Pellet cooker

Could buy a pellet pooper hopper assembly and adapt it to you vertical. Pretty simple way to start.
Then you can have a vertical offset and a pellet pooper....

Going for the Therapy aspect... Lmao
 
Stlsportster said:
My comment was more related to running an electric device in the rain. If you have it covered you may be ok but mine was uncovered. When it rained I didn't smoke.
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Not sure which cooker you are using, but rain has never been an issue for me.
 
IXL said:
I would council anyone who already has an offset to keep it, if at all possible....but add a pellet cooker to the options list.
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I agree. Offsets are great if you have the time to tend them. You can't beat a pellet smoker for ease of use, and it turns out some seriously good food. If I've got a day that I can spare to tend my pit, then yep, I'll do that. If I want good Q and don't have the time to tend the pit, the pellet smoker gets the call. If you're like me, you probably don't have tons of spare time to tend to a pit, so the pellet smoker has allowed me the opportunity to make more Q than I ever have before.

And that makes me :becky:
 
Pellet grill produces great food

I have many types of cookers (kettle, BGE, offset, cabinet, gasser) and use every type of fuel (charcoal, lump, wood, gas). I recently added a Traeger Pro 22 and now can say I cook with pellets. It's extremely easy to cook BBQ on a moments notice. To date, the Traeger has worked really well, but more importantly, the food has come out very tasty with a nice and light smoke flavor. My family likes the BBQ less smoky, so I get to cook more often and they like the results...win-win.
 
We use our pellet MAK grill a lot during the week because it is so easy. We have one of the original and have updated it. It makes so much smoke that twice I have had neighbors knock on the door to makes sure the house wasn't on fire. Still cannot over smoke. We do have a Ole Hickory Pit and drum smokers.
 
I was a stick burner guy for a long time and anti PG for years but curiosity finally got me. So I took a chance and bought a MAK 1-star. At first it made me feel like I was cheating since there was no more fire tending, long hours and no more truck loads of wood and having to stack and store it. My favorite part of using the PG is it gives me more time to spend with family and friends while putting out consistent product every time. All wins in my book! I would definitely keep your stick burner and buy a pellet grill to play with. I did a lot of research and went with MAK mainly because they are made in the USA, were highly recommended by fellow Brethren and have a great dealer and manufacturer support network.
 
I cook more and more these days on my Pellet muncher, I love the fact that if I want to deep fry some fries in the kitchen or make a salad among other things I don't have to stop what I am doing to make sure things are as they should be outside with the pellet smoker. However I would like a bit more smoke then I am able to get, but my wife loves the fact that it has a light smoke to the food. I have thought about making something I could put a few chunks of hickory on inside the cooker, and get them fired up in hopes of getting more smoke flavor I have one of those pellet tubes, but it does not add any more wood smoke flavor that I can detect. Overall it is about the nearest cooker to a set it and forget it there is at this time, and that part I love. One other complaint it does not grill as well as a gas grill, so I have been thinking about adding a gas sear box to the side to fix that problem, they are being sold for about 199.00 on Amazon. That is cheaper than buying another grill and does not take up much space. As for the different brand of pellets giving more smoke flavor I have only been able to try 2 or 3 different brands, and all seemed to do about the same, but my supply is getting low and will need to pick up more pellets soon, so if you think you have the best pellets tell me more.
Dave
 
Best pellets I've ever used as Lumberjack 100% hickory, Cookinpellets 100% hickory and Cookinpellets Perfect Mix. Those seemed to produce the best flavor with Lumberjack being my favorite.

Pellet cookers produce a consistent product which cannot be over smoked. I think that those who are not from "low and slow" regions, really won't have any concern with the smoke flavor of a PG. Many places over smoke their meats which is just nasty. I started with my first PG in 2011 and from there I've owned Fast Eddy (x2), Yoder (x2), GMG, Woodmaster and Traeger. There can be a few hiccups along the way, like what I'm dealing with on my new Traeger Timberline 1300 or what I dealt with on my PG1000 and Yoder YS640, but once they are matured, it's nice to be able to cook without a big worry. Plus, I love the smell produced from a PG. It's always that sweet blue smoke and the only thing that beats it is some good lump with some cherry wood chunks in my WSM. :)

MAK seems to have the best reputation from what I can tell. GMG has amazing support, as does Cookshack. Traeger support thus far has been so-so. Yoder was pretty decent but not great from my experience. Consider support when buying a PG and do your homework. No regrets here though, even though I spend more time cooking with wood or lump, over pellets. Nothing beats bacon smoked on a PG! Yum.
 
