So there are always a lot of questions from new smokers who just purchased the latest, greatest pellet grill, with some out of this world controller with multiple meat probes, Wifi, The thing is a programmable oven, that I can keep an eye on via my smart phone while the wife shops shoes in the shopping center. Great right? Well kinda. What we have are new grill owners believing they have bought a set and forget style cooker, an oven. This is true to a point.
while the cooker will hold itself on a temp range and feed itself fuel, what most new pellet cookers don’t understand, and I don’t think the instructions detail, is that the cooker must “settle in” on the temp before you just walk away from it.
Here is the meat and potatoes. Most Pellet grills have a default on start up in the computer board that runs the cooker up to the 350* range on initial start up. This is important for the grill/smokers operation. The pit must get warm, this means all the steel, thin as it is, must get hot prior to settling down into your set temp. This is why the default is about 350*F. The manufacturer can’t know if you are lighting that grill at ambient 95* or 0*F, so a nice hot default is set.
Now, once fired up, you need to let that grill go hot and warm up. Then and only then can you change the temp and cool it down. For those new guys who insist on cooking at 225*, there is yet another step. Let the cooker go high and warm up, then adjust the temp to 275*. Let the pit cool down and settle in there. Once that happens, set the temp lower to 225* or whatever, again let it settle in and steady on that temp. This process takes about an hour or so to get the pit from start up of 350* down to 225* and settling in. If you will be patient and allow the pit to get to temp in stages, you will have no more flame outs.
This isn’t your wife’s kitchen oven, though over the long haul it basically acts like one, but it’s not just setting the temp and walking away. This is a machine with AI (artificial intelligence) type tech, in the sense that it can smartly hold temps wherever you set them, but you need to let that pit gradually set in on the lower temps. If you want high grilling temps for burgers, steak or even pizza, it’s not near as much trouble to run from 350*-500* after all its marketed as a “grill”. But low slow needs more planning, preparation and patience. They will all low and slow reliably, you just have to let them work in stages down to temp, not all at once. By default these machines are Grills, Not low slow smokers. They will do it, but you must allow time and patience to get them settled in there.
Hope this helps you pellet grillers out in understanding the machine.
while the cooker will hold itself on a temp range and feed itself fuel, what most new pellet cookers don’t understand, and I don’t think the instructions detail, is that the cooker must “settle in” on the temp before you just walk away from it.
Here is the meat and potatoes. Most Pellet grills have a default on start up in the computer board that runs the cooker up to the 350* range on initial start up. This is important for the grill/smokers operation. The pit must get warm, this means all the steel, thin as it is, must get hot prior to settling down into your set temp. This is why the default is about 350*F. The manufacturer can’t know if you are lighting that grill at ambient 95* or 0*F, so a nice hot default is set.
Now, once fired up, you need to let that grill go hot and warm up. Then and only then can you change the temp and cool it down. For those new guys who insist on cooking at 225*, there is yet another step. Let the cooker go high and warm up, then adjust the temp to 275*. Let the pit cool down and settle in there. Once that happens, set the temp lower to 225* or whatever, again let it settle in and steady on that temp. This process takes about an hour or so to get the pit from start up of 350* down to 225* and settling in. If you will be patient and allow the pit to get to temp in stages, you will have no more flame outs.
This isn’t your wife’s kitchen oven, though over the long haul it basically acts like one, but it’s not just setting the temp and walking away. This is a machine with AI (artificial intelligence) type tech, in the sense that it can smartly hold temps wherever you set them, but you need to let that pit gradually set in on the lower temps. If you want high grilling temps for burgers, steak or even pizza, it’s not near as much trouble to run from 350*-500* after all its marketed as a “grill”. But low slow needs more planning, preparation and patience. They will all low and slow reliably, you just have to let them work in stages down to temp, not all at once. By default these machines are Grills, Not low slow smokers. They will do it, but you must allow time and patience to get them settled in there.
Hope this helps you pellet grillers out in understanding the machine.
