So Many Brands...Which one to purchase?

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Lots of features and attachments available for the Camp Chef. I like the pellet drain for the hopper, and the ash cleanout. They also have both the Sidekick and Searbox available although I prefer the Sidekick. The Sidekick gives you a versatile 30,000BTU side burner that can accept a BBQ Grill Box, Flat Top Griddle and a Pizza Oven as well as can be used as an open burner for boiling, deep frying, steaming, etc. CC also makes insulated blankets to fit their units to, so the winter isn't generally an issue for me here in NY.
Some guys complain about the lack of "smoke flavor" from pellet grills but I really haven't been able to pin that down. To me, smokiness should be a part of the overall flavor profile of your food, not the dominant flavor. You can get a tremendous amount of smoke into your food at the higher smoke levels but you will get wider temperature swings as a result because the controller needs to let the pellets smolder longer rather than burn for heat. The average temps will round out to around your set temp at the end of the cook but if graphed the temps they would be up and down all over the place. A smoke tube is a great an inexpensive addition to a pellet setup if your really want a lot of smoke. Pellet brand has lot to do with the smoke profile as well. Or you could even smolder chips in the tube for more smoke. Some guys I think would do better if they burned a stick of hickory and licked it before they ate their food to hear them complain. lol:emoji_laughing::emoji_laughing:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this. This really helps a great deal when looking at all of these options.
I cannot agree more with the over smoked meats LOL. I like smoked food, but I want to taste the food, not the lumber.
 
I have had only Camp Chef. Two Windwood smokers, sold my first one when I moved. I like: the ease of cleaning the smoker, changing pellet flavors by pulling a lever, ease of discarding the ashes from each cook, the accurate PID controller to maintain temp (specially at low temps), the ability to grill at direct high heat or smoke at low temps, and the taste of the food comes out great. I like the fact that it comes with four meat tempearture probes (plus the built-in smoker temp), and two additional upper racks. The pellet hopper holds a little over 20 lbs of pellets, great for overnight long brisket cooks. I also got the Sidekick with the cast iron griddle that gets screaming hot to grill smashburgers and cook great breakfast food for the family.

One thing I don't like is that that legs on the left side do not come with wheels so it's difficult for me to move it around on our deck specially with the added weight of the Sidekick. I had to purchase from CC two new legs with wheels that I wish were a little bigger/robust. Another negative of sorts is that when the hopper is only about 1/4 full the pellets don't flow smoothly into the auger compartment so you have to keep on eye on it and rake the pellets into the auger compartment to make sure the auger doesn't run out of pellets.

All in all very happy with it. If I didn't articulate some things clearly, let me know and I'll try to clarify.
Thank you for your time posting. I have to agree....I do not like the legs and wish they had casters on the hopper side. I will definitely need to look at the side attachments.
 
I've had two Pit Boss grills for about five years now. Sold the first one to get a bigger one. I feel they are a good value and I have had very few problems. Also the new Pit Boss comes with a 5year warranty.
 
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