Does anyone have any reviews of the Twin Eagle smoker?
Thanks,
Matt
Thanks,
Matt
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Salutations from Hays, Kansas!Comment
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Welcome from Colorado ... are you referring to a grill or a smoker?Comment
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Looks like a nice rig!Comment
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Welcome to the forum Matt. At the price point on the Twin Eagle products, I'm guessing there aren't many owners of that particular grill. But you might get lucky and one will speak up. It does look like a winner looking at the website and their videos.Comment
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Based on the review of their gas grill, I am certain that their pellet smoker is top notch, but you won't find many people with experience with it at that price point.
If I had that big a budget and wanted to get into the pellet game, I think there are a lot of smokers for 1/2 or 1/3 of that price that I would look at first - Yoder, MAK, etc.Comment
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Twin Eagles equipment is excellent, as it should be for the luxurious price tags. I've seen their pellet smoker in person and it sure looks nice. Alas, I've invited them to send us products to test and, so far, they have politely declined.Comment
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Matt, did you ever get a reply about that smoker, or did you pull the trigger and get one? I am looking at one for my new outdoor kitchen, and like you I am very curious if they turn out good QComment
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Welcome to the pit from Southern Illinois!Comment
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Hi Guys: Twin Eagle Pellet Grill
I am in the process of installing a Twin Eagles Pellet Grill. My new outdoor kitchen will feature a gas Twin Eagles grill, the pellet Twin Eagles and a Weber kettle. I have thirty years experience on the Weber kettle and it is, by far, the grill I have used the most often. I grill, smoke, and run a rotisserie on the Weber kettle. Fantastic results with the Weber! There is probably nothing I can't do on it with panache except a 12 hour brisket that takes a lot of tending. I also cook on a low end offset stick burner that I have tuned to cook really well. I also have several Weber gassers that get used mostly when I am in an extreme hurry to get something grilled or need multiple grills for a big bash.
So in the new house and new outdoor kitchen, I am reducing my equipment to the two Twin Eagles, gas and pellet, and the Weber. Goal of going pellet is to take advantage of the opportunity to cook/smoke for a long time with less fire tending. I was going to buy a Mak 2 Star as I had researched it and learned that it can get good smoke flavor, unlike the Traegers and other low end smokers that are a challenge to even get to medium smoke in your meat. (i have tried them) I went with the Twin Eagles because it is 480 lbs of beautiful and gleaming 304 stainless steel. Its specs are phenomenal and comes with everything you will ever need, WiFi. temp probes, rotisserie, front loading, double walled hood, led lights. large capacity and built like a tank. However, I must admit that I would not have bought it but for the fact that my local dealer made me an offer that "I couldn't refuse."
I will be up and running at the new house in a few weeks. I will report back to everybody on how it goes with the Twin Eagles pellet cooker. I have high hopes and I will get back to all with the unvarnished truth as to whether this mountain of 304 stainless lives up to its price, and whether it performs as good as it looks.
BrianLast edited by briano52; March 25, 2020, 09:54 PM.Comment
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Same setup going in here in spring 2021 as part of an outdoor kitchen/bar and pool.
Going with the 36" gasser, the power burner, and the pellet grill. Also all Twin Eagles cabinetry. Getting antsy already. I was going with a Summerset Alturi grill and built ins with a Memphis Elite until I realized the Memphis was now made in China. I have power industry related experience with Chinese 304SS so was scared off of that. Nothing against Summerset, just can now stay with one brand.
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Brian's First Twin Eagles Pellet Grill Cook:
OK Guys and Gals here are my initial impressions:- This grill is built like a tank. If Twin Eagles made military tanks out of this 305 steel in a heavy gage, then TE would get the contract.
- The hinges and doors are very solid and well placed. The ash/grease catching trays (disposable foil pans) are wonderful.
- The Wi-Fi interface has a large and beautiful touch screen. TE has an app for your phone that can run the cooker from you home Wi-Fi or a Wi-Fi signal broadcast from the grill itself. Connecting to my home Wi-Fi system proved to be a long and painful process and then the grill would not stay connected. After an hour or so I gave up and used the grill based signal. It worked fine except then my phone was dedicated to the grill signal and not my home Wi-Fi. This feature needs work although I don't care that much about wireless communication with my cooker. I prefer to pull up a comfortable chair and asked not to be disturbed while "I am cooking". I read the Sunday papers on my iPad, enjoy an adult libation and occasionally check my temps. But I am cooking the whole time.
