First pellet grill recommendations

[Jade]

First off, sorry if this has already been discussed previously in other threads. My older sister (who is a red seal chef by the way) is considering purchasing her first smoker this summer and since I'm available I'm tasked with doing all of the research. I've been reading countless reviews and top 10 lists and have talked to a local barbecue store called Barbecue World here in Whitby Ontario Canada and it would seem that a pellet grill is the best option. She wants to hot and cold smoke and I am not sure if cold smoking can be done in a pellet grill. I'm looking for something that is easy to use and is reliable with good customer service. A good warranty wouldn't be a bad thing either. We are complete newbies when it comes to smoking so any help would be appreciated. Price point would be $1000 and under. I should mention that I'm totally blind and with the wifi feature that some grills have maybe I could program it and monitor a cook from my iPhone which talks. Thoughts?

[Smoking77]

I haven't actually purchased anything yet, but have been doing a lot of research myself. With tons of excellent assistance from people on this site, I'll be purchasing a Rec Tec Stampede 590 in the next few weeks (aka once I clean out the years of junk from the garage). Seems to have everything you're looking for.

[ken g]

I've had my Stampede for a few months now. You won't be disappointed.

[Elton's BBQ]

Or maybe a traeger of some kind..

[Northern lights smoke]

Hello, My recommendation would be a REC TEC bull 700 pellet smoker. It is a little higher priced than your price point, but it has an amazing cold smoke box add on, it has a full 6 year warranty and the customer service is based right out of their office in Atlanta, they are 2nd to none. Has wifi, the barrel is all stainless! That would be my choice. I own the larger 2500 that we bought this year. We are competition bbq and have always used stick smokers,but we needed more space for catering and was getting tired of babysitting long cooks. Could not be more impressed with REC TEC as our first pellet smoker and as a company. Good luck on whatever you choose! Al

[BigD]

Northern lights smoke, how are you liking the 2500 BFG? Looks like a fine piece of equipment but some reviews out in the interwebs scare me with the temp fluctuations that some people have been having. Care to share your experience with it?

[Northern lights smoke]

BigD we have not had any of those problems. REC TEC has been able to help those people who have had those issues by having them simply slowing down the auger speed. If that didn't work they would send new controller. Our first KCBS contest we placed 5th overall with it. Love all the space,wifi, all stainless 304, and especially the customer service including the owners phone number. For our first pellet smoker we could not be more pleased! This BFG is a beast. + a six year full warranty!

[pkadare]

A little higher priced when you look at the price in USD. Over $1500 when converted to CAD.

[Noverini]

Yoder YS640S, you won't regret it.

[ofelles]

2nd

[klflowers]

Get ready - you will probably get lots of recommendations. We have a small Traeger Scout that we travel with, but if I was going to get a larger pellet grill I would probably go with a Grilla Silverback Pro. Headquartered in Michigan (where I am from); they have a pretty good reputation.

[au4stree]

Based on your budget that excludes the Yoder YS640s, which is what I would buy today if I wanted another pellet smoker. I owned a Traeger for about 10 years, it was a great cooker, but not without it's issues. They are mechanical and will break. But to their credit, they always sent replacement items and were good to deal with over the phone. I've seen good reviews on Rec-Tec and Grilla Grills. Traeger just recently re-tooled their line up and have added lots of nice features, particularly your need for wi-fi connection. Check out their Pro or Ironwood Series. Good luck

By the way, you can absolutely cold smoke on the pellet cookers. I found it best to utilize an amazin tube smoker and a bowl of ice water (in hotter weather). My old Traeger would get down to 180*F, which isn't exactly cold smoking, thus the need for the smoke tube.....

[Greasy]

You're in Whitby? Is that 1000 CAD or USD? How badly do you really want to pay shipping for American product (Rec Tec) and then go through the hassle (and/or expense) of getting it through customs? Grilla is available in Canada but only in the Calgary area. Do you really want to pay to ship a grill 1300 miles? You're further ahead to see what is available at your price point locally and go from there. You'll get more relevant responses to your situation.

