But I live in So. Cal and easy peasy is the center of life. I have friends that ask what smoker they should buy. And because I know they want to enjoy life rather than sit around and baby sit an offset, I always recommend a pellet pooper.
What manufacturer/unit would do you recommend between $1500-$2500. For my friends, not me.....really
It would be hard for me to pass on a LSG right now. I love my Blazn' Grill works. I think I got it in 2018. Grid Iron I think is the model, it is the larger of the two.
The Standard for Pellet Grills
The MAK One-Star General Grill is a rigorously tested pellet smoker-grill designed to create industry-leading clean, voluminous smoke output. The proprietary Pellet Boss controller responds in real time to readings from an industrial-grade roaming thermocouple, ensuri
There's a guy in the Bay Area looking to offload a MAK 1 star not sure the price but if it's not in that range he's smoking crack.
Personally I think the 2 star is worth the price jump just for flexibility of the 3 rack positions or having 4 racks total for thinner foods, but you won't find one new for 2,500... then again they do have a lifetime warranty and MAK is based in Dallas Oregon so it's driveable to check them out in person if you pair it with a trip to somewhere in NorCal and then on to something in that area (Medford and Crater lake are pretty cool but it's still quite a drive north to Dallas)
For that price, yeah, Yoder, the YS640S. MAK and LSG, maybe Pitts & Spitts? Or the big Rectec if they need a lot of room. Not as solidly built, but definitely one of the better mass produced units, and if you take care of it, will likely last a long, long time.
I figured you were trolling, or maybe had a concussion 🤣. My buddy loves his Yoder YS640, but he’s pretty well off and insisted on buying American. I think a RecTeq or Grilla will do the job just fine for more casual users.
I love my Recteq. (See my avatar). Aren’t the LSG, MAK, and Yoder units above the price range you stated? Might be in there on the base price but by the time you add a few options and of course shipping, probably not. 🤷♂️
A Big Green Egg or Kamado Joe with a Smobot does great overnight cooks to serve for noon. That is a possibility for easy, but there is more of a learning curve on a Kamado, I would think. What does Oak Smoke think?
The Woodwind Pro pellet grill brings easy and delicious BBQ right to your back patio. WIFI enabled, with a new smoke box. The smoker that can grill, bake, simmer, roast, roll low and slow or hot and fast is finally here. Look no further than the wood wind pro for the ultimate smoker/grill combination.
There's been a lot of complaints in other forums about QC and that customer service is far from simple to navigate. The later I find odd as a few years ago CCs CS was allegedly top teir for a big box brand.
ItsAllGoneToTheDogs That is disappointing. I guess I have to default back to Grilla for reasonably priced pellet smokers except if the use case call for Recteq.
Yeah I noticed Bradley Robinson (aka Chud) said his CC Woodwind Pro bit the dust. He didn't go much into it, but I got the impression he wasn't impressed.
LA Pork Butt I’ve never cooked on a pellet grill. I see my neighbors cook on their’s and evidently there’s a learning curve there. One of them was over last night and told all the trouble he had yesterday. He put on a pork butt then went on about his day only to discover a couple of hours later that his fire was out. I think he said he ran out of pellets. So he refilled then started again only to discover later that it was truly on fire. He ended up starting over with a new pork butt and was successful in cooking it. I think everything has a learning curve. I do love my kamados and there was a learning curve there too. With them it was more about learning to deal with the low air flow and high moisture content of the cooking area. I ended up cooking most things hotter than with other cookers. I cook brisket at 300 F and love the way it comes out. With a Smobot on my kamado I feel I get great flavor, absolute temp control, and set it, forget it, too. I can see the appeal of a pellet rig, especially in someone’s life where time is hard to come by. I can do anything in my kamado my wife can do in our oven. I can then open it and do just about anything she can do on her stove top. I have no idea if that’s true with a pellet rig.
The Camp Chef Woodwind Pro should be a serious consideration in this case. I saw your comment about concerns with QC and customer service. It's important to remember anytime we see complaints online about any product we are only seeing people who need help or like to gripe. We don't see posts from people simply saying, "Hey, I just wanted to post that all is good with my _____" . I've been using my Woodwind Pro for just over a year and I have had zero problems with it. I've been impressed with how solidly built it is, especially compared to their other models.
The smoke box feature is the thing that really sets it apart. The ability to control the amount and quality of smoke you want on your food is where it shines. Of course you get the convenience of a pellet smoker where you don't have to monitor and work to control your heat/smoke like you do on other types of smokers, but you also get the smoke flavors that often aren't achievable on pellet smokers. (For background, I've owned a variety of smokers - offset, drum, other pellets, bullet) While experimenting with the Woodwind Pro at the beginning I embarrassingly learned it's possible to over-smoke the food with it. You know, that strong, acrid, burning smoke flavor. So the ability to customize your smoke flavor is a nice function. It's definitely worth consideration IMO.
Totally agree on the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro recommendation. The smoke box does require more tending than a pellet smoker alone. I'm usually adding more chunks about every 30 to 45 minutes. The smoker is of course still handling the temperature management.
OC Sandy normally I would agree with you and tend to shrug off negative reviews/discussion for products, but there's a decent number of people all posting the same QC issues. Usually when there's a lot of complaints for a pellet grill its a bunch of random things and quite often user error/bad pellets etc.
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