- Starting the cooker. This went well. No problems.
- Temperature control. Now this is key feature of pellet grills. The idea is that you set and forget. Well maybe not completely forget, but you shouldn't have to check temps near as often as on your stick burner or kettle. The day before my first cook, I cleaned the grill and made it shiny and sparkly. I put foil over the plates. Fired it up and it reached the target temp in 15 minutes and held the temp there without a hitch.
- Today I was cooking four racks of ribs. They fit easily laying flat on the very expansive grate. I also put a Thermaworks high quality temp probe in at grill level. I set the target temp on the grill interface at 225 and then I noticed that when the TE grill interface read 225, my probe was at 165. I initially chocked this up to the meat cooling the grill level temp and that was probably true to some extent. Then 45 minutes went by and I could not get my probe over 200 while the TE grill said 225 the whole time. Eventually I set the grill target temp at 350 and then I got the grill level probe to read 240. I kept cooking at this setting thinking that my my baby backs would not get done in the 5 hours that I planned. (These baby back were unusually thick and more like spare ribs) Amazing to me, the ribs were cooked at about 3.5 hours A cook time faster than the temp readouts would have suggested.I did not get the grate level temp over 200 for the first 2 hours.
- Impression: Every new cooker has it own individual ways about it. Clearly I need to work with this guy to figure out how to best manage cooking temps. I am not sure but I think that the TE measures temp about 8" above the grill grates. So I did expect my grate level probe to be higher than the TE readout. Even still, the temps between the two gages varied wildly. This issue needs work for me to understand this machine.
- Smoke Flavor: I used Lumberjack oak pellets.I thought the smoked flavor in my ribs was light-moderate. I really liked the smoke flavor profile of my cook although it was decidedly on the light side. The smoke was clearly present but blended nicely with my meat, rub and sauce flavors. I sauced lightly at 20 minutes before taking the ribs off the grill and the sauce set up a thin glaze. So IMHO, the balance between smoke and other flavors was good. Guests loved the ribs but my SO said she wanted more smoke but she was the only person who said that and my friends are not bashful about letting me know how they like their BBQ.
- Final Comment: For a first cook on new equipment, I was quite happy. I think I need to learn the temp control better to be able to predict cooking times to coordinate with the entertaining schedule and to calm my nerves. I really like working with the strong and sturdy grates, solid double walled hood, large display screen, convenient ash/grease trays. I have high hopes for this TE pellet grill. I will keep posting and let you all know how the cooking on this beautiful machine goes. I have a lot of years/decades with my offset stick burner and Weber kettle cookers. They are wonderful cookers and they had a steep learning curve to get to really good grilling and BBQ. I have a feeling that getting to know this TE pellet grill will be easier.
Last edited by briano52; March 25, 2020, 09:59 PM.Comment
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Update from the Factory on TE Pellet Grill
In my first go on the TE pellet grill as described above, I mentioned that my on the grate level thermometer registered significantly lower temps than did the TE's readout. At times the two thermometers came closer together but my thermometer seemed to track what was happening more closely than did TE. So I asked the TE factory where the grill was taking its reading. As expected, the TE thermocouple is about 6" to 8" above the grate. They explained that they wanted to give a readout that would represent what was happening on both the upper and lower grates. The TE pellet grill has three levels of racks.
This seemed like a reasonable strategy to me, mostly because on my first cook the ribs came out in a time that was closer to what I expected from the TE grill temp readouts than my on the grill level temp readings. Of course, this experience needs more testing on my part.
Another variable at work here: In my stick burner, I usually put my ribs in a wire rack where the ribs are placed vertically close to one another. No doubt that putting multiple racks in close proximity to one another will lengthen cooking time, all other things being equal. In my inaugural rib cook on the TE, the bottom grate is so big that I laid four full racks of ribs flat on the grate. I believe that the position of the ribs with maximum surface exposure to convection and radiant heating shortened my expected cook time relative to what I was used to on my offset stick burner using the rack.
So I will keep up the postings on my TE experience and try to isolate the variables to help me understand this cooker and to share with you all how this cooker works.
BrianLast edited by briano52; February 7, 2020, 12:30 AM.Comment
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That is a freaking impressive looking pellet grill.Comment
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