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The Official Pellet Grill Smoker thread.

Flatfour said:
Greetings friends,
If anybody would care to throw it in their two cents regarding any of these, I would certainly appreciate it. Anything you’ve got whether it’s praise or concerns.
Click to expand...

I don't have one yet but have been doing the same thing as you. Researching, thinking, researching, thinking...you get it. I narrowed it down to the YS640 Competition out of the ones you have listed here. Did look at the P&S 1250 which I think is more in line capacity wise to the YS640. (could be wrong).

Anyway, the Yoder wins out for me but the P&S is/was a close second.
 
Flatfour said:
Greetings friends,
I am getting ready to step up from a WSM to a pellet grill and I initially thought it was going to be a little easier. There are a lot of choices!

I’m looking for a versatile cooker, that will smoke, cook and grill. Although with grilling I’m only talking mostly about burgers, maybe the occasional steak.

So far, I’ve narrowed the list down to the following in no particular order.

Pitts & Spitts Maverick 850
Blaz’n Grid Iron
Yoder YS640
Kuma Platinum

If anybody would care to throw it in their two cents regarding any of these, I would certainly appreciate it. Anything you’ve got whether it’s praise or concerns.

My wife keeps asking if I’ve ordered the grill yet and I’m suffering from analysis paralysis.

Thanks in advance
Jeremy
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Just my 2 cents, but out of the options you listed I’d go with the Kuma. Kuma is built a lot like a MAK 1 Star. It also offers a sweet direct sear option. The company and its level of service is outstanding, some of the best I have ever seen (I don’t even own a Kuma, but have talked at length with them on numerous occasions). One thing that sets them out from the others in your list is that, like the MAK, they use aluminized steel under their high temp powder coat finish. That means you’ll never have to deal with rust issues :)

Oh yeah, Kuma also uses 304 SS in the cooking chamber. All double walled 304. That’s a BIG deal!!
 
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Flat four... out of the ones you listed I’d go Yoder or kuma. I haven’t heard anything good or bad about kuma but the materials used and features are top notch. Yoder is a great performer but my gripe is in that same price range kuma and Mak are both powder coated aluminized steel with tons of 304 stainless which unlike the Yoder will not rust.
 
Last night cooked a rib roast on the Daniel Boone. No pics - I've posted enough pics of my pooper. Came out great, but had a little trouble with the temp probe. It read 135 when I knew the roast wasn't done. Tested with my Maverick and Thermapen and they both read 98. Finished using the Maverick. I'm sure I did something wrong; I'll have to keep using both probes until I figure it out. Still love my DB!
 
qnbiker said:
Last night cooked a rib roast on the Daniel Boone. No pics - I've posted enough pics of my pooper. Came out great, but had a little trouble with the temp probe. It read 135 when I knew the roast wasn't done. Tested with my Maverick and Thermapen and they both read 98. Finished using the Maverick. I'm sure I did something wrong; I'll have to keep using both probes until I figure it out. Still love my DB!
Click to expand...

Huh hopefully you figure out what’s going on
 
So this is the cleanest my grills been since I got it. Cleaned it top to bottom. Ironically it will be the dirtiest it’s ever been here in a few hours. Wonder if I will have to dump the grease tray midway through the cook? I’ve cooked 3 racks of ribs in the past and there was barely any grease at all in it. I’m not thinking I will.
 
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What does the grease tray look like on a Mak? On my Yoder the grease drains into a bucket underneath. I keep foil liners in it, and just throw it away when it gets full.
 
I shopped for over a year B4 deciding. I liked the MAK and Yoders.....but had to travel 60 miles to view them. I have a Blazin dealer 10 minutes away, after much comparison I went with a Grid Iron model. The 2019 models now have factory installed door gasket and hopper dump and pre orders on Black Friday saved $300! In my opinion, $ for $ and feature for feature.....you can't go wrong with any of these.
 
Joshw said:
What does the grease tray look like on a Mak? On my Yoder the grease drains into a bucket underneath. I keep foil liners in it, and just throw it away when it gets full.
Click to expand...

It’s a slide out stainless grease tray on the right hand side of the smoker. It holds quite a bit
 
pjtexas1 said:
Any disassembly required to get it out?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

No it just slides out from the outside. Guys everything about a Mak is just convenient. Lots of quality of life features built in. They literally thought of everything. I didn’t realize that until I started reading the manual. For instance if the thermocouple breaks there is a setting where you can control temperature old school Traeger style with a smoke low Med high setting until you are sent a new thermocouple so you don’t have to wait to use it. They are several built in fail proof features like that that are never talked about .

Here is a pic of the grease drawer. A lot more attractive than a bucket imo. There is also a trap door on the bottom of the chamber where you can sweep ash directly into the grease drawer so you will never have to get that stupid shop vac out again. I always hated doing that and now I don’t have to.
 
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BKING! said:
No it just slides out from the outside. Guys everything about a Mak is just convenient. Lots of quality of life features built in. They literally thought of everything. I didn’t realize that until I started reading the manual. For instance if the thermocouple breaks there is a setting where you can control temperature old school Traeger style with a smoke low Med high setting until you are sent a new thermocouple so you don’t have to wait to use it. They are several built in fail proof features like that that are never talked about .

Here is a pic of the grease drawer. A lot more attractive than a bucket imo. There is also a trap door on the bottom of the chamber where you can sweep ash directly into the grease drawer so you will never have to get that stupid shop vac out again. I always hated doing that and now I don’t have to.
Click to expand...



Don’t forget about the removable fire pot. Awesome feature. Truly eliminates needing a shop vac.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Word to the wise. When loading up any pellet grill with a flame out sensor to the max always preheat a good 100-150 deg higher than what you want to cook at. What happened is that I set it at 225 deg and opened the door for an extended period of time. After loading it up with a ton of cold meat the temp tanked and the Mak sensed a flame out (there wasn’t one) and went into its relight phase.

After realizing what happened I took the butts off and preheated to 350 deg. After loading the butts the temp tanked to 225. At that point I set the temp from 350 to 225 deg and all is well.
 
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