Well I can’t believe it but it’s been over a year since I went the pellet route. I’ve done about 30-40 cooks on the 1250 & for the most part I’m very happy with it. A few things I learned were:
1 - don’t use
recteq ultimate blend pellets, they don’t give much flavor or smoke. I found that I like LJ cherry, and LJ hickory, both 100% pure, no other hardwoods.
2 - use the low smoke setting on most foods for at least 2-3 hours. On many cooks I use the low smoke setting for the whole cook.
3 - RT customer service is top notch, #4 will explain this.
4 - the 1250 cover is a POS, mine cracked & got holes in it in about 6 months, also it is a PIA to put on & take off. Sent RT an email & got a message back the same day that a new cover was on the way, no questions asked. However I found a universal cover that I like better, so I have a brand new RT 1250 cover if I ever need it.
5 - the smoker is a tank, it looks to me like it will last a lifetime. The only thing I don’t know is how long the electronics will last, but if there is a problem I’m pretty sure that RT will keep me smokin. I do know for sure that the controller is spot on & the probes are too!
6 - they say to clean the ash pot every 16 hours, but I just vacuum it out every smoke. I also shake the dust off the pellets before putting them in the hopper, this keeps the dust off the food on a long cook. I know some say to leave the dust in the bottom of the barrel for more insulation, but I vacuum it out too.
7 - put the meat directly on the grate, don’t use a pan. This was hard for me, because I used to pan just about everything. But even just putting a grate on top of a pan restricts the airflow to the meat. I have found that with the extreme smoke setting & putting the meat directly on a grate, you don’t need any auxiliary smoke tubes. A bit more cleanup, but worth it in my book. You also get a bit of added flavor from the grease sizzling on the drip tray, much like an RF plate.
8 - use the top grate if possible, The way the smoker is designed there seems to be more smoke & air flow toward the top.
9- this goes without saying, use foil on the grease pan & grease bucket.
10 - I really like the way they designed the pellet hopper, it is split, so you can put your own blend in there. I use hickory on one side & cherry on the other. I still have some of the RT pellets left so on a long cook I will put some of them on top so toward the end I’m getting rid of them.
11 - when I first got the smoker I used the high setting to see what kind of temp it would put out, and it hit 700 degrees, but I didn’t like the way the smoker reacted. It seemed to be just too hot. So when I need a high heat sear or want to make a pizza, I use the Genesis, or my pizza kettle. 275 is about as high a temp that I run it at & even at that temp, you still get some pretty good TBS.
12 - In the end it is a fantastic smoker & I give it 4 1/2 stars and am very happy to have a pellet pooper as nice as this one!
Hope this will help anyone thinking about going pellet!
Al
www.recteq.com
