Traeger wood pellet grill.Do i need a Traeger or is there a better choice, money wise

[PaytonHighstep]

I have a friend with a Big Green Egg. He loves it. They are pricey too, especially with some of the add ons you can get to make them less hands on (fan attachement, and temp probes reading to adjust vent fans to stabilize temps). I'd say an egg with the add on's would be tempting for me, since you can achieve higher temps with them. IMO, the downside with an egg, is grilling/smoking surface area.

 

[Ares]

I mentioned I have a friend with a Traeger pellet, I also have a friend that was a competitive BBQ'er with lots of wins. The 'pro's' look down on pellet smokers, and the competition guy is always giving good natured grief to the Traeger guy. The pro admits stick burners are a ***** to control the temp on, you have to learn your smoker, trial and error, and then when you know your rig you still have to watch it constantly, adjusting the fire and the vents.

The product off a stick burner is better, but is it worth the effort and cleanup? If you want to start a smoke and walk away for a few hours, you can only do that with a pellet smoker.

I can validate this 100% as far as the traditional smoker goes.

I can't hold a consistent temp longer than maybe 1-2 hours until I need to go adjust my vents or add more coal.

Simple fact is you need to keep burning fuel and at least for me, in a firebox, there is no minion method.... once it goes in it is going to light and start burning, so you get a set burning and try to get the airflow down so it burns at 225-235 for as long as it can, then when temps start to drop you go back outside and open the vents up to recover temp and add in coal/wood to reset.... wait for it to get too hot and then cut the airflow down again, rinse and repeat until the cook is done.

Eventually I may get to where I know it well enough to just keep adding coal on a scheduled basis, but for now I play temperature see saw through the whole cook trying to keep the lows above 205 and the highs below 250.

 

[number51]

I can validate this 100% as far as the traditional smoker goes.

I can't hold a consistent temp longer than maybe 1-2 hours until I need to go adjust my vents or add more coal.

Simple fact is you need to keep burning fuel and at least for me, in a firebox, there is no minion method.... once it goes in it is going to light and start burning, so you get a set burning and try to get the airflow down so it burns at 225-235 for as long as it can, then when temps start to drop you go back outside and open the vents up to recover temp and add in coal/wood to reset.... wait for it to get too hot and then cut the airflow down again, rinse and repeat until the cook is done.

Eventually I may get to where I know it well enough to just keep adding coal on a scheduled basis, but for now I play temperature see saw through the whole cook trying to keep the lows above 205 and the highs below 250.

My friend that's a former pro says there are too many variables to have a schedule. Air temp, humidity/rain, different coals, wood, product, he says no two cooks were the same.

The level of dedication to that type of cooking goes way beyond being a hobby, kudos to anyone willing to go for it.

 

[BestBearsFan]

I have a Green Mountain Daniel Boone with WiFi and love it. I have been grilling and BBQing for years and will give a few of my thoughts.

Number one, if all you cook is hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks, stick with a gasser or charcoal.

If you cook often(we cook out 3-4 times a week) I would keep the gas grill or charcoal and add a pellet cooker. I cook most things on the DB but I prefer steaks over charcoal with GrillGrates. I also do burgers over charcoal most of the time.

I bought the Green Mountain over others for several reasons. I liked the chamber height for Thanksgiving turkey, a pretty good assortment of accessories, great customer service and the WiFi(when I bought mine no one else had it). With WiFi you can create profiles that will change temp at a certain time or at a certain internal temp. You can also set alarms in the profile to let you know when meat has reached a certain temp. Example: I can run a brisket profile and put the brisket on at 11:00 at night at 200 deg for 4 hours(more smoke at lower temps). The grill will then raise the temp to 250 and sound an alarm when brisket reaches 165 so I can wrap it. Grill will sound another alarm at 200 internal temp so I can start checking for tenderness. I never have to get out of bed until time to wrap. It will even sound an alarm if the pellet hopper gets low.
The best thing about the WiFi though is firmware updates. GM has issued several updates since I bought mine that greatly improved pellet consumption and temp stability.

Unless you like a heavy smoke flavor you will like the taste of meat, especially poultry and fish of meat from a pellet cooker than a stick burner.

 

[Fatman LOU]

I have a Green Mountain Daniel Boone with WiFi and love it. I have been grilling and BBQing for years and will give a few of my thoughts.

Number one, if all you cook is hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks, stick with a gasser or charcoal.

If you cook often(we cook out 3-4 times a week) I would keep the gas grill or charcoal and add a pellet cooker. I cook most things on the DB but I prefer steaks over charcoal with GrillGrates. I also do burgers over charcoal most of the time.

