Access your pellet stash with the Traeger Pellet Storage Bin. The bin provides storage for hardwood pellets, while the airtight lid helps keep out moisture. The int...
It is a little pricey, but I haven't had any problems with moisture getting in. I also leave my pellets in the hopper in my Chimp with it covered. I haven't had a problem with dampness in the mechanism jamming the auger up.
I use Costco pellets. $12.99 for 40#. They’re a blend and work for any type of meat IMO.
I store both my cooker and my pellets in my garage. Pellets are just in the bag. My Recteq has a 40# hopper so I fill that baby up to the brim and don’t buy more until it nearly empty. My Costco is just down the road about 4 miles so I can run to get more in a jiffy. As a result I don’t really store extra pellets much.
I don't have a lot of pellet grill experience but I used everything from generic stuff from the grocery to Traeger brand to Costco's Kirkland brand and they are all good.
I just store them in the original bag, rolling the top to close, and leave them in my open end garage. High humidity here and no problems so far. I leave the ones in the hopper at the end of the cook in the hopper. I have a cover for the grill and this has not been a problem at all, even after not using it for months.
In your location I'd worry more about tornado proofing them
When choosing your pellets keep in mind that not all brands are 100% as described. Some popular brands contain fillers, like oak or alder wood. This is blended to go along with the main wood like hickory or cherry and others. Lumberjack and Bear Mountain are 100% as advertised without fillers. Your hickory is 100% hickory, apple is 100% apple and so on. I predominantly used Lumberjack with great success however they are almost impossible to find in stores. I now use Bear Mountain and like them alot. Tractor Supply carries them year round for under $10. 5 gallon buckets are the way to go, easy to change and load pellets when you need to. As far level of smoke, a smoke tube can add to what is being smoked especially if it is a long smoke like a pork butt. The smoke generated from the grill is light but a smoke tube added will give you that little extra. Enjoy your much deserved win and welcome to the pellet grill club.
I believe Lumberjack makes Weber’s pellets. I had good luck with them in the SmokeFire. The thing to keep in mind is most brands, like Bear Mountain and Traeger use 70-80% oak or alder as base wood. This is a factor is why so many people perceive pellet grills to have a lighter smoke profile. Only a few brands use all flavor woods. Some brands use more flavor wood in blends than in single species bags. Lumberjack and Cookinpellets are the couple I know that offer full flavor wood. There’s a couple other brands that do as well, but I’m not remembering the names. Lumberjack uses bark in theirs, cookinpellets does not so lumberjack produces more ash.
My general go to if I don’t have Cookinpellets 100% hickory is Lumberjack’s MHC blend (same or very close to Weber’s pitmaster blend). Lumberjack is just easier to find when I don’t feel like buying 250lbs plus of Cookinpellets as I haven’t found a local dealer.
ItsAllGoneToTheDogs Didn’t realize Lumberjack fell into at larger company. Hopefully, they were a big enough operation their formulas and processes stayed in place and are just sharing distribution and supply channels.
glitchy some people have said the pellets changed in size and quality, but other have said it hasn't. I only burn 1 or 2 bags a year and I havent noticed any change
I use Bear Mountain mainly because I can get them on sale at Tractor Supply, but I found that their Gourmet Blend has decent smoke flavor. Their apple has hardly any. I bought some Kirland pellets because they are cheap. They burn well and don't leave a lot ash, but some of the pellets are really long, so I worry about the pellets making a bridge in the auger. I break up the longer pellets. I also find that the Kirkland pellets don't have a lot of smoke flavor.
Today, when I cooked ribs. I put a couple pounds of Bear Mountain pellets in the hopper and dumped some Kirkland's on thop of that figuring smoke towards the end of the cook isn't that important. I don't know if I am right about that. I figured it would save me some money either way.
Pellet availability is much more limited on this side of the pond and the prices significantly higher but fortunately Cookinpellets are one brand that is available at probably the most competitive price and are my go to choice.
BBQ'ers Delight, Bear Mountain and Traeger are also available in that order of preference.
I don’t know how to gauge pellet consumption in cooks. The Searwood is large, so it is heating a lot of area. It went through 40 pounds of pellets in 10 cooks. The cooks ranged from low and slow to 650 with some smoke boost cooks. To me that seems like a high rate of consumption. What’s your experience like?
Good question. My experience is about a 1lb to 1.5 lb per hour at 250 degrees. the higher the temp the faster it burns. My hopper holds 32 lbs. and after a 12 -14 hour cook, I have used about a 20 lb bag of pellets. (sometimes it is less than a bag and sometimes I can dump the whole bag in the hopper). So many factors, I tend to do my long cooks overnight with ambient temps in the 50's - 60's and I burn more then when I do daytime cooks when temp is 60's - 70's (YMMV)
Your burn rate is affected by ambient temps and wind speed/direction.
With my storage bucket I use a perforated scoop, used to use a kitty litter one but now I have one made for an instant pot. It's roughly 1lb per scoop. Anyway a good pellet grill will burn 1lb per hour or less at 225-250 or below. Grilling is a different story but I get a little over an hour at max temp off roughly 1.5lbs of pellets in the summer and 3ish lbs in the coldest days of winter.
The chimp holds 15lbs. I haven't really paid much attention to pellet consumption, but their site says it should burn about 1lb/hr at 250 depending on ambient temps. I filled the hopper for a chicken cook a few weeks ago - about 3 hours at 275 - and I did ribs for about 5 hrs at 250. The hopper is 1/2 full.
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