Thinking of buying a Grilla Pellet Smoker Looking for Pros and Cons

[Herbert Miller]

Would appreciate any Info anyone would like to share! Also what brand smoker would you buy if you were looking for a new Pellet smoker?

 

[mike243]

Whats wrong with your old 1 ? lol cost and warranty trump all, if you like it that's all that matters imo

 

[Winterrider]

This may help some...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/pellet-smokers.3141/

 

[Rmartinez2]

I just got a pit boss pro 1100 back in late Feb.

I did a ton of research and went through many "thats the one" before i decided on the one. A few things I can tell you just from my experience. Keep in mind that its all about personal preference and you'll see why.

• pit boss, z grills, traeger, camp chef, rec tec... etc -- they're all the same! The concept obviously doesn't change at all across the board and PB, Zgrill and traeger are damn near clones of one another (same manufacturer at different stages in their existence.
• The tech varies and this is where you start to narrow your search. Some have PID controllers (do a search here on that) ultimately its a much more meticulously coded algorithm that determines when to add more pellets resulting in a smaller window of temp swings and variances. Some have non-PID (not sure what the correct term is) but this is what my grill has and while i do have hot spots, i've yet to experience a temp swing. I can go more into the hotspot thing if you like but i'm trying to avoid writing a book for you.
• the cook versatility. Mostly all of the pellet grills you find will talk about 7 in 1 or 8 in 1 or whatever in 1. its true to an extent. Some however offer versatility which also compromises other methods of cooking. For example many of the grills have a heat diffuser/heat plate over the firepot then they have a grease plate over that. The combination in my opinion likely provides a better heat dispersal throughout the chamber. My grill and other grills, have a flame broil option or feature. This usually involves no heat plate over the firepot and just a grease plate that acts as the heat plate as well. Then it has some for of sliding door to allow you to let the flames come up and sear/broil your meat. I'll be honest here i love the feature but this is the exact reason why my grill has an insane hot spot at the center right where the firepot is, because there's no true heat diffuser spreading it out. This can be fixed by buying one. The newer models i've seen of some camp chef have an actual heat plate that slides and i think that is a great option.
• Warranty -- PB has a 5 year warranty now.. this also steered me toward them. I think most have 3 to 5 but definitely look at this as a deciding factor as there are many moving parts so more room for things to break
• Money to size ratio-- we do family get together's once a month so i needed something that could handle quite a bit. i'll be honest here my number one pick in the pellet grill draft was the Rec Tec BFG but it doesnt release until sometime in may so i went with the PB 1100 because of some of the features i've talked about but also because it was only 600 and offered good size. Last month i did 8 racks of ribs, 4 st louis cut and 4 baby back and some rib tips all in 1 cook.

I'm sure there's more but i'll stop here and feel free to PM me if you like. I'm not sure i can recommend any one over the other simply because what i find to be important wont necessarily be what you need or see as important. I will say the rec tecs look nice and i still plan on getting the BFG once i see what others have experienced with it. I've also seen the new 2019 line of traegers have some updated features and tech like the grill grates slide out which you have no idea how much i could use that.

good luck and apologies for the long ass post.

 

[retfr8flyr]

First what is your budget, second how much do you need to cook at one time, third do you plan to cook year round and where do you live? Give us some of these answers and we can better help with your decision.

 

[Herbert Miller]

This may help some...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/pellet-smokers.3141/

Every time I click the link I go to the Home Page not the particular page you cite!

 

[Herbert Miller]

Budget is no more than $850.00 as far as amount I am selling my Vision Smoker which can handle 3 racks of ribs which would the most I will ever cook. I definitely cook year around and live in Chandler AZ. I am interested in not having to baby set my smoker as much as I do with the Vision! Probably would never leave the house when smoking but would like to be able to do yard work etc without worrying about the temp of the smoker!!

 

[solman]

i don't own a pellet smoker, but one thing i've noticed from reading this board is that some pellet owners complain about the lack of smoke flavor compared to other smokers. just a fyi, in case that's something high on your priority list. here's one post about it: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...lavor-using-my-camp-chef-pellet-grill.278648/

 

[Rmartinez2]

Budget is no more than $850.00 as far as amount I am selling my Vision Smoker which can handle 3 racks of ribs which would the most I will ever cook. I definitely cook year around and live in Chandler AZ. I am interested in not having to baby set my smoker as much as I do with the Vision! Probably would never leave the house when smoking but would like to be able to do yard work etc without worrying about the temp of the smoker!!

I live down in Tucson man! good luck with your search. At 850 you'll find something more than decent.

 

[retfr8flyr]

I think the Grilla Silverbac Alpha would be hard to beat, in your price range. I have read nothing but good things about both the company and their grills. The other option would be just a little over your budget but is also a great grill and that is the Rec Tec Stampede RT-590. I don't think you could go wrong with either choice.

 

[Herbert Miller]

i don't own a pellet smoker, but one thing i've noticed from reading this board is that some pellet owners complain about the lack of smoke flavor compared to other smokers. just a fyi, in case that's something high on your priority list. here's one post about it: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...lavor-using-my-camp-chef-pellet-grill.278648/

That is one of my biggest concerns! I have to get more info on this! Thanks for the link interesting!!!

 

[txgunlover]

Tons of smoke flavor if you use the right pellets in my Rec-Tecs...

 

[Winterrider]

Every time I click the link I go to the Home Page not the particular page you cite!

It opened to different threads on pellet grills. Sometimes new subscribers are limited for a bit on functions they can perform.
If still won't open, go to the home page and scroll down to pellet grills under smoking supplies.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/pellet-smokers.3141/