Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Out of your choices, the Camp Chef hands down. Traeger has gone downhill with their support and is pretty stingy on features in the Pro 22. IMO, Pit Boss is fairly low quality. I’ve seen countless displays broken in stores and my brother bought one against my advice and gave up on it after a couple months (and spending money on 3rd party mods I helped him find to try to fix its issues) and bought a Camp Chef.
If you can bump the budget a bit, the CampChef SG 24 WiFi or WoodWind WiFi will probably make you happier for longer. Even if you don’t care about WiFi, I believe both of these models will have a bigger and better shaped hopper, adjustable smoke settings, and a taller cooking chamber that will allow you to put taller food on main grate when using the upper grate or have more room to reach the wings on the back rear if you loaded the whole grill up with wings for game day.
Last edited by glitchy; October 9, 2020, 06:38 PM.
JPatrickRemiger No, I think it would be OK. I had an STX and a Woodwind Wifi. Both were fine grills. The Woodwind is worth the price difference, but the STX was just fine. I think the ZG would be a nice grill if it fits your budget best.
I’ve owned a Traeger Pro Series 22 for 3 years and absolutely love it. It has been very reliable with zero issues since owning it. I take good care of it and clean it after almost all cooks. It doesn’t get heavy use since I have a BGE, PK360, Weber Summit and a Texas Original Pit that get their fair share of the cooks. However, I just took a pork butt off the Traeger and it smells amazing. That’s the bottom line for me, the food comes out great.
I’ve had 4 Traegers and the older Pro styles are not bad grills. Better than the new D2 for final results. They just don’t compete feature and price wise having no pellet dump, ash clean out, probes, etc. If Traeger was the only name in town still, I’d take a Pro 22 with a Fireboard over their new D2 lines. Others just offer so much more for less and when Traeger catered to the "oh no my grill went 30 degrees above or below" crowd they gave up smoke flavor to shut them up with the new PIDs.
Cooking gadgets
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center
Weber Summit Platinum D6
Blue Rhino Razor
Dyna-Glo XL Premium Dual Chamber
Camp Chef Somerset IV along with their Artisan Pizza Oven 90
Anova WiFi
Thermometers
Thermapen Mk4 - ThermaQ High Temp Kit - ThermaQ Meathead Kit - ThermaQ WiFi - ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S - ThermoWorks Signals & Billows - ThermoPop -ThermoWorks ProNeedle - ThermoWorks TimeStick Trio x2 - and a Christopher Kimball timer - NO, I do not work for ThermoWorks...I just like their products.
Other useful bits...
KitchenAid 7-qt Pro Line stand mixer
A Black & Decker food processor that I can't seem to murder
A couple of immersion blenders, one a "consumer" model & the other a "high end" Italian thing. Yes, the Italian one is a bit better, but only marginally
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8-qt + accessories like egg-bite & egg holders
All-Clad pots & pans, along with some cast iron...everything from 7" Skookie pans to 8.5qt Dutch ovens
Weber GBS griddle, pizza stone, and wok
Knives range from Mercer to F. Dick to "You spent how much for one knife? One knife?!" LOL
The only pellet cooker I’ve ever seen in action is my father’s Traeger... So little to no experience. That said, everyone I know that has one really like them. They range from Traeger, GMG, & Pit Boss... Lots of pellet people around here, so I’m sure they’ll offer decent advice. In the meantime, I’d be checking out the reviews on the free side and taking notes.
Weber S-335 gas grill
Weber 26†kettle
Weber 22†kettle
Camp Chef XL Smoke Vault
Camp Chef 3 Burner cook top
Camp Chef Woodwind 36 Pellet grill with sidekick burner
PBC
Accessories:
SnS XL
SnS standard
Vortex
Weber Rotisserie for 22†Kettle
1st gen FireBoard
2nd gen FireBoard
Griddle for Camp Chef cooktop
Several Thermoworks items
Set of Grill Grates
I have been using a Camp Chef DLX 24 two to four days a week for a couple of years now, and I'm very happy with it. If mine got stolen today, I would not hesitate to order another Camp Chef tomorrow. The DZ looks to be a darned near twin to the DLX, but with a couple of minor tweaks and the new controller.
What you need to understand is that the pellet smoker market is very competitive, and once you crack the five or six hundred dollar price point, you are not likely to find any that are really inferior. Each will have it's own pluses and minuses, but as long as you go with a known brand, you are going to end up with a smoker that will cook BBQ. When you start going up in price, what you are getting is thicker metal, and heaver construction. Those things will certainly extend the life of the cooker, but in my opinion, won't make the food you cook on it any better or worse. That's my two cents. Good luck with your decision! I can't wait to see some pics of the cooks off of whatever you get.
I think you have to jump to $1500 plus to really get into the thicker/better construction. From past experience, I’d say stay below that and buy another in 5-10 years as the technology just keeps advancing in the pellet grill market. Not too many manufacturers offer kits to retrofit 10 year old grills with the new features. 10 years ago, the CookShack was about the only pellet grill that seared anything well, now we have a few, 10 years from now I’ll bet there will be tons.
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