Pit Boss-Traeger-Recteq best for the money.

[mike35549]

Here is my situation. I am gonna buy a pellet grill. Here is what I have narrowed it down to. Pit Boss Austin XL or something close $499. Traeger pro 34 $699. Recteq 590 $899. My question is for you guys that have seen and or used more than one of these grills is the Traeger $200 better than the pit boss and is the Recteq $200 better than the Traeger and $400 better than the Pit Boss. I could afford either but don’t want to waste money either. Just looking for the best longest lasting grill for the money. Help me out.

 

[mike35549]

Just to add something I do not have WiFi at home and probably never will. So if I get a grill with this feature it will not be used.

 

[ostrichsak]

IMHO RT-590 all day, every day. I've owned several (to include brands you've mentioned) and my only regret is not discovering Recteq sooner. The difference in cost of something you'll get the benefits of for years is a couple of briskets to put it into perspective.

 

[sawhorseray]

I don't have a pellet pooper. If I bought one it'd be a RecTec. RAY

 

[crippledcracker]

RecTec. If you don't mind spending quite a bit more cash, get a Yoder.

 

[Winterrider]

Traeger, wouldn't bother with unless maybe Timberline series.
PID controller on the RT. Set it and forget with very little temp swings. Owner of 590. Toss up whether I use that or my MES 40 with mailbox mod and PID controller more. Both excel at different things.

 

[bigfurmn]

I love my Pit Boss since I'm on a bit of a budget. It has done everything I've asked of it. If I had the money though I would get a RecTec.

 

[TNJAKE]

I have an Austin XL. Hundreds of cooks and over 3 years later not a single issue except heat rod going out. Pit boss sent a replacement overnight. I'd stay away from traeger. They are basically overpriced pitboss. Rec teq is a nice choice with several members owning one.

 

[retfr8flyr]

IMHO the Austin XL is the best bang for the buck currently available. It uses the older style controller but it still does a good job. There isn't another grill out there that will give you the capacity of the XL for anywhere near the price. There are a lot of very happy XL owners and it really does a good job. All of the less expensive grills work basically the same, so go for the extra capacity of the XL and don't look back.

 

[JWFokker]

Pit Boss has the best bang for the buck. Nothing wrong with the Austin XL except for temp stability. Pit Boss has primitive controllers, but a ton of good food was cooked before PID temp control became a common feature. Also, five year warranty.

Traeger is a waste of money, paying for the brand name. Any competing option is a better value than Traeger. Camp Chef, Grilla, etc.

You will get an endless number of recommendations for Rectec because the company inspires brand evangelism like Crossfit. They are compelled to talk about their Rectec and that's the only brand you should buy. In my opinion, the competition is just as good.

 

[sandyut]

Rec Tec. I would not recommend a T*****r.

 

[SlickRockStones]

Austin XL is the bang for buck grill especially at WM clearance price. Last I saw they’re now priced $397. I could care less about wifi and lower grade SS. Mine swings less than twenty degrees and the timer based controller belches smoke about every minuet and twenty with lighter smoke in between. Ceramic cast iron grates and a flame thrower slider on the drip pan. I ignore the PB displayed temps and run it with an inkbird remote thermo for in the ball park temps. It ain’t perfect with the dreaded hot spot that gets covered with water pan and no easy clean out. It’s been burning Bear Mt gourmet and LJ Char hickory mixed with no problems in the nine moths Ive had it. Food tastes great and the neighbors love the clean smokey bbq smells up and down the street.

 

[ostrichsak]

IMHO RT-590 all day, every day. I've owned several (to include brands you've mentioned) and my only regret is not discovering Recteq sooner. The difference in cost of something you'll get the benefits of for years is a couple of briskets to put it into perspective.

As much as I wanted to love this Recteq RT-590 (slightly smaller version fo the RT-700) I can no longer recommend Recteq in good conscious. I really really liked this thing when I first got it and I saw what all of the rave reviews were about. Unfortunately all Recteq WiFi smokers have a fatal flaw: The notifications will fail to work during high-demand times like holidays. These also tend to be the time when you MOST need your grills notifications to work. If I ruin meat on a random Tuesday when it's just the wife and I that sucks but at least I'm not letting a dozen family members, friends or both down. That's basically what happens. The notifications just quit working w/o warning. No alerts when your smoker hits the set temperature, no alerts if your temp strays to a temperature far from your set temp and (maybe most importantly) any temperature alerts you set for the meat probes also will not work.