I have 2 Nomads, 1 Traeger, 3FEC 100, 1 PG500, 2 UDS', 1 Southern Pride, 1 Weber, and 1 offset. My go to for comps is pellets and back yard is also pellets and my Weber. The one thin that I love about pellets that hasn't been mentioned is every time I cook I get the same flavor and same amount of smoke so I can adjust my seasoning to the meat I'm cooking to get more or less flavor. The next thing I like about them is the changing the pellets gives me the change I need with out having to buy and age lots of wood. Now the down side is you have to aware of the rain and electric. I do get this flavor off my drums and Weber with that lump cooking I can't get with pellets. So I feel having different cookers is great for what type of food your fixing.
 
I prefer my Traegers over my other cookers , the food that comes off of them is always good , I love the set it and forget style of cooking !
 
I love having a pellet. I've had everything but a kamodo/egg but my honed down flock is offset c vertical (charcoal insert for Barrell and can Santa Maria in the vertical all opened up), gasser (with rotisseries and griddle insert) and pellet. I cook outside more days than not year round and hate being without a pellet for what it does beautifully... I like the flavor better than WSM/charcoal/electric/propane but not as much as the offset which is flavor king... it is far more versatile but I do not use it to sear / hot grill. Sleeping while a butt or brisket is on is a plus, and being able to pay attention to my wife and kids while cooking is also. I often have to ask permission for long offset cooks as I have a 6&9yr old. Pellet is a consistent damned tasty neglectomatic.
 
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There was a trade off for me. The pellet doesn't get the smokey flavor an offset does,but the pellet has a taste of it's own. For some reason people that I have cooked for love the taste of the food from the pellet. Oh, and I use it a lot more than the offset.
 
No charcoal taste and not the enjoyment of messing with live fire...if that's your thing.

For me, I have cooked on pretty much every type of cooker there is, over the past 20+ years. There is indeed a lot of fun stuff out there...and much of it has the ability to turn out some pretty tasty food IF you know what you are doing.

I recently made (after 12 years) the switch back to a pellet cooker. It has become my only cooker...I like it that much. That and a Blackstone griddle...lol.

I get more compliments from friends/family when cooking on my pellet cooker...and find that because of the ease of use, I am cooking way more then I have in a looong time...min of 4 days/week.
 
I guess in Europe, we are not used to 'heavy' smoked food as I think my Traeger gives plenty of smoke taste to my food. I do like heavy smoked food and have had it while travelling in the US but prefer a lighter flavour so the Traeger is perfect for that. Often I put the food on the smoke setting for a few hours before turning up the temp and that def gives off more smoke flavour.

Got the Traeger a little over a year ago and use it for all my low n slow stuff as well as making wings, jerky etc. All other stuff, I do on a Weber because sometimes, I like to play with fire and wood :)

Bottom line is that you need to learn how your pit works and you can't just take your knowledge from 1 pit to another and assume it's going to perform the same. I read a lot of comments about the temp swings on (Traeger) pellet grills and mine does that as well but I don't care. I set it to the temp and let it's do it's magic. So far I have never had a meal off it that wasn't delicious.
 
the smoke daddy website has hopper assemblies you can retrofit into whatever. has videos to help as well. google smoke daddy and it would take you to their site.
 
Another advantage to my pellet grill, winter use. I put away my Weber kettles in the winter. The GMG has a blanket on it and I fire that sucker up when I need to set it and forget it. It gets cold here in MN, if you didn't know, and tending a pit isn't in my best interest. The ability to watch the cook from inside the house can't be beat (WiFi FTW).
 
I have two pellet cookers A GMG Jim Bowie w/ wifi and a rec tec. Definitely safer with the kids around and much more convenient so I use it much more than I would if I had to start a live fire. Can get to smoking temps in 10-15 minutes and shuts down in about 5-8 minutes. Pellets can be very affordable if bought in bulk, easier to store and will last for years as long as it doesnt get wet.

The food comes off smokey especially low and slow meats. Anything above 325 wont really have that much smoke on it but more than enough for those who arent used to smoked food.

Lover the set it forget it aspect of it. Love the wifi.

Things I hate about it? Possible auger jam, running out of pellets (Jim Bowie has pellet alarm) needs electricity (its a love hate thing), removing all the grates, drip pans, heat shieds and possibility of fans, fuses, hot rod and other moving parts needing to be replaced at some point.

Good so far have outweighed the bad. Had a couple auger jams in the year, year and a half Ive had a pellet grill and thats pretty much it.
 
Ordered up some Lumberjack hickory pellets today, but it may be awhile before I get to use them. After thinking about it, I believe I have tried them before, but not sure, and don't remember if I liked them or not, if I did it was back when I first got my pellet smoker, almost three years ago, but I will give them a try again, dang it suck to get old sometimes, and sometimes its a good thing.:rolleyes:
Dave
 
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