Traeger in disguise?

S

shypes

Knows what a fatty is.
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So I went to Sam's Club a few weeks ago and to my surprise saw a bunch of pellet smokers assembled and on display. From a distance I thought they were Traeger Junior Elites but they are a brand called Smoke Hollow and cost about half as much. I did some homework, consulted my buddy who is a big Traeger fan, and I am convinced this is either made by Traeger or Smoke Hollow bought their parts from them. All the parts look exactly the same, the only big differences being that their location may be reversed. Apparently it's a new product so I can't find many reviews. I went back this past weekend and bought it. I fired it up to season it and everything works fine. Does anyone have any insight on this? Is this a generic that's actually a Traeger, just remodeled and renamed like medicine companies do?
 
Those clever Asians specialize in buying an existing product and copying it unmercifully and ship and resell it here for half what it's worth.
And on an on an on it goes.
 
I've been curious about these too. They seem well built, by Walmart standards.
 
Since Traeger grills are made in China you can find all sorts of Traeger clones out there. No need to reverse engineer something if the company hands you the plans and pays for the tooling too!
 
Chinese manufacturers basically make the same models just for different companies and some change things like controllers or the lid. Check out Smoke Daddy's pellet poopers,you'll see basically the same units with different lids and better controllers than traeger.
 
ModelMaker said:
Those clever Asians specialize in buying an existing product and copying it unmercifully and ship and resell it here for half what it's worth.
And on an on an on it goes.
Click to expand...
Just to defend those clever Asians...in most cases, the American companies ship all of their manufacturing details to the Asians, to save on costs and maximize profits, such that there is no need to copy. They just run the same production with cheaper materials.
 
Thanks for the ideas (and pointing out truths)! To NickTheGreat, I think I'm gonna give it a test run on Sunday, maybe ribs, and I'll give a full report.
 
Earlier in the season yes, although I don't remember the brand. When we actually bought the Smoky Hollow none were available. I ordered Myron Mixon's comp blend off of amazon for $31 or so. I also have a Traeger dealer in my town that can order 20 pound bags of pellets for around $18 or so. I used Myron's pellets for the seasoning, set it to high and watched it go. I was pretty impressed by how hot it got, the thermostat topped out at 500.

Sam's website offers Smoke Hollow BBQ Blend for $12 or so, not very specific.
 
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Costco has Traeger pellets in a 33lb bag for $19.99. Thought it was a pretty good deal however I didn't buy any since I have about 200lbs of pellets already.
 
Update: Yesterday I gave it a run. I decided to go with 3 racks of St. Louis style ribs as that would utilize most of the cooking space available, and cook the popular 3-2-1 method at 235. It got going, a little hot at first, but settled back down. I hooked up my Maverick to watch any difference in what I set it to and the actual temperature. Without getting into too much detail, the end result was that the smoker fairly consistently maintained the desired temp within plus or minus 5 degrees. None of the racks seemed to be cooked more or less than the others which is good, and the smoke flavor was where I think it should have been. All in all, so far I would give it four out of five stars. Now it just has to stand up to the test of time.
 
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