Are pellet grills really faster and more convenient for smoking?

Bob C Cue said:

Convenience is certainly the key word with pellet grills. Speed? Not so much! Thanks!

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I truly believe my pellet grill cooks faster than my offset I buy the same size briskets in my pellet grill it cooks in 12 hours. On my offset roughly 13-14 hours. A lot of factor factor in for me wind,heat,cold etc with the offset loss of the coal bed an start over. My offset is old so I lose heat because the door doesn’t close all the way. An heat escapes.

With all those variables mentioned above my rec tec cooks faster than my offset. I get it if my offset would be in better shape it may not be the case. But that’s not the case so the rec tec is way faster for me

Bob C Cue said:

May I recommend one of these:

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Until today, it's been locked up with a Pewag 3012 12mm chain and a Mul-T-Lock #13 C-Series padlock. The other grills are free to roam.

I have a Pellet Smoker and a PBC and I like them both for different reasons.

Nothing like hanging a trimmed and tied Beef Tenderloin on the PBC, or drilling holes in the bone of Tomahawk Ribeye's to hang in the PBC. I love having people over and watching their faces when you pull something cool like that out of a drum. Great Theater!

I like the large capacity on my cabinet pellet smoker and the ability to walk away knowing I can focus on sleeping, making side dishes, watching football, etc. while it does its thing.

One misconception that many folks have with Pellet Cookers is that it requires no skill to operate. Just like any other cooker you will need to spend some time figuring it out. You will have hot spots, you may have air flow challenges, you will need to try different kinds of pellets to see what you like best, and what pellets works best in your cooker. Takes practice and there is no one right procedure just like with other types of smokers.

As Rob mentions before, once you dial it in you can absolutely focus on other things like the way you trim your brisket, different rub combinations, time and temperature variations, etc. The one constant will be the heat and wood flavor profile using the same pellets on each cook, and once you are dialed in to what you like, you can absolutely replicate those good results over and over.

rwalters said:

Having owned and cooked lots of food on kettles and a PBC myself... and now being a pellethead convert, I can say without hesitation that IMO pellet cooking is easier and more convenient in several ways. Let me explain...

1) I can walk out and flip a switch, set an exact temp and walk back inside.

2) The cooker will come up to that set temp and park it there with little fluctuation for the entire duration of the cook with no user interaction as the controller compensates for all weather conditions.

3) The smoke profile is the same every single time. Recipes/results are easily repeatable.

4) When cooks are based on a set meal time, you can easily turn temps down or crank them up to speed things up slow them down. I can do it from my phone in fact.

5) The clean up after a cook takes a few mins and I am ready for the next adventure.

These are the things that jump out to me with pellet cookers.

Now the PBC. It’s an amazingly brain dead easy to use cooker... lots to love about it. And it puts out great results as you state. Is it as easy and convenient as a pellet cooker? Not IMHO. Why?

1) You’re manually lighting a fire.

2) You’re having to watch your time as to make sure the charcoal is dumped in not to soon and not to late.

3) There were numerous times with my PBC where weather affected it. More often than not when this happened it would start running to cool. I had to watch for that and crack the lid on occasion to bring temp back up.

4) On a few occasions, I had ribs drop from the hooks. Yes they were hooked according to directions, but it still happened a few times. I had to watch for this.

5) I could never time meals as precisely when cooking on my PBC like I can on my pellet cooker.

Bottomline, the PBC and pellet cookers are both fantastic options. They each have their strengths/weaknesses. Both are very different from each other. But for ease of use and consistency, I do not think you will beat a pellet cooker.

Just my 2 cents

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On the gravity smoker:

1. Manually lighting the fire....consists of putting a Weber fire cube on top of an empty carnation condensed milk can (what I had on hand when I got the smoker and it works fine), and placing under the charcoal chute and light with a stick lighter. I then close the door and let the fan do the work of bringing the pit up to temp.

2. The cooker, using the Fireboard controller (likely with any decent temp controller like BBQ Guru) will bring it up to temp and park it there. First couple times I was a little slow setting everything up and it took 45- 50 minutes to come to temp. I am getting faster on now it is down to 35-45 minutes...to 250 degrees.

3. Weather does not affect the cabinet, and it seems easily repeatable, or easy to change the smoke profile by placing different types of wood in the fire box (have used cherry and mesquite and makes a noticeable difference).

4. Everything is on a rack so no falling ribs (just cooked some tonight for super). Easy to ramp up temp. Can do it sitting on my behind watching tv.

5. Clean up is simple. Pop open the fire box and empty the ash container into a metal bucket. This can be done at any time even when the machine is cooking if you use pliers or good gloves. Some ash misses the bucket, so you may have to sweep a bit, but it is small space to sweep, so just take 30 seconds or so and you don’t have to remove anything other than the ash bucket. Grease cleanup inside the cook chamber is no different the than any other cooker, but I put a disposable pan under everything and just toss the pan. Then spend a minute cleaning the grates that got cooked on.

6. When done cooking, just turn off the controller and put the cap on the air intake. Fire goes out quickly and leftover coals can be used next cook. Before lighting the fire next time, you will need to tap the heavy grate that hold the charcoal with a pair of pliers a few times to knock out any extra ash. This take about 20 seconds, and fill the charcoal chute (this can be done after starting too). Then rinse and repeat above.

Really quite simple.

Chester said:

On the gravity smoker:

1. Manually lighting the fire....consists of putting a Weber fire cube on top of an empty carnation condensed milk can (what I had on hand when I got the smoker and it works fine), and placing under the charcoal chute and light with a stick lighter. I then close the door and let the fan do the work of bringing the pit up to temp.

2. The cooker, using the Fireboard controller (likely with any decent temp controller like BBQ Guru) will bring it up to temp and park it there. First couple times I was a little slow setting everything up and it took 45- 50 minutes to come to temp. I am getting faster on now it is down to 35-45 minutes...to 250 degrees.

3. Weather does not affect the cabinet, and it seems easily repeatable, or easy to change the smoke profile by placing different types of wood in the fire box (have used cherry and mesquite and makes a noticeable difference).

4. Everything is on a rack so no falling ribs (just cooked some tonight for super). Easy to ramp up temp. Can do it sitting on my behind watching tv.

5. Clean up is simple. Pop open the fire box and empty the ash container into a metal bucket. This can be done at any time even when the machine is cooking if you use pliers or good gloves. Some ash misses the bucket, so you may have to sweep a bit, but it is small space to sweep, so just take 30 seconds or so and you don’t have to remove anything other than the ash bucket. Grease cleanup inside the cook chamber is no different the than any other cooker, but I put a disposable pan under everything and just toss the pan. Then spend a minute cleaning the grates that got cooked on.

6. When done cooking, just turn off the controller and put the cap on the air intake. Fire goes out quickly and leftover coals can be used next cook. Before lighting the fire next time, you will need to tap the heavy grate that hold the charcoal with a pair of pliers a few times to knock out any extra ash. This take about 20 seconds, and fill the charcoal chute (this can be done after starting too). Then rinse and repeat above.

Really quite simple.

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Sounds like you have your GF cooker down to a science. Can’t argue with your experience as it indeed sounds easy and convenient

rwalters said:

Sounds like you have your GF cooker down to a science. Can’t argue with your experience as it indeed sounds easy and convenient

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Nope, not down to a science. Still learning all it’s quirks, but the overall operation is quite easy. I’ve been cooking on different cookers for years though, so they come easier to me now than they use to.

One thing I forgot to add and the primary reason I went with a pellet smoker was because I think I may have a allergy or something to charcoal. If I cook over coal and its a short smoke (say chicken) or a hot cook (burgers, searing steaks, etc) I have no issues but if I’m smoking something for longer than about 3 hours, it causes me to get weird stomach issues I usually never have. Burpee, nausea, and sometimes acid reflux type symptoms. The last brisket I made in my barrel was the final straw for me. I was woke up in the middle of the night coughing from slight acid reflux. I don’t have acid reflux and never have. I decided at that point to start looking at pellet cookers because they didn’t use charcoal. I was considering a gravity fed coal cooker before but again I’ve come to the conclusion charcoal is the issue. I’ve never had issues from brisket or ribs that were cooked in an offset cooker. I don’t want an offset so I bought the recteq.
I made a brisket in my pellet cooker last week and had zero issue with my stomach. It’s a little unfortunate because while I love the flavor I’m getting in my pellet cooker I also enjoy the flavors I get cooking over coal. I haven’t decided yet exactly what I’m going to do with my barrel cooker but it may become a chicken only cooker. Chicken is fantastic when cooked in a barrel!! I’ll probably always keep my kettle though but it’ll probably become my primary searing cooker.

Edit: I wanted to write this to explain that, for me at least, there were more reasons for going the pellet route than just convenience. We all have our cooker for a reason and one of the wonderful things about this site is getting to see all the delicious food everyone makes on the cooker they chose.

