Grilla OG vs Silverbac build quality, etc.

[Carolyn]

Hey,
Sorry for a very long post. Nobody really wants to read all of this. OY

I have been considering getting a pellet grill. I was thinking the OG might be a good option because I like the height, the sliding door, no stack and the accessories that are available. I have read there are some issues with temps not getting as high as people would like, and of course there is no front shelf.

Any insight into the build quality of the OG vs the Silverbac? Is there anything that might be of help to me that you can think of that maybe hasn't been covered? I have read everything I can find, and watched the videos. I hate not being able to see a grill in person. Seems like the OG is pretty hefty judging by how it sounded when the dude knocked on it in the video, but I have no idea how thick the walls are. Good value based on the build quality?

There is something about the shape of most of the pellet cookers that kind of bugs me, like the vertical distance of the upper rack to the inner top piece. They all seem a bit cramped. The odd shape of the OG was a bit off-putting to me due to the angle intruding into the cooking space, but the vertical distance from the grill to the top seems to make up for that.
It kind of looks like the grill surface is a bit more accessible. I dunno. I have hit my wall due to analysis paralysis.

I was also looking at the RecTeq Deck Boss and the Louisiana Grills.

Can I also vent? These companies don't have proper schematics with dimensions and none of them mention how long the cord is. What is with that? Glad I got that off of my chest.
Thanks

[DavidNorcross]

I cannot speak to the OG. However, I can to the Silverbac and the Primate. In my view the build quality is great and so is the support that you receive. Cookers have issues from time to time and Grilla is no different. They stand behind their product and the support and service is over the top in my experience. I do not think you can go wrong with either.

[jfmorris]

I can’t comment on construction having seen neither grill in person myself, but from research and talking to support at Grilla, I think the OG has an edge in producing a more traditional smoke profile, if you are coming from smoking with wood and charcoal. It’s the pellet grill I would like one day.

The OG can use some kettle accessories like the kettle set of GrillGrate panels I have, as the main grate is the same size as a 22” Weber kettle. I did get a photo from Grilla support showing 6 racks of ribs fitting in if you use the main and upper rack with the full expansion on it. You could also of course use a rib rack to stand ribs on edge in there.

Good luck making a decision. Needing power is a factor, and almost all the places I would put a pellet grill here would need me to use extension cord to provide power when cooking.

Back to the metal - if Grilla publishes the gauge of steel used on each grill, lower numbers are always thicker metal.

[Carolyn]

I haven't seen anything with regards to the gauge they use. I guess I could call or send them a text. I haven't seen any complaints about the grills not holding up, so that is a plus.

[Carolyn]

jfmorris I found the inormation on the steel. It was in the FAQ instead of in the specs. 🙄 Of course, I have no clue if that is good or not.
"The Grilla has 11GA top with 18 GA Body shape with insulated burn chamber. The Silverbac has a 16GA Body with 12GA S.S lid with insulated burn chamber."

[STEbbq]

I spent ages making the same comparison before going a completely different direction. Talk to Grilla support. They are outstanding and love to help.

I, like Jim, prefer the Grilla OG due to the better smoke profile. The design of the OG means the smoke stays in the cooking chamber longer.

https://cms.grillagrills.com/pellet-grilling/grill-size-comparison/

https://cms.grillagrills.com/manuals/

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/pellet-cookers/grilla-grills/982958-silverbac-vs-og-grilla

See, I told you I spent time on this! Remember you can put the OG together in less than 20 minutes.

[Carolyn]

Ha Ha. Yes, I have seen and read everything I could find on these grills. What I find interesting with regards to marketing, is that Grilla spends most of its time on the Silverbac. At least that is my perception. The only real negative that keeps coming up from users of the OG is the lack of high heat and that it takes too long to get there even if it can. I can't account for the variance other than people remarking about the pellets, and then they disagree on that. 🤷♀️

[bep35]

I will chime in here. I purchased the Grilla OG last year during their Black Friday sale. This may not be what you want to hear but for me it has been a disappointment. I like the concept and it certainly has a smaller footprint due to its unique design. But in my humble opinion they need to make some improvements to get it to where it performs like more established pellet grills such as Traeger, Louisiana Grills, etc.

The biggest issue I struggle with is how long it takes to reach temperature. If I am going to cook anywhere above 300 degrees it takes the OG almost an hour to reach temperature and if I don't crack the door it goes out and I have to start all over. I haven't been able to get to and keep it above 400 on any of my cooks. Grilla has been good about providing things to try but I didn't buy a pellet grill to have to spend hours and or days troubleshooting why it doesn't do what it was advertised to do. The solution Grilla recommended that has worked best was to crack the door a quarter inch or so. It then will at least stay lit and eventually get to temperature. But it seems like a well designed grill shouldn't have to have the door cracked to operate properly.

If you get the OG I suggest not investing in the GrillGrates until you figure out how to get to 400 and keep it there. Otherwise it never gets hot enough for the GrillGrates to do what they are intended to do.

I don't have any experience with the other Grilla Grills, but if I had to do it again I would go a different direction than the OG.

Best of luck and have fun!

[Carolyn]

Thank you. Actually, I do want to hear these things. I tend to look for trends with negatives on anything I am considering, If there is one angry outlier, I write them off, but if there is a string of the exact same issue, then I pay more attention.

[bep35]

Here is a thread from a Pit Member who worked through some issues with the OG. They provide a good write-up on how they addressed their OG heating problems.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/pellet-cookers/grilla-grills/967845-auger-jam

[Jerod Broussard]

Are you looking to grill mostly or smoke?

The last thing I want to use my pellet smoker for is grilling.

[tstalafuse]

I will just toss this out here if the goal is smoking vs grilling since the video was just released today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVBf...0The%20Mammoth.

[Carolyn]

That is a good question. I was initially looking at gas grills, and I still am thinking a pellet and a gas grill might be the way to go. I have never used charcoal, so that would be a whole other adventure, and I can see many destroyed meals in my near future until I can figure things out. I am not opposed to trying one eventually. I was thinking a pellet grill might get me learning a bit easier due to lack of heat management requirements. Maybe I am just over thinking it like I usually do.

[Carolyn]

tstalafuse Yes, I saw that teaser video. I am interested to see how they market that and the features.

[radiodome21]

I’ll add my experience. in 2020 I purchased a Traeger 575 for my lake house in Wisconsin. That purchase was strictly impulsive and I didn’t do any research whatsoever. the next year I decided that I wanted to get a pellet smoker for my house in Illinois and then I did end up doing a lot of research and settled on the Grilla silverback.

as far as the construction of the grill I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever. in terms of quality, it is far superior than the Traeger. I have had no issues running the smoker in 0° last winter when I had to do a couple, overnight brisket cooks. The issues that I have run into though have not been necessarily with the cooker, but with some of the accessories. When I put the cooker together the first problem I ran into was the build quality of the cart underneath it. For whatever reason everything was was misaligned and in order for me to get the door closed, I had to kick it in. I reached out to Grilla, and they suggested maybe trying some of the different bolts that were used other parts of the cooker which I did and predictably there was no change whatsoever . I will say I don’t really find the storage part of any grill to be of much use so to be honest, I didn’t really care about this, but from the aesthetics perspective, it did look a little off because you could see that it wasn’t a straight line between the two doors. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to capacity, is that any food that hangs over the drip pans, at least, in my experience, will result in the grease dripping down and working its way out of the cooker and on to the ground. This was something that I mentioned to Grilla and this was something that they indeed confirmed that you need to be careful with how you place your food within the cooking chamber. In my case it was in concrete. Again, this was not something that I found earth shattering, and I haven’t had any problems with it since .

