Pellet Smokers Thread

[jjvw]

First time on Traeger

I usually do all my cooking on my Okie Joe and can turn out some nice brisket. Yesterday I cooked for the Grill Days at the local Ace Hardware. It was a small store and only wanted hot dogs on a Traeger. I don't know much about pellet grills, so I goggled them. I wanted to at least know how to start it. The grill had been sitting outside and the pellets must have gotten wet. By the time I figured that out, it was too late to clean it out. It was 65º and sunny. It took a long time to ignite and never came up to temperature. Set it for 350º and it never got up to 200º. It took 45 minutes to do hot dogs. I had a hard time telling when they were done. They never changed color. They were very good considering they were cheap dogs. They were more like smoked and never plumped when cooked.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

 

[hogcowboy]

I don't think you got a good chance for first timer. If the pellets were damp as you suspect, charcoal in the same condition would work but then you got that fuel taste. From what I've read, most people rave about pellet grills. Even you state the dogs were good. Just not what you thought they should look like. I'd give it a second chance myself.

 

[Diablo]

Pit Boss smokers ROCK!

I have the Pit Boss 1100 Deluxe and it rocks at half the cost of a comparable Traeger or RecTek. It will hold temp to within 5° of whatever it's set for, has dual temp probes, and can smoke 3-4 Briskets, plus sausages, chickens, and pork tenders all at once. It will 8 or so pork butts at once. The only thing I've managed to ruin and it was total user error was some cheese and shrimp stuffed Jalapenos wrapped in bacon....wasn't paying attention and burned the hell out of them...still ate a few, and they burned the hell out of me the next morning!

:AllGood: