clifish]

Well buddy, I was gonna stay out of this but thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences with you. I got the Rec Tec RT700 several years ago and it has been absolutely bullet proof. No issues at all and has performed flawlessly since day 1. Yes, there are cheaper cookers out there but I've always believed that you get what you pay for. I got a good one and have been thrilled with it. Here's a little experience I gained from hanging out here in the forum. If you start small and inexpensive then get hooked on it (which is gonna happen) then you're gonna want to upgrade to a better unit....and possibly an even better one after that. In the long run you're far better off and will spend much less money is you get a good one up front versus buying 2 or 3 of them over a short period of time.

Robert

I hear you Robert, no doubt I am into the smoking...obviously. It all started with a $30 used MES knock off. Then this forum and then came 2 griddles, pizza oven, kettle...you know. The more I am looking into this I am not sure pellet is the way to go. I love the flavor coming off the kettle so am researching gravity feeds. I just looked at the the MB 1050 (costco has the 850 now for $549. I would really like to see the chargriller but none of the lowes have one near me.

I am in no rush, will wait for a sale a used one, If I pull the trigger I will move the MES and the Kettle to PA where I usually have more time to babysit as happy hour usually starts way earlier up there than NY...lol

 

[jeffgarret]

So, the grill did admirably over the long weekend. Saturday I did an 11lb turkey. Was a 4.5 hour cook at 270. The grill was really consistent on temp, when I put a digital thermometer probe in the very middle of the grill the temp was usually 5 +- what the grills reading said. When I put two probes in on opposite sides of the grill the readings were about 15 degrees apart, not a surprise as I had read that about this grill. So, I kept the turkey right in the middle.

Towards the end of the cook the wind kicked up quite a bit and the grill did spike in temperature +30 degrees or so at first. Wanting to see how the grill would respond I resisted the temptation to panic and within 5-10 minutes the grill figured it out and the temps came down and settled back in the right range.

The turkey tasted amazing.

Yesterday I smoked 4 rack of ribs at 225 for 5.5 hours and they turned out spectacularly. To account for the temp differential from right to left I would rotate the ribs every time I sprayed them and that seemed to work well.

So, I'm still impressed with this $400 grill. The temps do swing up and down put the grill does a good job of adjusting and overall I felt pretty good about just leaving it alone. Of course this is in 70-80 degree weather which is pretty ideal.