[Jade]

Oh geez, I didn't even think of that. It would probably cost me a small fortune to import a grill from the states with the exchange at this juncture. Although, shipping from Calgary to Ontario might not be too bad.

[MBMorgan]

I'm a huge Grilla fan and, in addition to their smokers being physically available in Airdrie, AB, they now ship to Canada.

Note that Grilla does not yet offer WiFi for their smokers.

Here's a link to their "Canada" page with info about how to proceed: https://grillagrills.com/canada-shipping/

[klflowers]

Wife is making me choose between a chimp and a camp chef griddle set up. Since she likes the camp chef, looks like the chimp is out for now.

[THE Humble Texan]

I bought the large Green Mountain Grill a few years back and it seems to do what it is supposed to do. When I have to replace it I may just try using my stainless steel gasser and a pellet/chip tube I have not yet tried my tube in the gasser but I am going to give it a try before spending that much for a second grill.

[Jade]

How do you like your Green Mountain? They seem to have a lower price point compared to Yoder, Rec Tec, etc. What's their warranty? If I'm not mistaken, they are headquartered in Alberta.

[THE Humble Texan]

Everything they claim seem to be correct. I would pay more money for one that was all stainless steel. I have not had any problems to know how they react to problems.

[dahcopilot]

i have had a daniel boone for about 3 years, so far it has performed flawlessly. feel like i have gotten my moneys worth out of it already, about 500 bucks

[JimLinebarger]

Many pellet grills have WIFI capability and apps that go with that. My questions is, will the app you use to have the phone talk to you and you talk to the phone work with the apps that run the pellet grill? The apps are usually free from these grill sites and can be downloaded from the app store so you could test them out. When you narrow it down to a few grills, you could contact their customer service and talk to them about this feature. Also, for cold smoking, you can purchase a Smokedaddy cold smoker (they have 3 sizes) that can also be attached to a pellet grill. Smokedaddy also sells pellet grills that are cold smoker ready as an option. These cold smokers produce more smoke than A-maze-N tubes, but do require electricity for the air pump. So, little more to them than the tubes, but it is an option.

I, too, am looking for a pellet grill but am trying to save up some money to give myself more options and not just lock myself into smaller rigs. The rigs suggested already - Traeger, Green Mountain Grill, Grilla Grills, all have grills under $1000 but not all are WIFI capable.

[Jade]

Yeah that's going to be the challenge. I use Apple's builtin screenreader called VoiceOver which reads me all text that is on the touch screen and it allows me to navigate the screen and apps just as long as app developers have allowed for accessibility. That's why I was thinking the wifi enabled grills might be a better choice because I won't be able to navigate the touch pad or temp knob without sighted assistance.

[mountainsmoker]

Get the very best you can. Do not go cheap. Some are basic smokers, some can grill also. The higher the price is not always an indicator of the quality. Traeger to me is over rated, especially in there lower priced grills. I had a Grilla that was a jewel but it cost over $1000. I am still not sold on the technology I gave away the Grilla.

Good luck on your search and hope you find a good one.

[Jade]

I'm assuming that you don't have a pellet grill then? I'm not necessarily aiming to get the cheapest model, but realistically I should stay around the $1000 price point given that this would be my entry into this market.

[MBMorgan]

Way back when they launched Grilla Grills, the Original Grilla (OG) was priced around $1600. Today, even after many improvements, there is no Grilla smoker priced above $1000 USD.

[THE Humble Texan]

One thing about the WIFI....while it will talk to you, don't plan on getting too far away from home in case you wind up with a bridge in the pellet box that prevents the auger from feeding the burner. The only thing that I can figure will save this problem is an stirring mechanism like in your fridge ice maker. It would only need to stir every 20-30 minutes IMO

[Murdy]

If your in Canada, if I recall correctly, Broil King is a Canadian company (somebody correct me if I'm wrong, please). Should be able to get their stuff up there, I'd think, without having to worry about the exchange rate. I have a Broil King made gas grill, and really like it. They came out with a pellet grill not too long ago I think, I cannot speak to it's quality, but maybe some else on here can.