OMG - saw this pellet grill/smoker at Costco today

I had major lust for it, though I know nothing about it. So many different compartments…

It’s about 6ft tall, too.

As far as I know, I am the only person I have seen on the forums that have been a pellet smoker for years now. I have owned 4 different set ups in those years.

My advice for this one is to pass pass pass.

if you want to get into details as to why I have this opinion, I am happy to help.

Why not just say? It’s not like you’re throwing another forum member under the bus…

Pellet grills usually do one thing or the other, and thats grill well, or smoke well. The one shown will do neither well. The problem is two fold, one is air flow and the second is btu for all that space provided by a pellet burn.

http://amazingribs.com/bbq_equipment_reviews_ratings/equipment-reviews?field_manufacturer_target_id=All&field_fuel_tid[]=3

Most pellet grills smoke pretty well and grill (some call it hot baking) OK. Its only a few that can give you a real charr on your meat and also smoke well.

If I had a good grill now and wanted to add a decent smoker for the money, I would go with the top in in that list. I dont have one but I do have a friend with one who I respect and he likes it. If I wanted a wood fired grill that can hot smoke in the top tier and still charr meat well too, I would buy the pg500 if I lived in a relatively warm winter area. If I really wanted to do both and add in insulation and ease of access and stainless everything I would go the PG1000. I am convinced the pg 1000 is the best grill on the market these days if you want to smoke well and cook well, with the pg 500 a very close second (minus insulation and those door suck but are usable. The thing with the PG500 thats hard to see is that it really does have 4 heat zones (really 5) so bottom left is charr on open flame, with top left being slightly hotter for baking and top right being less hot for baking or warming, and bottom right being smoke. THere is a drawer in the lower right that is for warming or very slow smoking. I will take my steaks and put them on a plate in the warming drawer till they reach about 100 and then throw them on the 500 degree char burner to finish them.

If you look at the PG line the controller is unlike anything else. You have full control over how long the auger spins and how long it stays off. This allows you to get real smoke flavor and then change it for real heat for grilling. The others are just temp set with automatic settings for auger control.

Air flow is key to getting clean smoke and that monstrosity Todd posted will have temps all over the board, and huge fluctuations, and it cost a lot for what you get.

YMMV

I am an impulse buyer and I couldn’t resist throwing this one in the cart, not knowing anything about pellet grilling - but the fact that you don’t have to stand over your smoker all day sold it for me.

I picked it up 2 weeks ago and have used it at least 8 times and have to say I love it. If I had researched it before pulling the trigger, I might have gone for another brand but for $700 I am happy. There is a learning curve on use but simple enough to dial in. There are a lot of negative reviews online (lots of positive ones as well) and I think these stem from the fact that it is not a just plug it in and smoke product like a gas grill. Its a little finicky.

Couple things I wish I had are a built in shelf and a digital meat probe built in to monitor internal temp of meat. I get around this with a small table and use my digital probe with remote sensor. It has about 6 heat settings - smoke (160), 225, 275, 350, 425 and high. Cooked hamburgers on high setting and took about 8 minutes and had a semi char and were delicious.

My son and son in law both have traditional smokers and they both say they wouldn’t be caught dead using a pellet smoker but they use theirs maybe once a year because they are such a pain in the ass. They have been hanging around here at dinner time a bit more lately as well!

My son and son in law both have traditional smokers and they both say they wouldn’t be caught dead using a pellet smoker but they use theirs maybe once a year because they are such a pain in the ass. They have been hanging around here at dinner time a bit more lately as well!

I’m in the same camp as your son and son-in-law. I accept that great Q gets made every day with pellet cookers but feeding rabbit food into a hopper is just too far from the concept of man, meat, and fire. Pellet cookers are to Q as recumbents are to cycling or as gutter guards are to bowling or as stocked trout is to fly-fishing. If it makes you happy, great. Being a purist is a life-style decision. I don’t tie my own flies and I don’t use a stick burner. Both my BGE and my 270 smoker require little in the way of adjustment but I am still using lump coal and splits/chunks of real wood. I still have a real fire to tend to. If it makes you happy spin-casting for trout in a stocked lake with a shiny Mepps spinner because you catch a lot more fish that way-nobody can tell you you’re wrong-but I can express my opinion that you’re not fly-fishing.

