Best Pellet cooker to buy for $3500 or less

[T-bone]

Congrats! Let us know how the assembly and first cook goes. I can't wait until it's my turn.

[Huskee]

Meathead loves his! In fact, most of his recipe development is done on his MAK 2. Enjoy! We'd love to see pics of the purdy beast when you get it.

[mountainsmoker]

Congrats on your purchase. I am waiting to see what the Lone Star looks like.

[Jfrosty27]

I had not seen this post before I posted my Rec Tec rave blow. Good for you! The MAK is a beast and will serve you well for many years I am sure. Keep us posted on your results with it!

[Jfrosty27]

I have had a Rec Tec RT700 Bull for just about a year now. I cook on it year round (WI resident) about 2-3 times per week. Can’t rave about it enough considering what it cost. I loaded it up with just about every accessory offered and spent about $2,000 delivered. But with your higher budget, admittedly there are others units to consider. I might have gone a different path had I had your budget level. Yoder, MAK, Memphis, Fast Eddy/Cookshack come to mind.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Hopefully you love it, it was the hardest thing ever to spend that much money on something I couldn't touch. But the minute I started assembling it, it just exuded quality and attention to detail. I roll smoke generally 1x a week if not 3+. I definitely don't take care of my MAK as well as some folks do and it still operates as great as the day I bought it. I can even clean it up and make it look brand new with a little elbow grease Couldn't do that with my previous grills, they'd be rust

[Subman658]

Just purchased MAK 2 Star grill! Now waiting for it to ship!

[T-bone]

I’d vote for the Mak 2 Star. That’s what I have my eye on when my ancient Traeger passes away.

[Subman658]

Well the Weber SmokeFire is out with all the problems! So I might go with either the Mak 2 Star or a Yoder YS 640s or the Lone Star Grillz Pellet Grill coming out in the spring. That’s what I have narrowed it down to!

[GolfGeezer]

MAK 2 Star. Made in Oregon, built like a tank, great smoking and grilling, top notch customer support, 304 stainless throughout, easy to swap pellets, easy to clean out firepot, easy to dump grease, WiFi if you want it, large capacity.

[Mosca]

21” is $3560. But once you’ve decided to spend $3500 to essentially hold a fire, you might as well look at it as an order of magnitude issue. As long as it’s still only 4 figures, it’s all the same!

[Alphonse]

I am late to the thread but looks the discussion and decision are still open. I will offer a view.

I went through these studies in September and October last year. I looked and poked for a couple of months.

I landed on a Yoder YS640s. It is built like a tank and equally important, the control system is a FireBoard based unit. For me, that put the Yoder over the top particularly after I laid hands on one at a dealer.

Here's a thread showing a cook for our Super Bowl gathering. This thread doesn't showcase the grill as much as it does its FireBoard PID controller and a cook.

Enjoy your studies and good luck on finding a grill that fits your desires.

[Alphonse]

I am a KK fan but they don't make a pellet grill. Also the 3500 will not really get you one delivered other than their baby table model and that is questionable if you add any extras to it.

[Divotdog]

Love my Memphis, all stainless, cleans easily, direct cooking and indirect smoking. New ones are blue tooth and WiFi. Mine is ten years old. No problems and only had to replace the fuse twice. Good luck.

[hogdog6]

Good plan