The next issue I had though and this is the one that still annoys me to the day is that I purchased the front shelf that I had to pay maybe $100? The problem I have with this is that this is not flush to the front and it’s not level. I followed the instructions and video but it’s still loose. I haven’t had any issues or any food slide off of it but they’ve been a few close calls when I’m using some baking sheets with chicken wings on it. For comparison, I bought the front rack for my Traeger 575 at our lake house and not only was it a piece of cake to install, but it is a solidly built front shelf . The shelf in my opinion I don’t have a lot of faith in.

as for food and cooking, though I have never had any issues. Yes, it’s a lighter smoke profile than you’re going to get on the charcoal or an offset, but my family, and even myself from time to time prefer that anyways. I have done comparison cooks where I’ve done food on both the pellet and my kettle and my family usually prefers the one on the pellets simply because it’s a lighter smoke profile. I haven’t run into any issues with the cooker not working itself and it’s been able to reach temperature and maintain temperature without any issues as well. I do clean it on a regular basis but I did have some soot/grease fire in the exhaust chimney once when I tried to char some asparagus and I had the grill running over 400°. That was the last time I ever ran over 400 because I don’t need to burn my house down. I’m lucky that I do have a gas grill so that when I need high heat I’ll just do it on that as I typically don’t really run the pellet smoker over 350 anyways . more often than not. I would say it’s usually an average of around 225°.

So would I buy it again? Yep. The short comings I’ve found are, luckily, nothing that major in my book. Their customer service team has been great too. I had some issues out the gate with the food probe and in the end it was a defective probe and they were great with that. The food it cooks is great and on a cold day where I don’t want to be tending a fire outside reminds me why I love it even more.

[Carolyn]

The OG is slightly more expensive, thus my questioning the build quality. A couple of the accessories are a bit more expensive too. I am ok with having a milder smoke profile.
Yeah, grill carts are usually flimsy, poorly machined and useless. Sounds like just a poor design with that shelf. They should do better for a $100 upgrade.
Good info about the stack catching fire.
Thank you for taking time to write your experience. It is helpful.

[MBMorgan]

I've owned an OG for a little over five years (since 9/18). Technically I guess, I've owned two OG's. The first one they sent out had a weird tendency to burn back into the auger and rather than fart around with trying to remotely fix something they had never seen before, the folks at Grilla asked me to return it so they could diagnose it and implement a permanent fix in the OG. They shipped me a brand new unit (everything at their cost) in 12/18 ... and that one's been working flawlessly ever since.

It can zip right up to, and maintain, its maximum design temp (450ºF) in about 20 minutes every time ... regardless of weather conditions ... and I've never experienced that weird burn-back problem with it.

I do keep it clean (including/especially the ambient temp probe) and I don't mess around with dusty, bargain pellets. I burn Grilla-brand 99% of the time supplemented with BBQr's Delight flavor pellets on occasion.

Construction is simply excellent. The double-wall design seems to do its job well even at 6300 ft in cold Colorado winter weather.

I upgraded it to the new Alpha Connect controller when it was released in 2021 and, like the original controller, it's worked flawlessly.

As an actual OG owner, I can confirm that it's smoke flavor profile is quite good ... if you take care to understand how to manage the fact that, in the end, it's a wood pellet cooker. Not an offset. Not a grill.

FWIW, we recently ordered a new OG as a gift to our son. Like mine, his is working perfectly (down near sea level on the East coast).

Bottom line ... I've got nothing but praise for Grilla Grills and the OG. Best of luck in your search for a new rig ...

Edit: I just noticed that Carolyn mentioned having both a pellet cooker and a gas grill. That's what I have (the OG and a Weber EP-330) ... and they make a perfect combo.

[Carolyn]

Thank you. You made a good point there, and I agree with you. I don't expect a pellet cooker to act like another type of cooker.

[Jerod Broussard]

Carolyn

I have a Weber gas GRILL with upside-down GrillGrates across from my pellet SMOKER.

Guess which does which.