I hear you Mitch - I am a purist in most other categories (including fly fishing - haven’t used a spinner or a worm in decades) but I am also becoming more and more lazy. When it comes to cooking a 12+ hour brisket I don’t have the energy to get up at 4 am and continually labor over the smoke.

I was a little leery of the pellets at first, thinking they had some sort of bonding additive but apparently they are 100% wood that has been compressed at 10,000 lbs of pressure. If cavemen had thought of this technique way back when, then this would be the smoking standard. I love technology as well.

Thanks for being so diplomatic-my post upon re-reading was a tad strident. Myron Mixon regularly loses in competition to a team by the name of “Pellet Envy”. I know they work well and furthermore there is still skill involved in the meat prep, process (wrap or not, if so how long, pan or direct on rack etc.) and knowing when to pull. But then again, competitions are all about winning-like catching the most fish irrespective of how. As they say in the Q forums, most competition cooks wouldn’t want to eat their own product-it is prepared to impress with one bite but a whole meal of it would be stomach-turning. Sorta similar to wine. But I have once again meandered off the path…

Pellet Envy uses FEC-120 and FEC 100.

I hear you on the purist bit, but I suspect you do take advantage of these new inventions I hear about: Planes, trains, and automobiles?

any way you slice it cooking with wood over gas wins hands down.

One of the selling points of a Kamado over these type of pellet or wood charcoal burning side box smokers is that you don’t have to stand over them all day long. I use to have a side box smoker with two baffles. Not only was that puppy a fuel HOG , but it required way too much fiddling to maintain a consistent temperature. I literally had to stand by it for 8-10 hrs. depending on what I was smoking. This is not the case with a Kamado… it uses very little fuel (less than 1/5th), doesn’t require refueling on a long smoke and maintains a consistent even temperature. Additionally, because of the way the air flows it keeps the meet very moist.

I’ve seen guys online struggle with getting a smoke ring on a Kamado (supposed pro’s). I’ve had no such problem. Over the weekend I smoked two racks of ribs - perfecto! I highly recommend purchasing a Thermoworks “Smoke” temperature gauge! Takes the mystery out of when to pull the meat.

Problem with ceramic vs. offset is real estate. You can only put so much on even the giant ones.

Agreed. I have seven deep shelves in my 270. I could do three large turkeys at once if I needed to. Only thing I can’t do is a whole hog. I can barely fit three large (long) racks of ribs on my BGE XL. Any offset big enough to do whole hog has the other real estate problem; WAF.

Right

My Traeger side mount pellet smoker holds enough pellets to smoke for 8 hours unattended. That is what sold it for me, set it and forget it. There is a learning curve to get everything right, but once you do its a piece of cake.

One of the beauties of the Kamado Joe is their split level shelf system that allows for great surface capacity. Using their vertical rib rack I can easily smoke 6 racks of ribs. A couple weeks ago I cooked a 15 lb. whole ribeye and 5 lb. marinated Morton’s Tri-tip. Most side box smokers are large and difficult to move around, as well.

In the end it’s all about what you’re most comfortable with using. I think it’s good to try a variety of tools to reach that happy place.

My Traeger side mount pellet smoker holds enough pellets to smoke for 8 hours unattended. That is what sold it for me, set it and forget it. There is a learning curve to get everything right, but once you do its a piece of cake.

Pretty much true of my Weber Smokey Mountain, too. I generally check on it once every hour or two, but I think nothing of leaving it all afternoon or overnight.

The PG24DLX is on woot today for $459. Think that’s the top one on your linked article. Might have to take the pellet plunge.