I bought the Green Mountain over others for several reasons. I liked the chamber height for Thanksgiving turkey, a pretty good assortment of accessories, great customer service and the WiFi(when I bought mine no one else had it). With WiFi you can create profiles that will change temp at a certain time or at a certain internal temp. You can also set alarms in the profile to let you know when meat has reached a certain temp. Example: I can run a brisket profile and put the brisket on at 11:00 at night at 200 deg for 4 hours(more smoke at lower temps). The grill will then raise the temp to 250 and sound an alarm when brisket reaches 165 so I can wrap it. Grill will sound another alarm at 200 internal temp so I can start checking for tenderness. I never have to get out of bed until time to wrap. It will even sound an alarm if the pellet hopper gets low.
The best thing about the WiFi though is firmware updates. GM has issued several updates since I bought mine that greatly improved pellet consumption and temp stability.

Unless you like a heavy smoke flavor you will like the taste of meat, especially poultry and fish of meat from a pellet cooker than a stick burner.

Yeah that's the one i'm looking at i just hav'nt pulled the trigger yet . No wifi for me though. I want it for my cornish cross chickens mostly.

 

[Ares]

My friend that's a former pro says there are too many variables to have a schedule. Air temp, humidity/rain, different coals, wood, product, he says no two cooks were the same.

The level of dedication to that type of cooking goes way beyond being a hobby, kudos to anyone willing to go for it.

I did it last Thursday-Friday, started heating the smoker at 11:30pm and put my 12lb brisket on at midnight.

I did brisket, an 8.8lb pork butt, and then ribs.... ran the smoker from 11:30pm on Thursday until about 4:30pm on Friday.... around 17 hours.

I stayed up all night with it, going down every 30-45 minutes to add coal or adjust vents....

I served the food at 6pm and went to bed around 11pm or so.... I was up a good 38+ hours.

I consider it a hobby lol

 

[Fatman LOU]

I mentioned I have a friend with a Traeger pellet, I also have a friend that was a competitive BBQ'er with lots of wins. The 'pro's' look down on pellet smokers, and the competition guy is always giving good natured grief to the Traeger guy. The pro admits stick burners are a ***** to control the temp on, you have to learn your smoker, trial and error, and then when you know your rig you still have to watch it constantly, adjusting the fire and the vents.

The product off a stick burner is better, but is it worth the effort and cleanup? If you want to start a smoke and walk away for a few hours, you can only do that with a pellet smoker.

Yeah i want to start a smoke, walk away for a few hours , play on my tractor, drink , maybe shoot at the chipmunks and gophers with my 22, bring out the 45 , maybe the tommy gun , and thank the Lord Ole mighty for my wonderful life.

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

Lord Ole, lol.



Indeed.

 

[Fatman LOU]

Lord Ole, lol.



Indeed.

yeah southern baptist what can i say .

 

[number51]

Yeah i want to start a smoke, walk away for a few hours , play on my tractor, drink , maybe shoot at the chipmunks and gophers with my 22, bring out the 45 , maybe the tommy gun , and thank the Lord Ole mighty for my wonderful life.

LOU is living the dream!

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

yeah southern baptist what can i say .

No, not jabbing you for anything like that. A well loved former poster, now on a forevertempermaban used to call himself Ole69.

 

[Fatman LOU]

No, not jabbing you for anything like that. A well loved former poster, now on a forevertempermaban used to call himself Ole69.

Hey my dog is better looking than that sheep you got there. Xuder is it true what they say about sheep????

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

Ceci n'est pas un mouton







What do they say about sheep?

 

[Fatman LOU]

Ceci n'est pas un mouton







What do they say about sheep?

well..... you know dont ya ? Ahh nevermind

 

[Fatman LOU]

well..... you know dont ya ? Ahh nevermind

i understand you like art. Or coats

 

[number51]

It's an electric sheep LOU.

 

[Fatman LOU]

It's an electric sheep LOU.

Yeah im not into the electric sheep stuff.

 

[Fatman LOU]

Broke down today and bought the Green Mountain pellet grill. The Daniel Boone model. Plan on doing a young rooster this weekend, wife butchers it i cook it, Life is Good.

 

[Albert Flasher]

Missed this thread. I have a Pit Barrel Cooker.

[video=youtube_share;P8i7k1Tv9j8]https://youtu.be/P8i7k1Tv9j8[/video]

 

[number51]

Yeah im not into the electric sheep stuff.

The Harrison Ford movie Blade Runner is loosely based on the Phillip K. Dick book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".

Congrats on the purchase, the rooster getting smoked?