Hello Folks - been looking at several pellet grills, seems Yoders YS1500 pretty much fits my needs. It's a little pricey so I thought to post a quick feedback request here. Any comments, suggestions or ideas are welcome!
Thanks, RZ
Thanks, RZ
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Wow, that YS1500 is some smoker! Other than CandySueQ, I don't know that I've talked to anyone on here with anything larger than the YS640. She has the Cimarron I believe, and may have some insight into the larger Yoder pellet rigs.
If it is for backyard use, not knowing what cookers you already have, I would personally split that cash between a YS640 and a Loaded Witchita. That gives you a great pellet smoker and a great offset. I am partial to offsets though, but they do take a lot more fire management.Last edited by jfmorris; January 23, 2019, 01:40 PM. -
I do not own one, but everyone I know that has a Yoder is very happy with it. CandySueQ is the queen of the Yoder world. I know she has a few custom made Yoder pits in her arsenal.Comment
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20 lbs hopper seems light for such a large cooker.Comment
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Pound an hour at low. Two at higher temp. I’d be curious about the burn rate on the Memphis Raichlen uses on Project Smoke, which seems to use the same style burn pot. -
Not surprisingly it does burn more at higher temps probably 2 lbs/hr at 300 to 350. It’ll really burn some when I turn it up to 500, however, it does get there easily. If I’m a good boy and don’t peak I’m pleased with how well it does. Overall I think it is more efficient than my GMG David Bowie. -
Higher temps will of course consume more pellets. The other variable is what the difference is between the outside temp and the temp inside your cooker. Doing a 7 hour cook at 250/275 on Monday, with the outdoor temp in the low teens, I went through a lot more pellets than I do in the summer with the temp in the 90's.
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I have the YS-640 and love it. I don’t know anyone with a 1500, but, think the quality would be the same and you would likely be happy. I average about a pound of pellets/hr at 225 sometimes a little less depending on temp, but, especially wind (Western Kansas has wind). Love my pit and recommend it without reservations. Good luck.Comment
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RZ: I think it's a good product. I'm a LONG-range purchase guy who researches everything way too much, and had set my sights on that exact Yoder while saving up and studying. Here's why I have to say "I think." After about a year of planning on buying it, I broke bad and recently bought the Pitts and Spitts Maverick instead. It's a bit bigger and heavier construction, and has a larger (35 lb) pellet hopper. Also, in their user forum I noticed quite a few Yoder "converts." Most of their complaints had to do with paint issues and a lighter smoke flavor, but lighter smoke flavor is a gripe on many pellet grills (and some people prefer that).
Anyway, other than paint issues, I don't remember anyone saying anything negative about the actual FOOD they cooked on the Yoder. And that's the most important thing. I'd encourage you to take at look at the P&S also, but you'll no doubt get decades of use out of a Yoder.Comment
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Personally, I think the name says it all!
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1500 is a wonderful cooker. Like has been said above, my competition cooking rig is a Cimarron set up with pellets. I cook at 350 cook all 4 bbq meats at that temp and burn only 40# or less pellets on a 9 hour burn. That's 4.44# per hour at 350. I do think that removing the deflector plates helps keep the entire chamber hotter. Yoder dropped the exhaust stack to the middle of the cooking chamber and that's changed airflow. Towards the end of the year last year, I started dropping set temp. I may be below 300 this year!
You can get more heat out of your pellets (and use less) by adding some Jack Daniel's charcoal pellets to the other pellets you want to smoke with. The pellet Jambo used 60# for a comp cook. With JD pellets, the same cook used 40#.Comment
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Not to make your decision tougher, but I'm going to be buying a Rec Tec in the next week or two. I went back and forth between that and the Yoder 640 for a long time. At the end of the day I just couldn't justify the extra expenses for myself. Now I can imagine you're all wondering why is this wacko talking about Rec Tec when the largest smoker they make is 700 sq inches. Well, when I was in the process of finalizing my decision I saw that they posted need of a big announcement coming in February. Wanting to make sure I wasn't going to be missing out on something if I bought before that I have them a call to see if I could find anything out. Of course they told me that they couldn't reveal any specifics and that if I was going to get the RT-700 I should just go ahead and do that to meet my needs. The big announcement would only be pertinent to someone who would be doing things more towards the catering side. So sounds like Rec Tec is going to be dropping a large capacity cooker onto the market come next month.Comment
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The Bull is I think 1k sq inch with the shelf added, this Yoder is a bit over 1500 sq inches with both shelves. I believe the only quality pellet cooker on the market in that size range is Pitts and Spitts. To be honest, I was looking hard at the RT-700 but there was some very questionable stuff going on with their new Bullseye cookers and the way they responded to reports about quality being very poor. Maybe they will overcome that with a new product and how that is received
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Yep, the RT-700 wouldn't be applicable to the application RonZoni is looking for. I'm saying that I called Rec Tec about their big announcement next month and that they told me it would only be of interest to me if I was looking to do things on a catering level of BBQ. So it sounds like Rec Tec is going to be coming out with a cooker that is much larger than the 700. -
Between the two:
Goes over 1200 sq inches... Bit more pricey, but has a larger hopper (4 whole lbs... IKR), can dial up to 700 somehow, double walled, so likely perform better in the cold, and maybe you like the cart better or maybe you don't.
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So these are the results of the big announcement from Rec Tec that came out today:
Definitely a bigger option than the RT-700, and the YS-1500. As someone who spends what is probably way too much time researching every option, just wanted to provide that for someone else if they were so inclined.Comment
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Already ordered the new Rec Tec BFG2500. Still a lot smaller than my stick burner but can't wait till they start shipping.Comment
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