Pure speculation: it seems to be during holiday weekends and times when more people want to use their smokers to prepare meals for friends and family. This leads me to believe that it's a bandwidth capacity issue on Recteq's end. I don't care what the details are that cause it to be honest. I just care that this seems to happen EVERY holiday weekend or other times when more people will be using their smokers (Super Bowl is another example I can think of) and need the notifications to work. This is one of the biggest reasons to even having a WiFI enabled grill in the first place so if this aspect isn't functional I would just have bought a less expensive smoker w/o this feature and planned accordingly. Instead, I paid more to have a smoker that has two meat probes that I place in the meat I'm smoking, set the desired temp and then go about my business. The problem is that no notifications happen. I would have to constantly check this manually either at the grill itself or via opening the app on a regular basis. Now that I know that, that is. The annoying part is how you find out the first (or in this case, second) time it ever happens.

Easter weekend I put a ham on that I wanted to double smoke and then honey glaze. No problem, fire the smoker up and once it hit temp I put the ham on and inserted the two meat probes. I set the alert for 140 degrees and went on about my business expecting to have delicious and perfectly cooked ham for my friends. What we ended up with was ham flavored leather since it blew past that into the 170's because I never got a notification.

If this was the only time this happened I would give them a pass. It isn't. It happened again previously during a high-demand weekend. I was told by Recteq customer service that it was the first time it had ever happened, they were aware of the problem, it would be addressed and that it wouldn't happen again. Wrong. The first time I ruined a pretty spendy dinner consisting of dry-aged prime ribs due to no alerts/notifications from the grill.

Shame on me for not paying more attention this time around and trusting when they said that it was a one-off issue they were aware of and would be correcting. I was sold a feature that came at a premium that doesn't work. Recteq's official stance appears to be a mixture of "Well, it's not like your smoker doesn't work w/o the WiFi feature" (which I paid for, BTW) and "We're aware of the issue and are fixing it so that it doesn't happen again" with not enough resources being put into the latter, obviously.

At this point, I'm not sure what I would even recommend. I sold several of these for RT to friends and family members based on how well built they are coupled with the advanced features and functionality... when it works. Now I've just got some unhappy friends and family who listened to me when I told them these grills from Recteq were good to go. I just know that I will now add Recteq to the list of manufacturers that I can no longer recommend and it looks like my search for the perfect smoker/grill begins anew, sadly.

 

[ken g]

I have owned my 590 for nearly two years. Love it, would buy another and spouse would approve wholeheartedly. The deal was cinched for me by Rec-Teq's 30 day money back guarantee. Don't like it, they refund your purchase price. What other pellet grill manufacturer does that? There is a PID controller and a lot of stainless steel that don't rust in the 590. You won't find that on the Pit Boss or Traeger. When you compare apples to apples, the decision is easy. The awesome Rec-Teq customer service is icing on the cake.

 

[IMAVGAN]

I have owned my 590 for nearly two years. Love it, would buy another and spouse would approve wholeheartedly. The deal was cinched for me by Rec-Teq's 30 day money back guarantee. Don't like it, they refund your purchase price. What other pellet grill manufacturer does that? There is a PID controller and a lot of stainless steel that don't rust in the 590. You won't find that on the Pit Boss or Traeger. When you compare apples to apples, the decision is easy. The awesome Rec-Teq customer service is icing on the cake.

All return policies sound great until you calculate the cost of shipping the grill back, so it’s not a truly a money back guarantee.

 

[sandyut]

All return policies sound great until you calculate the cost of shipping the grill back, so it’s not a truly a money back guarantee.

well this is what the warranty reads... they do make it right. countless stories of them doing so here and else where. Search it. Not sure about shipping the entire grill back - seems improbable and I wouldn't buy one based on if this was a consideration - kinda don t think anyone selling and shipping anything close to this big will offer free return shipping of the entire unit. But making sure the unit works as designed is what they will ensure.

• 3. Warranty

recteq offers the best warranty in the industry, bar none. The RT-700 comes with a 6-year bumper-to-bumper warranty that is absolutely unmatched by anyone in the industry. If you encounter a problem, we’re going to make it right. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s that simple.

 

[IMAVGAN]

The deal was cinched for me by Rec-Teq's 30 day mon

well this is what the warranty reads... they do make it right. countless stories of them doing so here and else where. Search it. Not sure about shipping the entire grill back - seems improbable and I wouldn't buy one based on if this was a consideration - kinda don t think anyone selling and shipping anything close to this big will offer free return shipping of the entire unit. But making sure the unit works as designed is what they will ensure.

I agree that's why I pointed out the fact that "Satisfaction or money back guarantees" should not be a point for deciding what to buy.

 

[schlotz]

Stay away from Traeger. Pit Boss is ok. Recteq is most likely the best choice of the three.