Any suggestions for pellet grills?

[wired]

In our recent move escapade I threw out our natural gas powered grill. Just didnt like the quality of the finished product. Everything tastes like it was cooked in the oven. I like charcoal grills but theyre a bit of a hassle. Im considering going to a pellet grill or gas/pellet grill combo. i know nothing about them . What works ? Budget is in the $1200 range?

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[bionic knees]

Traegers are hard to beat. and you can run some of the new ones with your phone.

 

[ORhutner]

If you can squeeze your budget a bit higher, check out the Yoder's and Mac grills.

 

[Alexx1401]

Recteq. Have a Treager. When it dies will replace it with one of these. They are not real fast but damn they make great food so easy. Many do not like them as they want to fuss with the thing for hours. I have zero desire. I just want to eat.
Put food in, does it all for you. Now and then Wife will put an entire chicken in one and it is great for everything. Bacon. I did not think it was possible to improve bacon. It is, cooked in a pellet grill. Cost just depends on how big you want. They start well bellow your budget up to way over it depending on what you want. For us since it's normally just 2 or 3 of us the small one is perfect.

 

[Member 34319]

What do you normally grill on the gas bbq?

If mostly steaks or similar, I'd say stick with gas.

Pellet grills don't exactly sear the greatest. A good sear makes for a great steak. If that's what you are after perhaps look into an outdoor flat top griddle.

If it's smoked goods, then I'd recommend a pellet grill.

I have owned 2 pellet grills in the past 10 years or so. A big one and a "portable" one. I ended up selling off both as I rarely used them anymore. Outside of smoking things, they kind of sucked for anything else. Even then, after learning that about 1-2 hours of smoking anything the smoke no longer penetrates anything, so your really just operating an expensive oven after that time passes. I could smoke a brisket or a few salmon filets for an hour or two in the pellet grill, then throw them in the oven over night at the same low temp and they would taste identical whether I coooked them all night in the smoker or the oven after the smoke set.

So ya, depends on what you cook most in my opinion.

 

[Jasonanddeonna]

Camp Chef dlx24 for about $500 (better than Traeger, fantastic, consistent, easy to use, and great customer service). See thread on What Did You Grill for a few grill pictures.

or

the larger one I want to upgrade to SG 30 WiFi for about $1000

or

its bigger brother the SG 36 WiFi for another $100.

I have outgrown the size of mine and "need" a larger one. The 36 may be too big, but maybe it's like safes, "buy the biggest you can and it will get filled up."

 

[monks]

I got rid of my gas grill and got a green mountain pellet grill. Long story short I have a gas grill again. If I were to buy another pellet grill it would be a smaller traeger. The bigger grills cost more to run and I have hot and cold spots in my Jim Bowie. I like to smoke in the pellet grill and then sear the meat with the gas. Like previously mentioned the pellet grill sucks for searing steaks but it does make a mighty fine brisket, ribs, rib roasts, pulled pork etc… Don't get a green mountain. I fought with mine for two years and had to change out quite a few parts and learn how to live with some other things to make anything edible.

 

[wired]

I ended up picking up the Traeger. Got a good deal on a Pro 780. Firing it up for a pork shoulder this evening.