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Old 09-15-2013, 09:11 AM   #6
ajstrider
is One Chatty Farker
 
Join Date: 09-02-12
Location: Kentucky
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I have experience with two Traegers, a Yoder, and multiple charcoal smokers. I will try to organize this a bit.

Pellet smoker - great temperature control, you do not have to watch these things much at all besides stirring the pellets in the hopper every four hours, they tend to feed from just above the auger feed hole and not fall right. People say pellet smokers aren't smokey enough, I think these comments come from inexperienced cookers myself. Different brands of pellets make a huge difference in the flavor. Good pellets can sometimes be a pain to acquire, while the pellets are generally not expensive, $1 a pound or so which normally cooks for an hour roughly, the shipping is not cheap. If you cook a lot I would do some research and try to find a good pellet hookup. One of the great benefits to the pellet smokers is that they produce the most consistent food from cook to cook. They also recover fast from door openings due to the air flow. Having owned both a more entry level (Traeger) and more advanced (Yoder), I prefer the Traeger. It has all the benefits of the pellet smokers and nothing extra that you have to pay for. Parts are very common to acquire where other brands use proprietery parts. There are lots of modifications that have been done to the Traegers you can find on the web to make them sear and grill better, hold even more consistent temperatures, better control options and other things. If you do get one, do not get a low/med/high controller, you want to be able to pick temperatures.
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Weber Summit Charcoal Grill and 22” WSM. Former user of pellet grills and XL BGE
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