Pellet Smokers.

[Worth1]

If anyone has or has used these contraptions please put the information you have here if you wish.
I put this thread in this section and not the Your 2 cents section as it has to do with cooking.
Also folks that aren't members can see it here.

So far I have no information of my own to offer other than you pay for what you get and sometimes you dont get what you pay for.

I looked at one brand that has a smaller home type smoker grill and have sent them an email.
Ont thing I found in there owners manual is at least the upper grills are nickle plated steel.
For the $1,600 price tag they have on it it should be 304 stainless.

No reply back yet from them

Worth

[hahirajay]

i have a traiger have not used any other grill since

[pmcgrady]

Traiger are the best. I got one given to me that quit working... I cleaned the pellet hopper out and found an acorn lodged in the auger which then wouldn't turn. It has been smoking ever since. I have also smoked/ bbq'd a hole hog in their bigger model, easiest and tastiest hog ever.

[Rockandrollin]

Don't know if Traegers are the best, but I have one and had no problems with it. Got it at Costco christmas 2014. Back then it was $500 and it was similar to the Lil Tex that Traeger also makes.

Very easy to have a wood cooked meal. Wouldn't want to go back to propane.

Recommend two thermometers: 1) Thermopen and 2)Dot . Both made by Thermoworks.com

[coronabarb]

Love my Thermopen! Alton Brown posted when it went on sale and I bought one. Superior to the other digital thermometer I have (love the instant read).

[Worth1]

I went to the Traeger web site and found no information on the materials but that is no big deal.
What I did like was the thermostat control that had a wide range even though it didn't get down to 120 F or so.
That is a no brainier to fix at least for me.

I like the idea of a smoke cooker I can walk away from and not have to tinker with a fire.
A friend of mine has one and loves it.
I have no idea what brand it is.

On a side not they have, 'or at least I have read they have, tried to get these type smokers disqualified at cook offs because they are so easy.

Give me a frigging break, step up to the plate and get better losers.
Reminds me of the Hemi ban NASCAR had because the losers were crying they couldn't out run them.
Cry me a river.

Worth

[Worth1]

No reply from my email to the 1,600 dollar pellet smoker people.
I will call them tomorrow.
All I asked is what grade of stainless steel they used on all of their parts.
What was the thickness.
And I said I needed more information before I bought the product.
There is a custom BBQ builder in Houston I emailed he got back in less than 24 hours with every bit of the information I wanted and was willing to build the stuff I couldn't.

[Dewayne mater]

Worth! I'm thinking you are of German descent right? Shouldn't you be out there finding old discarded 500 gallon propane tanks and making your own offset smokers to smoke with seasoned post oak wood only?

I have had a Traeger from Costco for 2 summers. I've been very pleased. It holds a temperature without feeding it chunks of wood, messing with dampers, etc. - HUGE for me!

I've been able to get some very good briskets smoked, but, I'm still honing that skill, which I believe to be the biggest challenge out there. Sure, they are good just about any time you smoke a brisket, but, what can be accomplished, as demonstrated by the state's top pit masters, is a sublime meat experience that tops all other red meat, in my opinion. I know these pellet smokers are capable of producing top quality briskets as I have a friend who has one a descent sized competition (Marshall, Texas) using one and then went on to finish in the top 15 in a national competition. I'm not in his league either!

I highly recommend investing in a IDevices thermometer. They come in sets of 2 probes or 4 and hook into an electronic reader that sits next to your smoker and sends bluetooth info to their app on your iphone. If you've babied a brisket over night, you know having multiple sets of current temps on your phone at your bedside is superior to going outside to have a look. Good luck.

Dewayne Mater

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Worth! I'm thinking you are of German descent right? Shouldn't you be out there finding old discarded 500 gallon propane tanks and making your own offset smokers to smoke with seasoned post oak wood only?

I have had a Traeger from Costco for 2 summers. I've been very pleased. It holds a temperature without feeding it chunks of wood, messing with dampers, etc. - HUGE for me!

I've been able to get some very good briskets smoked, but, I'm still honing that skill, which I believe to be the biggest challenge out there. Sure, they are good just about any time you smoke a brisket, but, what can be accomplished, as demonstrated by the state's top pit masters, is a sublime meat experience that tops all other red meat, in my opinion. I know these pellet smokers are capable of producing top quality briskets as I have a friend who has one a descent sized competition (Marshall, Texas) using one and then went on to finish in the top 15 in a national competition. I'm not in his league either!

I highly recommend investing in a IDevices thermometer. They come in sets of 2 probes or 4 and hook into an electronic reader that sits next to your smoker and sends bluetooth info to their app on your iphone. If you've babied a brisket over night, you know having multiple sets of current temps on your phone at your bedside is superior to going outside to have a look. Good luck.

Dewayne Mater

I do have a cold smoker I built out of plywood for the winter as I smoke at around 70 degrees yes that is right 70 degrees or less.
It takes days to do this.

Then I have the other one I built out of SCH 80 pipe that weights around 400 pounds.
I have loaded up the coals put the brisket on messed with it awhile and went to bed.

The next day it is ready.

If I can get one of these fancy pellet smokers I can vent the smoke to the big cold smoker as it will be cool enough by then and I wont have to stay up with it.



Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Worth! I'm thinking you are of German descent right? Shouldn't you be out there finding old discarded 500 gallon propane tanks and making your own offset smokers to smoke with seasoned post oak wood only?

Dewayne Mater

Dewayne, do they 'make' other kinds of wood other than oak?
I am interested in learning about the pellet smoker. Mostly just out of curiosity,

I won't buy one but that is because I can build one heck of a smoker/grill/pizza oven for material cost between $500 and $1600 that will last over 100 years.

[kunosoura]

I haven't tried the pellet smokers, but I recently switched from propane to charcoal-fired when I picked up the Weber Smokey Mtn 22.5. LOVE IT. I was originally going to order a PID controller and fan to maintain my temps, but I figured I'd first see how well it maintains temp without. After a small practice run to season the thing I was off to the races.

With a big bag of Kingsford I can maintain 220, +/- 5 F with ease. I load it up with charcoal and wood chunks and light it using the Minion method (google this). After about a half hour it has stabilized where I want it, and then it holds temp like nobody's business. I may tweak the vents once during an entire smoke of 16 hours with no additional fuel. The other night I threw on a shoulder, went to a baseball game and hit the bar, came back and tweaked the vents, then hit the hay for the night. When I got up at 6 the needle hadn't moved and my shoulder was perfectly done.

Smoke flavor is fantastic. You load it up with however many wood chunks you want and you're set.

If you're interested in a charcoal smoker I highly recommend you check this out. I couldn't be happier.

[ginger2778]

Worth, thanks for starting this thread. I am looking up the suggestions and I have a lot to learn. Thank also to everyone contributing, this is very helpful.

[oakley]

Interesting. I just google imaged, then ended up on a 'smokin' forum...now i want one,

about the li' Tex Traeger...
..."Stay with the digital Traeger sells. It has a setting for "smoke" which is a lower temp. and then you can go up, 225-450. This has worked great for me and allows you control of what temp. you want."

I'm old school. Off-set fire box and use wood only but i have a farm with lots of trees and old fruit trees....have a collected pile of splits and 'smalls' and small rounds of fruit wood. (lots of it) I enjoy the hands on smoking and really good at the manual temp control.

Designed a cold smoker that attaches easily and made room for a gallon frozen water jug that the smoke passes under and keeps it cool. I cold smoke cheeses and salmon and not that often but fun to have.

The Traeger would be great for Newfoundland being cooler temps and coastal/windy.
We took up our old bullet smoker and are limited to rare calm warm days. Too difficult to control the temp so very limiting and all but gave up on that method. Once a year maybe. Just not loving the packaged product needed for a pellet smoker. We buy maybe one bag of natural chunk charcoal a season now to have an insurance few chunks to toss in if i need some steady heat for a big bbq smoked brisket.

Still like it. (the Traeger).Meat is expensive so any way to keep consistent heat and control over the smoke is worth the money.

[Dewayne mater]

Yes, there are many types of pellets for pellet smokers. I"ve tried hickory, pecan, apple, mesquite and oak. I've liked them all, but, find the mesquite too strong for a long cook, but that's just a personal preference. The main advantage of them to me is that they hold the temp set by a temp dial without any effort on your part. That's probably sacrilege to a purist, but I'm just looking to make really good barbecue without having to baby a fire for 10 hours straight.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Yes, there are many types of pellets for pellet smokers. I"ve tried hickory, pecan, apple, mesquite and oak. I've liked them all, but, find the mesquite too strong for a long cook, but that's just a personal preference. The main advantage of them to me is that they hold the temp set by a temp dial without any effort on your part. That's probably sacrilege to a purist, but I'm just looking to make really good barbecue without having to baby a fire for 10 hours straight.

Dewayne I would like to say something about my German heritage.
Many many moons ago we got into WWl then it was WWll.
Many people back in those days would not even admit to being from Germany much less celebrate the fact they were of this country.
All things German were scoffed at.
Part of my family was like this and the other part wasn't.
As a matter of fact one of the ladies which has long passed away by now couldn't speak English very well if much at all.
This was on my fathers side.
The only thing my father could cook was popcorn.
My mother who was French did all of the cooking and BBQing.
One side of her family came from southern France and the other came from Canada.
Her maiden name was Harlow and her mothers maiden name was Bardot.

We ate a lot of meat but seldom did any BBQ maybe twice a year and a big event.
I remember one time I was in the field and my brother was home on leave from Vietnam.
My mother had killed a copperhead and was burning it in a fire.
I came out of the field thinking we were having BBQ and my brother came driving up thinking the same thing.
My father did too.
Everyone was excited but to our disappointment it was only a snake on a fire.
My mother decided to have BBQ the next day.
Being that I hung around my mother all of the time and helped her cook, I learned how to cook from a french woman not a German man.
My mother was known as one of the best cooks throughout the land wherever we lived.
That is all my wife aver heard about my mother from everyone she met is how good of a cook she was.
My wife never met her but got sick of hearing about it.
I still make my mothers much celebrated BBQ sauce to this day.

The last night I ever saw my mother I cooked BBQ for her and her new husband I was just out of the Marines and headed to Texas.
She said it was some of the best BBQ she had ever had and wanted to know where I learned how to do it.

Worth