I wrote this up to share the info to some people on Facebook and I thought I’d share it here for people that may or may not know the difference. Although I’m guessing here most people do. Before I get slack I’m not giving my opinion on which one is better then another just the difference in controllers.
The biggest difference between Camp Chef, Pit Boss, Traeger and GMG Compared to the $1K+ grills likes Rec-Tec, Pellet Pro, Yoder, Memphis and I know I’m forgetting some.
The Controller the 1K+ grills have what is called a PID Controller ( Proportional, Integral, Derivative ) in short these grills have a temp probe in the cook chamber constantly reading the temp and relaying the data back to the controller which is then continually adjusting auger speed and blower fan to maintain your set temperature normally within +/- 5 degrees.
The lower priced grills may or may not have a digital temp readout on the controller and although this temperature is reading a sensor from somewhere within the grill ( Not sure where) the data is not sent back to the controller in order to control the auger and fan for maintaining chamber temperature. Most of them have a dial thermostat with pre labeled temps normally in increments of 25 – 50 degrees which can sometimes trick the owner into thinking they can set the dial to 250 and hold that temp. Don’t get me wrong some of them will hold pretty well but the company has preprogrammed these temp settings to control the auger. So say you have it set for 350 this is an example the auger might run for 10 seconds and off for 30 seconds. If you have the dial set for 225 the auger might run for 5 seconds and off for 45 seconds and the fan is blowing the entire temp. So the cook chamber temps of these grills will tend to run differently from the digital readout based on outdoor weather ( Air Temp, Humidity ) how much meat you have in and the temps of the meat, and the quality of the pellets used.
And of course the minor differences of metal thickness, type of metal ( etc., stainless ) hopper size and warranties.
The biggest difference between Camp Chef, Pit Boss, Traeger and GMG Compared to the $1K+ grills likes Rec-Tec, Pellet Pro, Yoder, Memphis and I know I’m forgetting some.
The Controller the 1K+ grills have what is called a PID Controller ( Proportional, Integral, Derivative ) in short these grills have a temp probe in the cook chamber constantly reading the temp and relaying the data back to the controller which is then continually adjusting auger speed and blower fan to maintain your set temperature normally within +/- 5 degrees.
The lower priced grills may or may not have a digital temp readout on the controller and although this temperature is reading a sensor from somewhere within the grill ( Not sure where) the data is not sent back to the controller in order to control the auger and fan for maintaining chamber temperature. Most of them have a dial thermostat with pre labeled temps normally in increments of 25 – 50 degrees which can sometimes trick the owner into thinking they can set the dial to 250 and hold that temp. Don’t get me wrong some of them will hold pretty well but the company has preprogrammed these temp settings to control the auger. So say you have it set for 350 this is an example the auger might run for 10 seconds and off for 30 seconds. If you have the dial set for 225 the auger might run for 5 seconds and off for 45 seconds and the fan is blowing the entire temp. So the cook chamber temps of these grills will tend to run differently from the digital readout based on outdoor weather ( Air Temp, Humidity ) how much meat you have in and the temps of the meat, and the quality of the pellets used.
And of course the minor differences of metal thickness, type of metal ( etc., stainless ) hopper size and warranties.