Testing Timberline 1300 - MAK 2 Star General - Ongoing

rwalters said:
I find that often times, especially on poultry, the flavor profile is more pronounced the next day. I wouldn’t expect any pellet grill to be WAY different than the next when cooking at 375°... but you and your wife taking turns doing a blind taste test tomorrow would be interesting.
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I didn't expect a lot of smoke flavor Robb but it was interesting how similar the end product was
 
rwalters said:
I find that often times, especially on poultry, the flavor profile is more pronounced the next day. I wouldn’t expect any pellet grill to be WAY different than the next when cooking at 375°... but you and your wife taking turns doing a blind taste test tomorrow would be interesting.
Click to expand...

l I guess I should have thought of that but I pulled it all and into the somee package
 
rwalters said:
I find that often times, especially on poultry, the flavor profile is more pronounced the next day. I wouldn’t expect any pellet grill to be WAY different than the next when cooking at 375°... but you and your wife taking turns doing a blind taste test tomorrow would be interesting.
Click to expand...

Joshw said:
I've never timed it, but I think it will be closer than you think.
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I agree it will be pretty close
 
retfr8flyr said:
My 1300 only takes about 25 minutes to get to 350°. I start mine at 225° and when it reaches that temp, I will increase it to whatever temp I am planning to cook. I did some Hamburger steaks the other day and it only took 35 minutes to get to 500°.
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Mine seems to take forever, I usually set it much higher than what I'm going to cook at then adjust when it reaches cooking temp, that helps but I wanted to run the same set up on both cookers
 
I'm gonna try Saturday If I can find the time but Mothers day has me running around a lot this weekend
 
I have heard from several sources the the MAK has a better smoke flavor over long cooks but haven't ever heard from someone who did an actual side-by-side comparison. It would be interesting to see how a brisket or butt would compare.
 
NKSmoke said:
I have heard from several sources the the MAK has a better smoke flavor over long cooks but haven't ever heard from someone who did an actual side-by-side comparison. It would be interesting to see how a brisket or butt would compare.
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that's what we are trying to find out, ribs or butt will be soon
 
Wish I was closer to you guys. I'd bring my 2 cheaper poopers and make this interesting. Maybe we can do this at the next Texas Bash...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
One thing that I believe that will clearly set the MAK apart from the Timberline is the ability to easily knock out weeknight dinners, almost as quickly as a gas grill. Not only that, but it has the ability to sear, especially with the MAK sear grates. I simply set the MAK to 450° tonight... 18-20 mins later it was humming at set temp... tossed on some chicken thighs, knocked them out in about 15 mins and we had some really good chicken salads for dinner :)

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I concur with Robb, my 2* gets to the desired temp super fast. Reverse seared some 2" Rib Eyes last night, could not be believe the amount of smoke at higher temps. This grill is awesome.
 
Test 2 Tomorrow

St Lois Spares. Picked up 2 ordinary racks from the local market. Just finished cleaning both grills and topped off the hoppers, they were both about 2/3 full with cookinpellets hickory and topped off with LJ supreme.

The MAK will get set at 210, it will run about 230 on the upper rack and the timberline at 225 on smoke mode, seems about equal set up to me. Totally naked and no wrap, k-salt when they start to sweat. Expecting about 5-6 hrs but maybe more.

See ya in the morning.
 
tom b said:
St Lois Spares. Picked up 2 ordinary racks from the local market. Just finished cleaning both grills and topped off the hoppers, they were both about 2/3 full with cookinpellets hickory and topped off with LJ supreme.

The MAK will get set at 210, it will run about 230 on the upper rack and the timberline at 225 on smoke mode, seems about equal set up to me. Totally naked and no wrap, k-salt when they start to sweat. Expecting about 5-6 hrs but maybe more.

See ya in the morning.
Click to expand...

Really appreciate you taking the time to do this. It's great to see a side by side comparison.
 
I've owned four different brands of pellet cookers. Never did a side by side, but I'd guess that I would not have been able to tell the difference between the 200 dollar versus the 2000 dollar one as far as end results. Heat up times on all four were similar to you Mak results or better. 48 mintues to reach any temp on a pellet cooker is a problem.
 
I'm curious to see what your pellet usage is with both smokers over a long cook, and does the Timberline have the edge because it's semi-insulated? I know my FEC-100 uses less than a pound of pellets per hour when it is up to temperature, but it's fully insulated. I've heard of similar size smokers to mine like the Yoder YS1500 chewing through two pounds or more of pellets per hour (non insulated). Big difference in cost to operate over the years.

Thanks for the interesting thread!
 
Nice experiment. When/if you do a brisket or pork butt, I suggest you cut the brisket/butt in half lengthwise and put a half in each smoker to negate any textural differences which might sway your decision one way or the other.
 
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