Vertical pellet smokers q?

[buckinducks]

Do the pit boss vertical pellet smokers need pellets to heat or can it heat off just electric aswell?

if they solely use pellets as fire , how similar are they to a traeger ? Or other pellet grill ? Same smoke flavoor more ?

I would like a vertical smoker , hopper fed smoke , but would like to have no smoke or pellets burning while finishing stuff off. And just electric heat .
Anything like that available?

 

[bill1]

All the pellet machines have an electric igniter element that starts the initial pellet burn. But it's small, and although it gets red-hot, there's not enough watts there to be effective as a heating element for the whole cooking chamber. I know of none that come with heating elements of ~700W or more that you'd need to truly be a heat source.

But it would be easier to add electric elements to a hopper fed and controlled pellet cooker than it would be to add a pellet feeder to an electric machine.

But I'm curious...if you're willing to use wood to start your cook, why wouldn't you want it to finish off the cook? Most pellet users smoke at low temp to start then finish off at high temp. At high temp settings, a pellet machine is so completely burning the pellets the heat produced exceeds the smoke so it's functioning more as just a heat source anyway.

 

[normanaj]

You could always buy an electric and add an Amazen pellet tray or tube.

 

[buckinducks]

Things like jerky or fish snacks I prefer a light smoke and running on low with the traeger produces smoke for the whole 5-6 hours.
great for some things , not so great for others.
I had an mes30 with amzn pellet tray. Don’t find it as reliable, more then 50% of the time it does not stay lit.


In a perfect world . I Would like the capacity of a vertical , consistent smoke control of a pellet grill, and low temp ability with no smoke like an electric.