1MoreFord
Babbling Farker
coachop94 asked that I update my pellet grill purchase when I use it so I thought why not document the entire purchase in my usual rambling thought processes.
I ordered a Camp Chef PG24SG from Home Depot on a Sunday night and it arrived at my house in central Arkansas from Camp Chef in Utah on the following Friday afternoon. UPS dropped it off on the front porch w/o getting a signature. They had done a good job of beating the fark outa the box so I drug it into the house and opened the box to check it out. There was a screw missing from the lid and some were loose but the good inner packaging had mostly saved it. No dents or the like. I even found the screw in the box. Later on I found other screws that had worked loose too.
Getting 150lbs into the house by myself was a chore for an old, overweight, arthritic guy with a bad back and heart troubles but even in my shape it was doable.
With other things to do Saturday I waited 'til Sunday to start assembly and went about it in a very leisurely fashion. It was then that, after looking the cooker over good, I decided to place it on the hopper/controller end to install the legs instead of the method described in the owners manual. The assembly went smoothly except I put the legs on the wrong ends and found that out when I went to put the wheels on and had to rectify that mistake. With the cooker on it's end the weight is Very manageable when uprighting the cooker. Assembly would be extremely easy for someone in good shape. As it was I'd work a bit and rest for a while until finished.
No pics but trust me it looks just like it does on the Camp Che f website.
With my slow assembly progress, and other things to do, it was Tuesday afternoon before I fired it up to season it. Bluetooth and WIFI aren't doing well yet. I'm a bluetooth newb and while I got it connected I went out of range and didn't get it to re-connect. It said it had no WIFI signal so I've ordered a cheap extender to try. My phone has two out of three bars so it must be on the controller end.
I bought B&B Pecan pellets, which are blended with oak, from Academy, to start with. The burn in went well using the onboard controller. It fed pellets like it should and lit off as it should. Starting at the recommended 350°F and a smoke setting of five I never saw much smoke but I can see quite a bit of smokey discoloration on the grill from leaks around the lid. After the recommended 30 minutes of burn in I lowered the temp to 325° for a few minutes. Saw a little smoke then. Later I lowered it to 300° and then 285° and increased the smoke setting to 10. I never saw as much smoke as I hoped for but it was in the shade and the light was fading so I'll look again when I cook. Very little ash left in the firepot.
BTW the grease can liners Home Depot sells are too small. They are for a Traeger. I think I can make them work but for a proper fit you would need something else. I bought an empty paint can to use as an ash can. I'll throw it away when it rusts out and get another.
Off to Kroger's to get some food and a Chook for the first cook.
More as time allows.
I ordered a Camp Chef PG24SG from Home Depot on a Sunday night and it arrived at my house in central Arkansas from Camp Chef in Utah on the following Friday afternoon. UPS dropped it off on the front porch w/o getting a signature. They had done a good job of beating the fark outa the box so I drug it into the house and opened the box to check it out. There was a screw missing from the lid and some were loose but the good inner packaging had mostly saved it. No dents or the like. I even found the screw in the box. Later on I found other screws that had worked loose too.
Getting 150lbs into the house by myself was a chore for an old, overweight, arthritic guy with a bad back and heart troubles but even in my shape it was doable.
With other things to do Saturday I waited 'til Sunday to start assembly and went about it in a very leisurely fashion. It was then that, after looking the cooker over good, I decided to place it on the hopper/controller end to install the legs instead of the method described in the owners manual. The assembly went smoothly except I put the legs on the wrong ends and found that out when I went to put the wheels on and had to rectify that mistake. With the cooker on it's end the weight is Very manageable when uprighting the cooker. Assembly would be extremely easy for someone in good shape. As it was I'd work a bit and rest for a while until finished.
No pics but trust me it looks just like it does on the Camp Che f website.
With my slow assembly progress, and other things to do, it was Tuesday afternoon before I fired it up to season it. Bluetooth and WIFI aren't doing well yet. I'm a bluetooth newb and while I got it connected I went out of range and didn't get it to re-connect. It said it had no WIFI signal so I've ordered a cheap extender to try. My phone has two out of three bars so it must be on the controller end.
I bought B&B Pecan pellets, which are blended with oak, from Academy, to start with. The burn in went well using the onboard controller. It fed pellets like it should and lit off as it should. Starting at the recommended 350°F and a smoke setting of five I never saw much smoke but I can see quite a bit of smokey discoloration on the grill from leaks around the lid. After the recommended 30 minutes of burn in I lowered the temp to 325° for a few minutes. Saw a little smoke then. Later I lowered it to 300° and then 285° and increased the smoke setting to 10. I never saw as much smoke as I hoped for but it was in the shade and the light was fading so I'll look again when I cook. Very little ash left in the firepot.
BTW the grease can liners Home Depot sells are too small. They are for a Traeger. I think I can make them work but for a proper fit you would need something else. I bought an empty paint can to use as an ash can. I'll throw it away when it rusts out and get another.
Off to Kroger's to get some food and a Chook for the first cook.
More as time allows.
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