Recteq 590 Owners

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kevin pitzer

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 3, 2015
70
12
Michigan
Looking quite a bit at purchasing the Recteq RT 590 and would like to hear from recent owners of this grill. I hear a lot of good things, but would like to also hear the bad.
Could you please post the pros/cons of this unit? I am concerned about smoking in MI colder weather and wondering how it maintains temps in the cold.
 
I have the 590. Overall a good smoker. I been having some food probe issues but I normal use my Inkbird for this. For me pellets don't give enough smoke flavor so I use a smoke tube with chips mixed with pellets inside smoker but that a personal preference.
 
I have the 590. Overall a good smoker. I been having some food probe issues but I normal use my Inkbird for this. For me pellets don't give enough smoke flavor so I use a smoke tube with chips mixed with pellets inside smoker but that a personal preference.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Out of curiosity what kind of probe issues have you been having?
 
Kevin, I don't official have a recteq, but I did go through the decision process and did choose to get a 1250. I very strongly consider the 590 but ultimately wanted a bit larger for my needs. I don't have first hand knowledge (yet), but did take the recommendation of other owners like BrianGSDTexoma BrianGSDTexoma sandyut sandyut and tx smoker tx smoker at their word because getting a smoker is an important decision, its also very personal to your individual needs (ie I used my pellet several times a week). The things that stood out to me are the stainless cook chamber (My retiring smoker is full stainless which is a huge plus for longevity and maintenance), the ceramic ignitor, hopper size, hopper/fire pot location/layout (the 700/1250 are a bit different from the 590) customer service (I emailed with several questions and they responded within an hour), shipping to the house (with in 10 days), and the weight (my soon to be 1250 is 220 lbs which is considerably heavier than my current smoker, ie more mass means more steel). Lastly, based on the recteq following and warrantee, and 30 day return all point to a good product in my mind..... Good luck with your decision!

PS I'm not affiliated with RT in anyway just sharing what was part of my decision process.
 
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590 owner, and as Brian stated I also use an extra smoke tube for additional smoke for a couple hrs. I had an issue recently where the app was not responding to my temp change while out on the golf course but haven't used it since. It has been very reliable otherwise. It does take quite awhile to get to higher temps. I did steaks at low temp for smoke and then pulled them off while temp raised to 450° to sear. It was almost 20 mins to get there from 180°. Highly recommended though.
 
I have a 700 and not 590 but the basics of why I like it are the same. Good smoker that maintains a steady temp. I’ve had some probe issues also and the smoke flavor is not as strong as wood chunks on my kamado Joe. But I use the recteq for quick weekday meals and the kamado Joe for the weekend. Hard to beat how easy the recteq is. Truly set it and forget it. And it puts out fantastic food.
 
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590 owner here and if you want the bad... just search this forum and Google for broken app notifications and other app related issues. If you have no desire to utilize the app then it's a great smoker built very well but maybe slightly overpriced for what you get. If you have a desire to use the app as advertised you will likely have a bad time and will find it incredibly overpriced. I really wish I could go back to a time before Recteq's customer base had grown too big for their ability to provide proper server support for their app-using-customers when everything worked as advertised and it was a good value for the money. Sadly that ship has sailed and it's been a year or so now that RT keeps promising they'll fix it and has been unable to.

It's one thing to be a de facto beta tester for a company not willing to do their own R&D (usually a cost saving move) before releasing a product to market. It's an entirely other situation to basically ignore the bug since in the other scenario they at least tend to fix the problems that are sourced from their paying customers. RT just doesn't care and has done nothing on this subject to change my opinion.

They're either inept, unwilling or not profitable enough to support the products they sell. Either way, none of those are a good thing to hang your hat on if you're looking to invest about a grand in a pellet smoker. I'd looks elsewhere if I had it to do over again. That's just one opinion though and I'm sure someone will be along shortly hell-bent on justifying their purchase to talk about how my valid experience isn't valid because reasons. I can hear it now "If it doesn't work as advertised, just don't use it. Problem solved!" Yes, people have literally said this sort of thing on this very forum. Unreal.
 
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I had one and it was a lemon. The stand it self was crazy wobbly. The shell is thin metal but that’s okay. My issue was the thing never could get over 425 degrees. Plus it would take 30-45 minutes to get to 400 degrees.
I called CS several times and they always tried to tell me I was doing something wrong. Finally I gave up and sold and that was a happy day. I’m not going to say which pellet grill I bought but I wish I would have bought this one when on decided on the 590. Like I said I had a lemon that left a bad taste in my mouth on the RecTeq brand.
 
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