I've been using smokers for the better part of 10 years now. I have used offset stick-burners, CookShack electric, and most recently a Traeger.
While the Traeger did fine on most of the cooks I did with it, it did leave me stranded without fire a couple times. The last time [Memorial Day] I had 30 pounds of meat and no heat/smoke. I couldn't get it to work at all [previously I was able to coax it into working], so I vowed never to use it again. Fortunately, my buddy has a Traeger, as well - he let me use his and saved the say.
The other thing I didn't like about the Traeger is that it didn't get hot enough to sear. I want to cook steaks on the same rig as I use for smoking. Just a convenience factor, and I hate filling propane for my gas grill.
I am fairly certain that I've settled on the Yoder brand - from reading reviews it seems that they are well-built and reliable. And if they get up to 600 degrees, they should do fine with steaks and burgers.
This is not intended to bash Traeger - I got a lot of miles out of mine, and it mostly worked great. Just looking for something different this time.
Cheers,
-BC
While the Traeger did fine on most of the cooks I did with it, it did leave me stranded without fire a couple times. The last time [Memorial Day] I had 30 pounds of meat and no heat/smoke. I couldn't get it to work at all [previously I was able to coax it into working], so I vowed never to use it again. Fortunately, my buddy has a Traeger, as well - he let me use his and saved the say.
The other thing I didn't like about the Traeger is that it didn't get hot enough to sear. I want to cook steaks on the same rig as I use for smoking. Just a convenience factor, and I hate filling propane for my gas grill.
I am fairly certain that I've settled on the Yoder brand - from reading reviews it seems that they are well-built and reliable. And if they get up to 600 degrees, they should do fine with steaks and burgers.
This is not intended to bash Traeger - I got a lot of miles out of mine, and it mostly worked great. Just looking for something different this time.
Cheers,
-BC
