glitchy I went through almost exactly the same process. I too selected mak. I have a mak one and the same upgragability exsists with this model too. You will never regret your purchase.
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One crazy man's way though choosing a Premium pellet grill
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Club Member
- Mar 2020
- 4277
- Near Chicago, IL
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Current Portfolio:
Joule
PK300
Meathead’s Large Big Green Egg Loaded (see below)
Old (sold) Loves:
PBC
Weber 22" Premium
Masterbuilt Gravity 560
Akorn Kamado
Thermometers:
Thermopro wired
Thermoworks POP
Combustion Inc
Preferred Charcoal:
Masterbuilt Lump
Favorite Rubs:
Homemade (mainly MMD/Just Like Katz rub)
Other Accessories:
Big Green Egg Slow & Sear
Tandoori Skewers System for BGE
Split ceramic plates BGE
Smoking plate BGE
Mercer brisket slicing knife
Rapala brisket trimming knife
SS BBQ trays
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
LEM # 8 Meat Grinder
Lodge 5-Quart Dutch Oven + Skillet
Meat Claws
Grill Rescue Brush
Meat Fridge for dry aging
Favorite Whiskey/Beer:
Anything Peaty or anything from New Holland brewery
Thanks glitchy.
As you can imagine, I found this process endlessly entertaining and informative as I was undergoing my own pellet search process, though a purchase won’t be happening anytime soon. I have settled on the OG Grilla, but was really curious what the premium options would offer.
I also took a look at all of the options you mentioned too, but mainly considered the 1-Star MAK.
Net net, if I ever move beyond the OG Grilla, the MAK 1-star looks pretty good to me, so I think your MAK 2-star purchase is a great idea.
What I thought was really interesting is when adding a more or less standard set of options ($200 shipping for everyone but MAK, front shelf, storage shelf, insulated cover or lid, direct sear accessory, pellet dump, cover, and WiFi), the pricing across the group was really similar. I didn’t expect they would be that close. I also think you made some great points on the retrofitting with the MAKs too.
I was a tad surprised that only the MAK and the Cookshack offered interior drawers for grease management. Perhaps the Lone Star has a viable option with the fire pot removable from outside of the grill, but not sure how that works. I guess I am spoiled with that option on the MB560.
Smoking Bro 30: $1,844
Like you, the lack of a true searing option doomed this one for me, plus lack of WiFi, especially at this price point.
Blazn Grand Slam: $2,209
Agree with your points on ownership here, but this probably stacks up as #2 for me behind the MAK 1-star.
Cookshack PG500: $2,237
The ash thing bothered me as well to strike it off the list, plus the awkwardness of having dedicated searing space that would interfere with say, smoking a brisket. I also didn’t see a WiFi option here.
Yoder 480: $2,280 (over $2500 with SS grates)
The $219 insulated cover is ridiculous pricing, the lack of an interior drawer, and the increased pellet consumption versus the MAK are pretty small things, but agree that at the same price, the MAK wins out.
P&S Maverick 850: $2,424
Quality option, but essentially same price as MAK 1-star with no differentiating features that would make me pick it over the MAK. The searing solution looks subpar compared to the FlameZone.
MAK 1-Star: $2,424 or ~$2,500 with extra grates
Lone Starz: $2,649
More expensive than the proven MAK and doesn’t yet exist in the real world, so I’d agree with you here too.
Questions/Comments:- What about the Blazn searing option felt wonky to you? It wasn’t clear to me.
- Other than the MAK, did you find out if any of the other options has SS grates as standard?
Last edited by STEbbq; February 10, 2021, 01:34 PM.
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I use it for a few extra hours when cooking jerky (4ish hours in the main chamber, then as long as I feel like in the warming box), I even used it to help make some beer!
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ItsAllGoneToTheDogs I figured it’s one of those things like heated seats or dual sinks in a MBR, you think you can easily live without it, but once you get it, it’s no longer a luxury, but somehow becomes a necessity in the future. It almost steered me away too after fearing that I won’t want to ever be without it if I get it, but this sucker is gonna be around a long time.
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The sear option for the Blazn Grill does expose the Grill Grates to flames. They are partially blocked by the Firepot plate (Round Plate over Firepot) but some direct flames get around the round diffuser.
As soon as mine comes in I will post a video.
- 1 like
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Club Member
- Dec 2016
- 408
- Northern Virginia
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- Traeger Texas 075 (circa 2007)
- Weber Genesis Gas Grill (circa 1997)
- Weber Kettle Charcoal Grill
- Anova WiFi Sous Vide
- Tappecue WiFi Temperature Monitoring System
- Thermapen
- Operation BBQ Relief Volunteer
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I dunno, I keep coming back to "$2k+ for a pellet grill??" in my mind. The caveat here is I never have to deal with really cold temps in t he single digits (and if I did, I simply don't NEED to cook outside, so....) but I look at the Recteq and others in that $1k-ish price range and wonder if the difference is worth it.
Some of the cost is better materials and design choices like insulated walls vs not.... and some of it is making things in the US. It would be fascinating to know the costs involved and how much each of those contributes to the COGS.
