Pellet smoker
 

Hello all,
I am in the market for a pellet smoker. A few years ago I sold my linestar grillz insulated cabinet before moving cross country.

After the move I picked up a GMG pellet and used the thing like crazy due to the ease. The build quality bugged me out the gate and eventually it stopped working.

I am looking for a replacement/upgrade of higher build quality than the gmg. I loved the LSG IVS and see they are coming out w a pellet soon. Chris has said they are their 20" offset with a pellet hopper. The 20x42 will weigh 445 lbs, which I read as quality.

Are there any other smokers I should look into? I have checked out Yoder and MAK.
Budget isn't much of a concern. I am not spending 10k though lol.

Welcome to the Brethren! After having owned 20+ cookers over the past 25 or so years, the MAK 2 Star has been my all-time favorite grill/smoker to date. Personally, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to beat a MAK :-)

i am a proud yoder owner and i love them. The mak grills are quality built from what ive heard.

If you just want a smoker, and aren't interested in grilling, look at the Cookshack FEC100. Mine is 13 years old and going strong!

I have a Yoder YS640s on comp cart on the way. Yoder and MAK pretty much lead the top tiers. Rec Tec's Bull is a nice product, but I don't like their marketing/lifestyle videos personally, which ultimately led me away from that. Grillbillies in Wendell isn't too far from you and they are a Yoder, GMG, Myron Mixon dealer so you may be able to head there to put your eyes on some of those.

I am looking to smoke and grill on it.

If grilling is a requirement, then here’s something to consider and decide which works best for you.

Pretty much every pellet grill that has grilling capabilities has a portion (often very small) dedicated for high heat cooking. That works for some. As far as I know, MAK and Weber are the only pellet grills on the market that offer grilling capability across the entire cooking grate. If you are grilling for more than just a few people, IMO having the full grate to use is a huge deal. Just something to consider. I’d be very cautious with Weber right now as they are new to the market and working through some fairly significant design issues.

Ditto! I grill more than I smoke & my MAK 2* grills great. The build quality is great, the company is great & this grill just works! Glad I bought it!

I'd consider a kettle with grillgrates for grilling ... it's pretty easy ... and I like it better as my pellet grill you have to take it apart in order to grill. A nice flat top is also great for griddling a lot of stuff. Good luck and adventure.

I love my Blaz’n Grand Slam, but I can’t recommend it for grilling. It’ll get to 450F, but doesn’t really do a great job. For smoking it’s fantastic and is built like a tank. If you can afford it, a Mak 2 is pretty awesome. My GS was about $1200 when I got it and that was at the top of my price range. If you can swing the Mak 2 price, I’ve never heard a bad word about them.

Pitts and Spitts makes a mighty sturdy grill. It’s got the trapdoor grill feature. If you need smoking capacity, hard to beat Pitts and Spitts offerings. Probably the best direct grill pellet on the market is the Fast Eddy PG500. But it doesn’t have that much capacity to smoke. I have never seen a MAK. Wish I did but if budget isn’t an issue I really doubt you could go wrong with a 2*. It would be at the top of my list. I will be interested to see what the LSG comes out like. Seems pretty feature laden per their website!

MAK and Yoder, you can't got wrong. Just to throw something out there...I have a MAK2 and just got a Masterbuilt Gravity Fed. If versatility is what you're looking for, along with good smoke flavor and ease of use, it's hard to believe how well the Masterbuilt performs. And believe it or not, it's easier to use than a MAK2. Plenty of stuff on YT. Just a thought...

That MB has a good price point. I like how fast they get hot. If it was a little bit better quality-wise, I’d have one in a heart beat!

On my GMG I ran some grill grates and had no issues grilling on them And I never used the direct grill feature, I just cranked up the heat. Curious to exactly what issues you have had grilling on a pellet cooker.

Curious what issues you guys are talking about having grilling on a smoker. On my gmg I had some grill grates that I would regularly grill on. I never used the direct grill feature, just cranked the heat.