What Are Pellet Grills Good For

Our Pick: Traeger Pro 575

Are Pellet Grills Any Good? Are Pellet Smokers Worth It?

*At the time of publishing, the price was $800.

The Traeger Pro 575 pellet grill is easy to use and fuel efficient, and it does an excellent job of maintaining its set temperature. Its smartly packaged and easy to unbox and assemble. The Pro 575 is Wi-Fi enabled, which means you can control the grill via the Traeger WiFire app on your phone or a smart speaker. Even without any connectivity features, the newest entry-level Traeger pellet grill is a solid machine that will let you make delicious barbecue with little effort.

The Traeger Pro 575 gets the fundamentals right: It produced tender and moist barbecue in all of our tests and excelled at holding precise cooking temperatures. All bells and whistles aside, those are the most important factors. Can you imagine smoking a near-perfect, tender and juicy brisket on your first or second attempt? Frankly, I couldnt until I did it on this grill.

The Pro 575s simple control panel, located on the hopper, is intuitive to use. It consists of just two buttons and a dial that lets you set the temperature and scroll through menu options on the digital screen. This arrangement is an improvement over the controls of older models, which include an analog temperature dial that offers much less precision.

Remember that pellet grills are powered by electricity, so they need to be plugged in.

All Traeger grills come with a three-year warranty that covers manufacturing defects and replacement parts.

What Is A Pellet Grill

A pellet grill uses wood pellets as a fuel source. Pellet grills also use electricity to power the grill, requiring an outlet or generator.

The pellets get loaded into a hopper, which is a storage area for the pellets while grilling. The hopper loads pellets into the auger, which moves pellets from the hopper into the ignition chamber or fire pot. A component called the hot rod ignites pellets that are in the chamber creating smoke and heat.

Pellet grills offer extreme versatility since the heat controls are unmatched in the industry. Most brands advertise pellet grills as being able to smoke, bake, grill, and roast. Though most people use them for smoking foods.

Almost all pellet grills have a fan that will stoke the fire and circulate smoke and heat throughout the grill. Giving the user extreme ease in using a pellet grill.

Convenience And Ease Of Use

When you grill with charcoal, it can be a pain to start. Once started, it requires your constant attention because you dont want your food to burn or the charcoal to flare up too much. When you use a wood pellet grill, you push a button to start, then set the temperature where you know it will give you the flavor that you want and the tenderness that you desire.

After a short heat-up process, youre ready to grill. These grills are also much easier to clean since the pellets burn neatly and have low ash contents.

Wood pellets have the benefit of allowing you to leave the grill and do other activities like preparing other food that you may be serving at your barbecue. A wood pellet grill burns with consistent heat, so you never have to worry about the grill getting too hot or the wood pellets flaring up, burning your meat or fish and making it tough and unpleasant.

Read Also: Charbroil Grill Cleaner

Traeger Grills Pro Series 34

The last on our list is the top-notch device from Traeger Grills that is famous for its precise temperature control and consistency of cooking results. The total cooking space on this unit is 884 square inches with enough options for a highly versatile cooking experience.

Moreover, an 18-pound hopper capacity is sufficient to handle high sears without continuous refilling of pellets.

Seamless Cooking

Unlike many others on the market, the Pro Series 34 offers a convenient hopper cleanout feature that enhances its desirability. For extensive cooking, you have to refill the hopper regardless of the brand of the grill.

However, only a few of them allow users to simultaneously change the pellets without turning the device off. In this way, you will be able to continue searing your steaks without the temperature dropping dramatically when the pellets are refilled.

