Dan from the Burgh

[DavidNorcross]

Welcome from Virginia!

[ScottyC13]

Welcome from Massachusetts!

[luvthemstillers]

Welcome, I'm also located in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. I personally have a Treager Homestead 520 pellet smoker. I'm also a member and Admin for the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends and we have several members besides myself that are very active in backyard BBQ. We typically meet once a month for our whiskey related activities, and have done a few events around BBQ. Also, if you're not following YinzloveBBQ on Twitter, you definitely should. They cover all things BBQ in and around Pittsburgh.

[klflowers]

Welcome from TN. I lived in Pittsburgh for awhile some years ago, my daughter was born there. Love the city.

[Razor]

Welcome. You are not the only Pittsburgh’er here. You’re not Sq. H Dan are you?

I’m a Weber guy. As ofelles mentioned Weber is coming out with a pellet smoker that looks like it is going to rewrite the category. I would give that some serious thought.

I‘m currently using a Weber Smokey Mountain. I’m convinced that it with a fan controller (I use the Thermoworks Signals paired with a Billows fan) outperforms any pellet grill to date. While cost isn’t everything, you would have to spend close to double to get something that held temperatures as good as a WSM with a controller.

Do your research on pellet grills and you’ll see there are things that can happen mid cook. Mechanical breakdowns, jams in the pellet feeding system, etc. While rare, they can happen. Worse thing that could happen to a WSM is the fan dies on you then you would have to control that cook manually.

Versatility, the WSM wins hands down. You can use any type of wood, charcoal, etc. and never have to worry about holding temps because of the fan controller. Want to use the water bowl, you can. Want to hang your ribs like the Pit Barrel Cooker, you can. My 18” WSM can easily run 12 hours (in the summer) without me touching it. Admittedly I haven’t run it yet in the winter with the controller but looking forward to it soon.

Final sell, a good buddy of mine has a 6 month old baby and just bought his own WSM after we did a few cooks together on mine.

If you’re in the South Hills there’s a good family appliance/Weber dealer to do business with. Feel free to message me if you want more info.