[jfmorris]

Yep. I think that is a good combination to have. Pellet cookers are really smokers, not grills. I hate that so many people get one thinking it will do everything, or at least everything well.

[Carolyn]

Makers of pellet cookers decided to try to bridge a gap and call them pellet grills, which raised expectations for what they can do. I can live without a searing function on the cooker.
jfmorris I agree. Most things that advertise multiple functions perform one task well, and the rest not so much.

[Jerod Broussard]

Carolyn which is why we DON'T refer to them as grills.

[Carolyn]

Thank guys. You all have given me a few things to think about.

I have been looking at gas grills as well or possibly a griddle. I think I would be happy with either combination.

[Sid P]

Just a note about smoke profiles. For the four years prior to buying a Silverbac last June I smoked on a Weber Smokey Mountain, a Weber kettle with SnS, and a PBC, all charcoal smokers, and a KBQ stick burner. All produced great food. Food quality was my number one worry when buying a pellet grill, and like you I read and researched long past the point of paralysis by analysis. I finally took the plunge, and have never regretted it. The Silverbac makes wonderful, smoky food that I am proud to serve to my family and friends. While the OG may have a slightly higher smoke profile, I doubt you’d notice it in anything other than a direct side by side comparison. I’d take smoke profile off your list of criteria, and let other factors determine your choice.

The pic below is from last weekend, and my friends said it was incredible. The plate ribs I shared the next day (sorry, no pics) with my brother and his family were even better, and they said it was the best beef they’d ever had.


BTW, the cord on my Silverbac is only 5-6’ feet long. That’s my only complaint about it.

[Carolyn]

That looks really good.
Thank you for your input and the info on the cord.

[DrJimmy2112]

Carolyn, I empathize with your situation much. I am the person who back started the post referenced by bep35 above.
Bottom line - I believe that the Grilla build quality is quite good. I have never had a single problem at cooking temps < 300, ever. The warm up process seems to predictably "stall" at 190 F for a bit then picks up again. I always leave the door open about 1/2" during the time to get to temp. If I want to cook at anything 325F or more, it can struggle. So, just as Jerod Broussard states he does above, I have my old Weber Genesis right across from the OG to use for such needs.
FWIW -
Things I love about my OG - unique shape and cool as beans Grilla shaped window to the flame. I keep that window clean just to see the flames! (Still a kid at heart). Also, the double wall construction allows cooking thru the Wisconsin winter just fine. Again, I avoid cook temps at or above 350 F. I also love the fact that I don't waste as much heat when I open the swing door, as compares to a lift lid on a Treager or a Silverback, etc. I think it makes a difference. The smoke profile is plenty for me. Lastly, I have been able to cook for a family of 5 on it (sometimes packed) just fine. In fact I did nearly 50 lbs of pork shoulder in 2 cooks last summer, with great results.
Things I don't like - Doesn't perform well at temps > 325F as I note. The annoying "stall" at 190 F during warm up. Somehow grease does escape the deflector plate/grease collector under the cooking grates and run down the inside walls. However this has never resulted in grease dripping on my deck floor.
Bottom line - I am satisfied despite the imperfections. I do think it is better built than the mass produced Treagers and a lot of comparably priced pellet cookers. I would recommend the OG overall to anyone, but would not promise that it cooks at higher temps or that it functions as a grill. (However, I would expect it to deliver higher cooking temps on GrillGrates as GG claims, based upon my experience with GrillGrates on my Weber.

Hope that helps - Best wishes and happy BBQ-ing!

[Carolyn]

Thanks a bunch.
Your thoughts are helpful. I read your threads regarding the OG. Sounded frustrating, but like you said, you have to work within the limitations of the cooker. Thanks for the info about the internal grease issue.
I am thinking I need to get a grill and a pellet cooker. I do like door on the OG, and the upper space seems less cramped than the other cookers out there. I am in no hurry since it never goes on sale, but the price could jump up. OY