Features Of A Good Wood Pellet Grill

Expert Grill Atlas Pellet Grill and Smoker
  • Grates You can look at 380 square Inches up to 700 and even extra-large 892 square inches in cooking space. Most grates are manufactured of Porcelain Coated cast iron or steel.
  • Design -A sturdy and durable design consisting of corrosion-resistant stainless steel, cast iron, or cast aluminum.
  • Fuel and Operation you will be looking at electrical options of110V or 12V with adapters for 3 power options, as wellas Hardwood pellet Fuel consumption.
  • Temperature Control different technologies of Digital temperature controls are used, some of which automatically use the Auger to place Pellets in the grill when needed.
  • Extra Features -Extra features may include a Chicken hanger and cover, side shelves, and bottom shelves or baskets, as well as a Rub and pellets that come with the Grill. Some models also include a meat probe, a peaked lid for rib racks, a convenience tray.

Also Check: Summerset Grills Review

What Are The Advantages Of Pellet Grills

There are a number of reasons some people prefer pellet grills over traditional charcoal or gas models. One of the main benefits is that they provide precise temperature control with minimal oversight, which is useful if, for instance, you plan to smoke food for long periods of time. Pellet grills also give food a wonderful smoky flavor, and you can use different types of pellets to control the flavor profile of your meals. Further, because pellet grills cook using indirect heat, they prevent flare-ups and result in more even cooking.

Remove From Fridge And Allow It To Get To Room Temperature

While its perfectly fine to throw a steak on the grill while its cold. Ive personally found that its best to let the steak reach room temperature, so it doesnt take that long to start cooking.

Youll also find it easier for a warmer steak to get that crust on the outside and the proper internal temperature than a cold steak.

Recommended Reading: What Temperature Should You Grill Pork Chops

Royal Gourmet Cd1824e 23

Best barrel charcoal grill

Reasons to avoid

If you want to do more than sling hot dogs and burgers on your charcoal grill, the Royal Gourmet is ideal. It has a crank that lets you raise and lower the charcoal pan to help control the heat. When you want to quickly grill brats, move the coals right below them. To slowly smoke a side of salmon without flare-ups, lower them.

Theres even a door underneath the grates that makes it easy to keep adding charcoal as the hungry crowd thickens. Plus youll find you need a lot of charcoal to keep the Royal Gourmet burning, so make sure you stock up before the party starts.

Unlike on a kettle-style grill, this model has side tables to hold your tongs and trays and platters. Youll also find a thermometer in the lid to give you a rough idea as to how hot it is under the grill, a warming rack thats helpful for heating buns, and an easy to remove ash tray. Below the grill theres a bottom shelf to keep extra charcoal or a roll of paper towels.

Early History And Development

Pellet Grill Benefits | Pellet Grill Buying Guide BBQGuys

Pellet grills have their beginnings in pellet stoves. During the 1973 oil crisis, an increased demand for affordable home heating spearheaded a push toward alternative heat sources, which would later include wood pellets. Wood pellets were invented in the United States in the late 1970s, they are small eraser-sized capsules made of compressed sawdust. By the early 1980s Jerry Whitfield, a Boeing aviation engineer from Washington, and Joe Traeger, who ran a family-owned heating company in Oregon, were each experimenting with pellet-burning stoves. Although the stoves looked like traditional wood stoves, they worked much differently. Run by electricity, the pellet stoves utilized a motor-driven auger to deliver a specific amount of pellets from the storage hopper to a fire pot, where a fan aided combustion and blew the warm air from the stove.

Also Check: How To Cook A Pork Tenderloin On A Gas Grill

Reviews: The Best Wood Pellet Grills

These are some of your best choices in Wood Pellet Grills We hope you love the products we recommend! So that you know, We may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.

The Camp Chef is a Smoke Pro Pellet Grill with many fantastic features.

  • The Grill has one of the most advanced digital control systems to control temperatures and automatically Auger feed pellets in the grill to maintain Heat.
  • You can easily grill, Smoke, Bake, Roast, Braise, and barbeque with this premium Grill.
  • There is also a patented Ash Cleanout tray, so you can clean it by pulling a lever between grills.
  • It is very easy to assemble and stray up and makes for the ideal outdoor grill for your backyard.

The Z-Grills upgraded Wood pellet grill is at the top of its class.