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See MBMorgan comment about Grilla. I was in the market for a portable pg when I got the Chimp, but even if I had gone full size I would have considered them. They mfr in overseas, but the product is solid and their service is stellar.
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Wish they showed a little more metal work, but you can tell there is a lot of hands on the construction of these things, to me that's worth a few extra bucks. But the upgradability between revisions was a huge selling point for me. And they are still supporting owners of single digit Serial Number grills when the warranty was up over a decade ago, that's also got a huge value. And freight is included in the price. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWuEUE5JqUcLast edited by ItsAllGoneToTheDogs; February 10, 2021, 04:48 PM.
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I think that's a good point on the upgradability over time by MAK as I noted earlier too.
It will be interesting to see how Grilla handles the WiFi upgrade rollout. I expect it will definitely allow existing owners to upgrade to WiFi, similar to what MAK does, but we will see about the costs.
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Club Member
- Mar 2020
- 4277
- Near Chicago, IL
-
Current Portfolio:
Joule
PK300
Meathead’s Large Big Green Egg Loaded (see below)
Old (sold) Loves:
PBC
Weber 22" Premium
Masterbuilt Gravity 560
Akorn Kamado
Thermometers:
Thermopro wired
Thermoworks POP
Combustion Inc
Preferred Charcoal:
Masterbuilt Lump
Favorite Rubs:
Homemade (mainly MMD/Just Like Katz rub)
Other Accessories:
Big Green Egg Slow & Sear
Tandoori Skewers System for BGE
Split ceramic plates BGE
Smoking plate BGE
Mercer brisket slicing knife
Rapala brisket trimming knife
SS BBQ trays
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
LEM # 8 Meat Grinder
Lodge 5-Quart Dutch Oven + Skillet
Meat Claws
Grill Rescue Brush
Meat Fridge for dry aging
Favorite Whiskey/Beer:
Anything Peaty or anything from New Holland brewery
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One more item: Both MAK's come with a pellet hopper dump built into the hopper. Sorry for the stream of notes, but thought it important to be accurate. And both grills' bodies are 16 gauge 304 stainless.Last edited by GolfGeezer; February 10, 2021, 04:19 PM.
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I thought 1 star has no stainless steel other than the flamezone internals, the entire body is aluminized steel
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glitchy Congrats on the new cooker! Looking forward to seeing pics of it and hear how great it is! Although I'm not looking at pellet grills, I love reading about how people come to choose any cooker. I hope you get tons of great service from it!Last edited by jpietrantone; February 10, 2021, 06:47 PM.
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Congrats! I have a MAK and have spoken to their support for close to a decade. They have great people at MAK and they are lifetime grills. They replace great people with great people, Bruce retired a few years back and was awesome. I’ve called many times since and the service is as good as ever.
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Thanks for sharing that. I’ve actually talked to Caleb on the phone and emailed with him a bit. He’s great. I hear from others that Dennis is the main support guy and that everyone loves him. I’m pretty stoked about the way they seem to do things and like seeing the names I know from there showing up on some forums helping customers out.
- 1 like
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Club Member
- Mar 2020
- 4277
- Near Chicago, IL
-
Current Portfolio:
Joule
PK300
Meathead’s Large Big Green Egg Loaded (see below)
Old (sold) Loves:
PBC
Weber 22" Premium
Masterbuilt Gravity 560
Akorn Kamado
Thermometers:
Thermopro wired
Thermoworks POP
Combustion Inc
Preferred Charcoal:
Masterbuilt Lump
Favorite Rubs:
Homemade (mainly MMD/Just Like Katz rub)
Other Accessories:
Big Green Egg Slow & Sear
Tandoori Skewers System for BGE
Split ceramic plates BGE
Smoking plate BGE
Mercer brisket slicing knife
Rapala brisket trimming knife
SS BBQ trays
NoCry Cut Resistant Gloves
LEM # 8 Meat Grinder
Lodge 5-Quart Dutch Oven + Skillet
Meat Claws
Grill Rescue Brush
Meat Fridge for dry aging
Favorite Whiskey/Beer:
Anything Peaty or anything from New Holland brewery
- Likes 1
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Congrats on your new MAK. I think you will find the warmer box more useful as you get more comfortable mastering the MAK.
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Howdy,
Thanks for the writeup! I'm in roughly the same boat as you, trying to finalize my decision for a new pellet smoker (why they call them grills, who knows)...every review pretty much says they're not very good at searing.
My first choice would have been a vertical pellet smoker, but I can't seem to find any with stainless steel interior and exterior parts. I am "graduating" from a vertical electrical smoker whose parts are rusting through (both steel and aluminum disintegration).
I came across a used 2-Star General that's local, but it's the older (2012) version. I don't so much care about K connectors, but it appears that there are a LOT of other improvements.
Any comments?
Thanks in advance...
