MAK Grills talk/pics/thoughts/reviews and appreciation thread

rwalters said:

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A bit more personal, but having been a member of the MAK family for a little over 4 years, I cannot speak highly enough about the company and the product. When I make reference to the "MAK family" I don't say that flippantly. Not only have I never had a grill/smoker go through my backyard that I loved and enjoyed more than my MAK 2 Star, but I have never experienced a grill company that cares for and appreciates their customers more so than MAK Grills. Just a couple of examples...

1) Several years ago, as fires were sweeping through Northern CA, I noticed an incoming call from a (503) area code. It was MAK Grills just checking to make sure my family and I were ok. What grill company does that? Sounds more like a family, doesn't it?

2) A few months back, my wife and I were dealing with some pretty heavy family stuff. MAK Grills caught wind of the fact that we were going through a storm, and next thing we find is a card in our mailbox signed by everyone at MAK Grills just letting us know they were thinking about us and wishing us well. What grill company does that? Sounds more like a family, doesn't it?

I am definitely not the only one to report these kind and caring gestures displayed by the fine folks at MAK. I recently saw one of their customers get a minor burn from their hot grill. Next thing that customer finds is a get-well card in the mail with a bandaid for the burn... lol. Not only is it the kindness, but it's also their high level of integrity that has caught my attention. It's the whole package!

Sooo, back the the grills... let's get this thread rolling with all things MAK

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tom b said:

Thanks for starting this Robb! We have had our for 11 months now and love it.

Here she is smoking away

and some food we have cooked

salmon

beef ribs

wings


turkey


stuffed chicken


over chared steak

a perfectly cooked steak

pizza

I hope all the new MAK owners enjoy the grills as much as we have

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Sooner21 said:

All these pics of food are making me really excited to receive my new MAK... And making me hungry. Pics are incredible guys - can't wait to contribute to this thread.


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Crispy Bacon said:

Kevin those steaks & burgers look great. Any secret to the crust on those burgers? & that roast looks awesome!

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Crispy Bacon said:

That food looks great! Any secrets to that Turkey. The skin looks nice & crispy!

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rwalters said:

I am pretty plugged in with the MAK family over on their FB fan page... a great group (hint, hint).

Some of you know this, many of you may not. Last May, TomB who just posted a bunch of killer cooks in this thread drove from SoCal to NorCal to buy my 2017 MAK 2 Star as I was making room for the 2019 model (I got boss approval and moved quick... lol).

I shared this with the MAK family on May 20, 2019 and thought you guys may enjoy seeing now.

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Kind of a cool Monday morning story to share.

So, as some of you know, a couple of months ago I decided to order the 2019 version of the MAK 2 Star. As part of "the plan" I put my 2017 2 Star up for sale. Not being out to gouge anyone, I attracted a buyer from 9 hours away. We set a day/time... he made a hotel reservation... he and his wife drove from SoCal to NorCal on a Friday... stayed overnight... picked up the MAK early Saturday morning... spent the day putzing around in the Sacramento area... and returned home Saturday night. What some guys/gals will do for a good deal... lol.

We spent probably close to an hour chit-chatting the morning he came over to pick up his new 2 Star. During our coversation, I discovered a few things:

1) His acquisition of my MAK put him at a total of 11 backyard cookers. From a pellet grill, to a stick burner, to a Santa Maria style grill, to a you-name-it... he already had ALL of his bases covered.

2) Although he's heard plenty of positive talk regarding MAK Grills, he's never seen one, nor has he ever had food from one.

3) He is not new to pellet grills, and currently owns a Traeger Timberline 1300 which he really likes!

4) He doesn't want 2 pellet grills sitting in his backyard.

5) He told me that the only reason he had decided to make the 18ish hour roundtrip to buy the MAK was to satisfy his curiousity. His plan was to return home and begin doing a series of side-by-side comparisons... MAK 2 Star vs Traeger Timberline. The winner stays, the loser is put up for sale. His plan was to put them head-to-head over this upcoming summer and then list the loser.

At the end of our conversation, I helped him load the MAK into his truck and watched him drive away.

Since that day, he has done 2 side-by-sides:

1) Chicken thighs, done indirect at 375. The results were a tie with no discernable difference. Both cookers produced a fantastic end result. That said, he put the MAK as the winner because of the shorter pre-heat time. MAK was cruising at 375 within 18 minutes. The Timberline 1300 took 42 minutes.

2) Not a side-by-side, but he also wanted to see what the grilling power of the 2 Star was like. With the sale of the MAK, I included 2 of MAK's sear grates. He used the sear grates to grill burgers and reported back that he was very impressed!

3) After his chicken thigh experience, his next side-by-side was a low-n-slow St. Louis rib cook. One slab of ribs on each smoker... and each slab prepared the same. At the conclusion of the experiment, these were his words. "Both racks had the same basic flavor (same rub). Timberline smoke profile was subtle and clean. MAK smoke profile blew me away, very pronounced more so than my clean running stick burner. May even need to work on dialing it back some with different pellets and/or higher temps."

I saw pictures of both slabs of ribs, and I was actually surprised myself to see the difference in color alone. The MAK ribs looked like slow smoked ribs should whereas the Timberline ribs had more of a baked look to them.

So here we are in May, with this new MAK owners side-by-side comparisons just getting underway... and here is what he said last night. "I plan on a butt maybe next week, but no further testing is required. My mind is made up! The MAK is a better cooker in every way minus capacity." We talked about the capacity comment and how the MAK is deceptively LARGE! He's gonna be fine [emoji846]

His final parting comment last night... "the Timberline to be listed soon!"

Boy, that did't take long

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