  • An Ultimate eight in one Grill with fan-forced Convention cooling design and a more precise temperature control system,m.
  • The grill allows you to grill, barbecue, braise, smoke, bake, roast, and do many more.
  • There are a large 700 square inch cooking area and a 20-pound hopper capacity.
  • Built with durable and rust-resistant high-quality stainless steel also has high corrosion resistance.
  • This is a Davy Crockett Wood Pellet Grill designed by Green Mountain.
  • The grill features Sense-Mate, a thermal sensor to monitor grill temperature constantly.
  • It includes a meat probe, a peaked lid for rib racks, and a convenience tray.
  • The grill comes with a Wifi Control for portability and remote control.

Drawbacks Of Pellet Grills

  • Pellet grills are dependent on electricity, limiting their portability unless you have access to a generator or inverter.
  • Though they are marketed as grills, you wont get grill marks or a dark sear, as the units run on fan-driven indirect heat. In my opinion, these are smokersnot grills. You can increase the amount of caramelization you get on the outside of food by preheating a cast iron grill grate, skillet, griddle, or plancha directly on the grill grate for 20 minutes before cooking.
  • Pellet grills are relatively expensive, retailing from a few hundred dollars to more than $4000.
  • The higher the cooking temperature, the less smoke the unit generates. Youll get the most smoke flavor at temperatures below 250 degrees.
  • Any grills with moving parts and electrical components can break down . If exposed to moisture, pellet fuels will disintegrate. People who live in humid climates must keep their pellets dry, preferably indoors in airtight lidded containers.

The bottom line? We now have several pellet grills at Barbecue University and some students love them. Of course, there are still a lot of purists out there who insist on burning charcoal or wood.

You May Like: Grilled Shrimp Temp And Time

How Much Cleaning And Maintenance Is Required

No good deed goes unpunished, and no good grill is maintenance-free. Pellets burn down to almost nothing, but they do leave a small amount of ash. Youll want to empty the fire pot periodically, and perhaps clean it out with a shop vacuum.

As discussed in the last section, flare-ups are a thing of the past in a pellet grill. But, all that grease has to go somewhere. Somewhere, in this case, is into a grease bucket and all over the deflector shield.

Youll want to empty the bucket regularly and wipe the deflector clean to keep the build-up from burning off and ruining your food with acrid smoke. Try lining both with foil to cut down on clean-up time.

One of the essential parts of a pellet grill is the temperature probe. If its not reading correctly, everything else is thrown off. Gently wipe the probe after each session to ensure accurate measurement and clean connection with your grills digital brain.

Finally, you should keep the cooking grate clean, just as you would on a regular barbecue or smoker. Wipe them down, or scrape when necessary, to keep them in good condition.

Overall, a pellet smoker requires little more in terms of maintenance than a gas grill and considerably less than a charcoal grill or an offset smoker.

The Pros And Cons Of Pellet Grills

Expert Grill Concord 3

The biggest pro to investing in a pellet grill versus other types of grills is its simplicity, according to Lampe. The cooker does all the work and makes it pretty easy to cook barbecue, he explained.

Marks agreed that when it comes to ease of use and consistency, a pellet grill wins. Temperature control produced by a pellet grill makes a huge difference for the average Joe, he added. If you want to have a great barbeque with a reasonable amount of work while still being able to enjoy your friends and family when they are over, a pellet grill is the best way to go with the most amount of success and the least amount of stress.

However, the biggest potential downside is that it’s a mechanical device, so if theres a loss of power or a malfunction, that can disrupt your day of cooking. Good maintenance helps with this, Lampe added. A long-time BBQ pro might like to play with the fire while theyre cooking, but a pellet cooker means there is really no need to tend your fire constantly making it perfect for an at-home cook.

To help prevent this, he emphasized the importance of keeping your pellet grill dry and protected from the elements with a secure cover. If the electronics get wet they can short out and the replacement parts for those panels generally are not under warranty, as you the owner are responsible for proper care, he said. Also, when pellets get wet they expand and then dry causing the auger to lock up.

