Pellet Grills

Thanks to all for the great feedback and advice. And to IowaBoy for making me aware of the Black Friday sale that got extended through 12/4. I did pick up the GMG Daniel Boone, w/ wifi at a $260 discount. Also bought a thermal cover and some pellets of course.

Will report back after a few uses!!

ET

CONGRATS !!!!
you must post pictures or it didnt happen

Has anyone used or heard of Louisiana Grills? I used my father’s Traeger to do 30 pounds of pork butt over the summer and loved it but didn’t like that there was no direct heat option. So after reading a ton of on-line reviews I picked up the LG-900 on black Friday from Ace and so far so good. You can set the temp anywhere from 180 to 600 and has a slide on the plate that allows you to cook over direct flame. We also use it as an oven for casseroles.

Also anyone have a brisket recipe? That is my next adventure…

trophy19 wrote:

A little off course, but does anyone have experience with the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker, either 18″ or 22″ size? This smoker keeps showing up as a gooc choice in lots of reviews. They sure don’t give them away, that’s for sure. I like the fact that they don’t take up as much space as a horizontal smoker, can be stored easily.

Pete

Pete, I started out with one like that and found the bullet style a PITA. There isn’t a lot of useable grill space and stacking sucks. If you want a smoker, it is a little different conversation than a pellet grill or combo unit. If you want a true smoker, I’d steer you in a different direction.

Yup, is a totally different subject.

Appreciate input re: your experience with the Weber. I can see that rotating racks could be a pain in the tuckus. Just like the space aspect.

Recommendations for propane or electric smoker? I’m guessing there are several discussions on this, but lots of good sales out there for the holidays.

Pete

Feathers wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>philtickelson wrote:</div>
I’ve always heard if you ever use your smoker at a higher temperature(my rectec goes up to 500 degrees) then the additional ash/grease left over can ignite and cause fire/flare-ups in the drum. If you have a bunch of built up ash/grease.

I don’t see how ash or grease is going to contribute positively to smoke flavor at all though. You could argue just general flavor, but the main component making smoke is the pellets isn’t it?

Rectec also sells ‘Sear grates’ if you want to sear stuff, I just don’t want to wait for a pellet grill to heat up to 500 degrees so I’ll use my gas weber to do any searing.

I’m not familiar with Rectec. All the grease that drips in to a green mountain drains in to a bucket to be emptied. These shouldn’t be any grease getting down by the heating elements.

The smoke flavor I was referring to has nothing to do with grease. It is the build up that happens on the metal. Kind of like creosote in a chimney. If you are wiping that off when you clean it you are removing an element of the flavor producing abilities in my opinion. I noticed my food has more flavor after I used it a dozen times or so.

I’ve researched the sear grates and most guys say you are better off to just use a gas grill for searing then throw it on the smoker. There is tons of pellet grill info on some of the grilling forums.

Gotcha!

I think we are on the same page, I vacuum out the ash and clean my grates, but I don’t scrape the inside of the barrel.

I have the cabelas brand pellet grill. Love it! I also attached the optional sear box to it. Best of both worlds. Not rec tech quality but a great smoker/grill, especially for the price. Give it a look, well worth it.

No love for traeger on this thread. I got a Pro 34 package for $680 (VIP pricing) Smoker, front shelf, cover and 2 bags of pellets. I love it so far. Realitively new to smoking but seems to cover all my needs so far.

Green mountain Grill
Daniel Boone. Great customer service also

My introduction to pellet grills was through eating food cooked by others on their pellet grills. I disliked them for a very long time because I didn’t think it measured up to food that I smoke on my true smoker. I bought a small GMG (Davey Crockett) for camping purposes. What I learned was that the pellets have a huge part in how I felt about the food cooked on a pellet grill. I find using pellets of a little stronger flavored wood than what I would typically smoke with makes for food that I like much better. I don’t believe that pellets impart the same wood flavor as real wood. Consequently, going to the little stronger pellet helps a lot.

cougareye wrote:

Thanks to all for the great feedback and advice. And to IowaBoy for making me aware of the Black Friday sale that got extended through 12/4. I did pick up the GMG Daniel Boone, w/ wifi at a $260 discount. Also bought a thermal cover and some pellets of course.

Will report back after a few uses!!

ET

I got one of these also before the deal ended. I went to the local dealer on Sunday but they were our, he was going to order more on Monday and would still honor that price when they came in.

we prefer the louisiana or yoder pellet grills. they have searing plate whre you can get it roaring to 800 degrees.

the GM daniel boone is also a really nice one.

i stick burn but many of my family are pellet pooper users.

I have had Traegers for years no issues at all.They have held up well even in salt air conditions in Florida. Have one at home cabin and in Florida. Slower then gas but easy and great flavor.

I was going to contact the seller of the Lumberjack wood pellets but the Craigslist link has expired.