Best Pellet cooker to buy for $3500 or less

[Subman658]

Still haven’t decided! I’m in no hurry! I leaning towards the Mak 2 star but waiting to hear reviews on the Weber Smokefire when it comes out!

[hogdog6]

Ditto

[KarchyBBQ]

Curious to hear what you’ve selected!

[Donw]

At least in my case they included touch up paint with my Yoder which I appreciated.

[ColonialDawg]

https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/pellet-grill/weber-smokefire-pellet-grill

[drobinson]

Maybe you should wait for the Weber Smokefire to be released this month and then read reviews. I have been cooking on Weber charcoal grills and smokers for 50 years, and have researched pellet grills/smokers for a few years. At this point none have met my standards, but if I go the pellet route it'll probably be with Weber. Checkout Meathead's review. Good luck.

[rwalters]

I have had a lot of cookers (propane, charcoal, sticks and pellets) go through my backyard over the past 25 years, some being pretty dog-gone nice. Out of all of them, without a doubt, the MAK 2 Star has been my all time favorite to cook on. I currently have a 2 Star and 26.75 kettle for when I get the charcoal itch. That said, 95% of all of my grilling/smoking is done on my MAK. I absolutely love it!

[hogdog6]

IMHO the ability to touch up the paint is a big plus. You can make it look brand new whenever you want to. Many other brands may have porcelain or powder coat that can chip or stainless steel gets scratched then it's that way forever.
Also Yoder makes there touch up paint available so no big deal matching the flat black color.

[Sweaty Paul]

I love my Yoder. And would highly recommend the YS-640. It does low and slow and will get to 600+ degrees if you want to sear or do high heat. Yes it does occasionally need paint touch up, however, I’ve done that once in 2 years. Good luck on your search!

[ColonialDawg]

You might want to wait for the Weber SmokeFire grill. While it certainly will fall well below your max budget ($1200), it might outperform the more expensive grills. Not saying it will, but so far its searing capability looks impressive. More money isn’t always better.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

The newest software (2019) on the MAK allows you to sear, and I do use it for grilling quite often. But like you said, the best combo with most pellet units is a second searing source (my ideal pairing is a flat top grill with my MAK). The MAK goes from off to sear pretty quickly, it just doesn't go fast enough from smoke temp to sear temp for my tastes. With careful planning I can time it to work, but it's not as convenient as it could be.

[glitchy]

How big of hurry are you in? As previously mentioned the Weber SmokeFire might be worth a look when it comes out. By the info released it should match just about any pellet grill for features. Over the past decade, I've had 3 Traegers, a GMG Daniel Boone, a Memphis Pro, and currently have a Camp Chef that I'm selling to a friend when my SmokeFire pre-order arrives. The funny thing is, when it comes to low and slow the food off them all pretty much tasted the same . Where they really differentiate is grilling/searing capabilities and appearance. The only grill of those I had that was truly capable of searing was the Memphis. Others would sometimes do OK with GrillGrates.

I bought the Memphis thinking that I would only need a single grill with it (that's why I went through so many others). My problem was I like to turn up the grill after pulling chuck roasts, butts or brisket and cook some sausages or throw on a pan of sliced potatoes and onions in foil and all the grease from the aforementioned meats started fires. I could have learned to deal with ways around it, but for me I decided I'd rather just have multiple grills and couldn't justify the Memphis being part of the collection if I could get a decent price back out of it and I did. If I had an outdoor kitchen, it would still be hard not to have a Memphis built in not be a part of it as they are beautifully crafted.

As mentioned, Yoder makes nice grills built like tanks. The only complaint I hear about them is having to touch the paint up regularly. I've always been intrigued by the CookShack PG500 or PG1000, but never felt like their capacity would suit me. I don't think I've ever heard a complaint about a Mak except maybe searing (but that's pretty much all pellet grills so far except Memphis). Your budget really opens up all but just a couple pellet grills on the market. Do you want an outdoor show piece? Or just the best all around value for whatever you do spend?

With your budget and location in a four season climate, I'd personally look to get something with at least partially double walled construction if you are going to use it in the winter.

[glitchy]

Yeah, I checked when the Beale Street first came out and the others still had a Made in USA declared on each of the product info pages. That has recently been removed. I have nothing against foreign made products, but I’m generally not going to pay American hand crafted prices for them. Especially, when they’ve gone up even more.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Never seen that before, super interesting pellet delivery. Really interested in the temp control on that as that's something I think will be coming at some point to more propane grills. Found a lot of mediocre reviews but they were all old, couldn't find any current model reviews anywhere other than their website.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

And to be fair, I don't have a problem buying a made in china grill or anything else. I just wouldn't be interested in one with shifty marketing relying on the reputation of the previous made in USA stuff and at a higher price when it is no longer made or assembled in the US.