Recommended Reading: Lid Open Or Closed When Grilling Steaks

Are Pellet Grills Worth It

The price you’re paying for your grill also reflects its quality and build. So if you want to make sure that you’re getting a good value for your money, then you should check out the pellet grill reviews online or in magazines.

If a product is expensive but has great reviews and high ratings, then this is probably one of those products that you don’t want to miss out on.

Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets

Founded in 1953 Royal Oak is the largest producer in the US of natural lump charcoal. Therefore, it makes sense that Royal Oak has been the first to produce 100% charcoal pellets. These 100% charcoal pellets have special attributes that set them apart from standard hardwood BBQ pellets.

These 100% Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets are special, and currently quite hard to get hold of: Image HomeDepot.com

Not only will these 100% charcoal pellets produce more smoke flavour, they will produce more heat for grilling/searing and they are also water-resistant! The higher heat output of these 100% charcoal pellets may also be well suited to cooking pizza with pellets where you want the pizza stone to be getting up to very high temperatures for a nice crust. 100% charcoal pellets in any pellet grill will provide more functionality and eliminate the chance of an auger block due to swelling pellets. Check out my article on charcoal pellets to learn more.

  • Pellet Flavours: 100% Oak Charcoal
  • Bag Size: 20lbs
  • Availability:HomeDepot.com

Read Also: Cleaning Weber Gas Grill Grates

Camp Chef Pellet Grill Accessory Smokepro Bbq Propane Sear Box

For people, who love camping more than anything, this Camp Chef Pellet Grill Accessory SmokePro BBQ Propane Sear Box is perfect for them. Camping is amazing fun, but not having satisfying cooking tools can be a problem.

With this Camp Chef Pellet Grill Accessory SmokePro BBQ Propane Sear Box, anyone can enjoy the relish of cooking outdoors in camps and elsewhere. Working on this griller is not at all difficult. Moreover, learners can get hands-on experience over this equipment through guides and manuals that come along with it.

Features

Pros

Grilling On Pellet Grills

How to Choose a Pellet Grill Smoker | Buying Guide | BBQGuys

Considering the their low-and-slow nature, can pellet grills truly be called grills? We sure think so. Some of todays models can reach temperatures hotter than what many gas grills can achieve, and several brands allow you to sear with designs that expose food directly to the flames of the fire pot below. Memphis pellet grills, for instance, can cook a steak and veggies in just minutes while still giving them a mild and clean smoky flavor. Additionally, Camp Chef Woodwind Wi-Fi pellet smokers are among the handful of models that come with a side-mounted gas power burner that provides the versatility of an intense sear when you need it.

Also Check: Clean Weber Gas Grill

The Benefits Of Owning A Pellet Grill

Some of the best benefits that you will get by owning a pellet grill are as follows:

Lightweight and compact design

Most pellet grills now have a compact and lightweight design. This is because these grills mostly use pellet fuel, which can be easily sourced from rubbing alcohol. You will notice that these types of grills are lighter in weight as well, but they also feature functions like a rotisserie and an ash catcher to make your cooking experience all the more convenient. If you are the type of person who likes to have everything stored under one roof, this grill may not be for you.

Protection from the elements

There’s that saying, “the best protection is keeping your distance”. While this may not be exactly true for everything, this certainly holds true for grilling. The best pellet grills are made from high-quality materials and resistant to heat, moisture, and extreme weather. They usually come with a cover as well to make sure they don’t rust through when they’re left out in the elements.

Pellet grills are also easy to move around once you get them set up so if you’re planning on storing them outside during the winter months, then you won’t need to worry about rusting or any other form of damage that can occur in cold conditions.

Keeping your pellet grill clean

Pellet grills are usually easy to maintain and easy to clean. Although they do require some basic maintenance, the materials they’re made from are usually rust-resistant so they don’t wear down easily.

Popular Articles

More Recipes Like This