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The 2012 models can't support a few of the upgrades, they are fine smokers and there is a flamezone upgrade for them. I believe they have a standing rack for the 2nd shelf instead of a slide in one. You can still upgrade the software which you would need to do for better smoking and grilling capability. There is a 2018 2 star for sale in the for sale section of this forum though
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As for the full differences between 2012 and 2020 models, the cart is fully enclosed except for the door which is an add on purchase. The 2020's have up to 3 additional racks, a slightly deeper grease drain to reduce overflow, a roaming thermocouple so you can run the grill for at grate temps, the hopper door opens the opposite direction because they installed a magnetic lid safety switch, and then probe type (which is a big deal because the old probes are single source high fail rate at $80
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Club Member
- Jul 2019
- 2108
- Central IA
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MAK 2 Star General
KBQ C-60
Weber Summit Charcoal Grillw/ Big Joetisserie, SnS LP, and VortexWeber Genesis II - S-345
Weber Traveler
Fireboard 2 Drive
Anova Precision Sous Vide
All the (pellet) grills I’ve loved before:
Traeger Junior Elite^
GMG DB
Traeger Texas Elite
Memphis Pro§
Traeger Pro 575
CampChef SmokePro STX (ugly grills need love too)
Weber SmokeFire EX4§
Traeger Select
CampChef Woodwind WiFi w/SearBox^
Weber SmokeFire EX4§
^ = Favorites
§ = Love/Hate Relationships
Originally posted by smokyYank View PostHowdy,
Thanks for the writeup! I'm in roughly the same boat as you, trying to finalize my decision for a new pellet smoker (why they call them grills, who knows)...every review pretty much says they're not very good at searing.
My first choice would have been a vertical pellet smoker, but I can't seem to find any with stainless steel interior and exterior parts. I am "graduating" from a vertical electrical smoker whose parts are rusting through (both steel and aluminum disintegration).
I came across a used 2-Star General that's local, but it's the older (2012) version. I don't so much care about K connectors, but it appears that there are a LOT of other improvements.
Any comments?
Thanks in advance...
In regards to a used MAK, I don't know the extensive details of the older models. I've kept my eye on MAK for a few years, but didn't track all of the changes. I was led to believe that anything that has been changed on the newer versions of the 2 star can be retrofitted to all older 2 stars as well. The only downside is some of the upgrades add up pretty quick in price. If you buy a new controller, WiFi, and FlameZone, I think you'll be pushing a grand pretty quick. However, I've seen people mention they sometimes have refurbished controllers available for upgrades. This seems to be more likely if your controller is an older model that cannot go to current firmware, where you might be able to snag a refurb with the barrel style probes that will still support the latest firmware. However, keep in mind, that will likely mean you will never use the temp probes on the grill unless you found a reliable 3rd party probe that was compatible. From everything I've read, their barrel type probes were notoriously awful.
With the FlameZone, the MAK actually can 'grill' OK. I've been very impressed doing burgers on it at 450. It recovers well too, unlike most other pellet grills I've had. I pretty sure from limited testing that it does not sear a steak as well as I'd like, but I'm pretty confident I could 'grill' just about anything else I could think of to satisfaction. I'm actually going to get the MAK griddle to try for 'pan searing' steaks. There is definitely a huge gap between how Traegers, CampChefs, and many others grill and how a SmokeFire grills. MAK and Memphis both fit in this step. MAK and Memphis are both actually pretty fair 'grills', but not outstanding at that feature. The SmokeFire grills like a decent medium power gasser. That lower tier pretty much just sucks at it. Yes, someone will try to claim the the lower tier (not of product quality, but of grilling ability) grill fine with GrillGrates, which is a pseudo work around as it still takes forever on a lot of them to recover temps after flipping stuff, etc. and you end up taking twice as long to cook stuff.
Having seen the construction of the MAK, I would have no concerns buying a used one. A lot would depend on what features have been upgraded that I thought I could not live without and what those would cost me on top of the used grill vs the cost of a new one. If you are very content with just using it as a smoker, you could likely get by as is or with just a refurb controller if that one on the grill isn't updatable to the most recent firmware. However, I do think the FlameZone does a lot for getting to temps quickly and holding them more steadily (even with the covers on, the assembly around the firepot acts like a dual walled bottom half). WiFi definitely depends on your personal preferences and is not a required feature.
I think it was on a FB group that I even saw they have a shelf retrofit kit you can get from MAK that allows you to put the additional shelf brackets in if you need more capacity that the two levels the older models had.
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smokyYank Don't fear the firmware on a MAK. They've been making great performing grills for a number of years. I actually see their design as possibly a bigger benefit than drawback on firmware. Since they don't force firmware updates on you, if you are happy with the performance (and most MAK users are), you don't have to update it. Most of the others force you to take updates and with the case of the SmokeFire would break more than it fixed.
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I have a good experience of building pellet smoker at home instead of purchasing from any of the brands. I know it's a difficult process but someone who loves DIY would love to try it. It's cost affective, it's maintenance is easy and you can add as many pellets as you want. Pellet Smokers has their own special unique taste and you can surely give it a try. If someone is looking for a guide leave a comment and I will share it.
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In 2017 I did similar research as you did, and ended up choosing the MAK. I have updated it several times as they has come out with new features. this longevity is really important to me. During this time, the quality, support and consistency of the cooking output has impressed me. i use it 3-4 times a week, even in rain and snow and it is always consistent. Works for me. The support is so awesome, I have not found any others how could match them.
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