At high temps, what is the difference between a pellet grill and a gas grill?

[texastweeter]

IF I was to buy a pellet pooper it would be a Rec-Tec, or more likely the one made by PitMaker.

[Smoking77]

Have never heard of PitMaker. Will definitely check them out. Thanks!

[Smoking77]

Check out the warranty details for the pellet cookers you are leaning towards. Rec Tec has a 6yr warranty. I don't think anyone else comes close to that.

Rod Trailblazer is a 2 year warranty, Stampede is 4. Traeger 575 and Woodwind 3 years. Silverback is 4. Think I should steer away from the Stampede because of the 2 year?

[Rod]

Can't speak to the Stampede. I have the RT 680. That's the predessor to the 700. I assumed all their grills were a 6yr warranty. I have NO basis for saying this, but I always get a little concerned when a company rapidly grows. They came out with a whole new line last fall. Customer service and quality tends to erode when they grow to fast. Again, I have no basis on this for Rec Tec.

[Polarbear777]

Given your plan I’d get the 26” and an XL slow n sear install the fan adapter for the cuberQ and and smoke a bunch of stuff on that and sear over the SNS or a lit chimney while you are researching the pellet grills :-)

[Smoking77]

Not a bad idea

[KenC52]

Not a fan of gas grills. Have owned a few in the past and seem to remember that they didn't get as hot as I wanted, somewhere around 450 I think. Charcoal of course will get hot enough to smelt iron (which is how it was originally done). My Pitt Boss Tailgater will hit 550 at Max, and makes the best grilled pizza I have ever cooked (I do use a smoke tube at those temps for added smoke flavor). Also the Pitt Boss has a searing section that works pretty well for something small like a steak or maybe 3 or 4 burgers. For searing larger things, or more of them, I turn to my Blackstone griddle.

[Sweaty Paul]

With my Yoder it will get to 600 degrees F and really sear well. The area for searing is smaller than on my gasser and my Weber Kettle. However, with the grill grates I get an excellent sear. Smoke profile is less, however, it’s less on charcoal at that temp too. That said, I’m often doing a reverse sear so I have the smoke flavor from the slow cook portion of the cook.

[hogdog6]

I just replaced my gasser with a Yoder for this exact reason. Can get a better sear than my gasser and still get some wood smoke.

[Superchief05]

texastweeter No, just a regular gas grill (which I already own). If I bought a pellet and got Grill Grates for it, would that help with the sear?

I have a Traeger Ironwood 885 and I do use grill grates. Here are 2 cowboy steaks I smoked to 115 internal, then seared at 450 on the grill grates

[glitchy]

The biggest difference is that a pellet grill is primarily indirect cooking unless you have a model that has a special feature to open access to the burn pot for direct grilling. Memphis has this as well as several others now. I've cooked some pretty good steaks reverse searing on my Memphis Pro on the open burn pot, but generally still prefer my steaks over charcoal. Something about that flavor and easy searing on a steak. GrillGrates definitely help, but if you've cooked good steaks over charcoal before, you'll still probably go back to that.

I spent a long time looking for that one grill/smoker to do it all. I thought the Memphis was it, but I still have my Performer and added a gasser back to the mix. They're each great at their own thing (gasser primarily for quick and super easy). For smoking you cannot beat the ease of a Pellet grill.

[Superchief05]

I agree about the charcoal. In my MCS delerium, I purchased a PK grill. Smoked on the traeger and finished on my PK is my preferred method, but we are under a fire ban here so I used the traeger for the entire cook.

[Smoking77]

@supercheif05 When MCS gets ahold of me again, I'll be getting a 26 in Kettle or a PK grill

[Smoking77]

Thanks everyone for all the help! About a month ago, I bought Grill Grates for my gas grill, which does a great job on searing. I also bought a RecTec Stampede (will do a separate post regarding my first cook soon). I haven't smoked on the Stampede, then finished by searing on the gas grill yet, but I'm looking forward to doing that with a steak soon.

[bten]

I think one of the main differences between the two is the high gas flow rates and flow patterns. A gas grill has a very high gas flow rate, (combustion gasses). There is no moisture in the fuel, so it is more likely to dry out your food if left at say 400 degrees for an hour, than a pellet grill. The wood pellets contain some moisture, so that they do carry that through and the combustion gasses have less of a tendency to dry out the food. I think the total gas flow is less in a pellet grill. (just think about how "open" the back of a gas grill is).

I have tried smoke tubes on a gas grill, many times the problem is that with burners that go front to back, the smoke travels that way as well. putting a smoke tube on the side of your food doesn't do much good. The smoke goes out the back. The tube needs to be in front of the food. sometimes finding room to do this is difficult.