Robert said:

Both of the above are great selling points for pellet grill smokers. However, for me, I was an early adopter of pellets in the early 2000's with Traegers. No use in bashing/rehashing my experiences other than to say those experiences make me reluctant to go wade off into those waters again.


ATTST: Advances in technology lead me to believe my reluctance may mean I'm missing out on a good thing. Robb's MAK posts (and others MAK owners as well) make me want to pull the trigger on the Two Star. I nearly did last spring when MAK was offering the great deal he arranged for the Brethren. My wife was the deciding factor in the final decision. But every time I see a MAK post, I regret it. Push button, set it and forget it, minimal cleanup, great customer service, is getting more and more appealing. I just need somebody to invite me to taste the food that comes off the MAK and if the food looks as good as the pictures, I might try pellets one more time.


Good luck in you decision.


Thanks,


Robert

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Very interesting thread. I also have a decision to make since my commercial smoker, that holds 500 lbs of meat, is way oversized for small groups of 2 - 4 people and the walk to my shop/BBQ area is over 50 yards from my house. Loading woods chunks every 4 hours and at 2 am is getting old!

rwalters So, what are the chances of another Brethern group MAK buy for those of us who missed the Spring 2020 opportunity and are looking for a special deal?

Bill

cobill said:

Very interesting thread. I also have a decision to make since my commercial smoker, that holds 500 lbs of meat, is way oversized for small groups of 2 - 4 people and the walk to my shop/BBQ area is over 50 yards from my house. Loading woods chunks every 4 hours and at 2 am is getting old!

rwalters So, what are the chances of another Brethern group MAK buy for those of us who missed the Spring 2020 opportunity and are looking for a special deal?

Bill

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I have actually been discussing the possibility with MAK Grills again. Will let all y’all know as soon as I have more concrete info. Would love to be able to pull one off again this spring!

rwalters said:

I have actually been discussing the possibility with MAK Grills again. Will let all y’all know as soon as I have more concrete info. Would love to be able to pull one off again this spring!

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I realize that I don't post very often, but count me in if you do this. I'm definitely buying a pellet grill in the next couple of months and am leaning toward the 2 Star. A group buy would clinch it!

Bob C Cue said:

Wish I had the patio room to house your arsenal! But even if I did my wife would think I had lost my mind. Although somehow she can't get by with fewer that 60 pairs of shoes!

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Mine definitely thinks I’ve lost my mind! I’m at the stage where it’s “if you buy another one, an existing one has to go.” Heh under that rule I pointed at the gasser when I got my FTG. The gasser is the only one she can use, so it stayed and I got +1. I think I’ll try that again to see if I can get a live fire table.

Bob C Cue said:

After reading through all of the great, informative posts I think you summed it up perfectly. Thanks!

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Bob C Cue said:

Convenience is certainly the key word with pellet grills. Speed? Not so much! Thanks!

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I totally agree with these 2 points except for the fact, that it can become faster if you need it to. I am one who cooks on my pellet grill at low heats for more smoke. However, if it's a weeknight cook after work I can cut low temp time down and hit high temps to finish. This will enable me to get a week cook in when I would've never had the chance to on my WSM.

The one cooker that almost stopped my purchase was when the MB 560 and 1050 came out. They have the controller that can do similar things, but when I saw some of the questions about the quality of the build and some of the trouble with the controller it was no longer a question. Because unlike some I absolutely love the smell and taste of charcoal cooking.

I didn't read the whole thread, so forgive me if someone has already mentioned this. Many larger pellet cookers can smoke a lot more food at once than even the biggest barrel.

It's a lot faster and more convenient to cook 6 briskets at once on a bigger pellet unit than one at a time on a PBC.

rwalters said:

I have actually been discussing the possibility with MAK Grills again. Will let all y’all know as soon as I have more concrete info. Would love to be able to pull one off again this spring!

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Robb, put me on the contact list for a MAK grill group buy. :clap:Thanks,

Bill

cobill said:

Robb, put me on the contact list for a MAK grill group buy. :clap:Thanks,

Bill

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If MAK Grills decides to do a another Brethren group buy deal... you’ll see a new thread started right here on this forum. Stay tuned

Pellet grill fan, for the convenience. However, yesterday it wasn't so convenient. Electronics!!! My Yoder was acting up for the first time in years. I never did get it worked out after an hour of messing around. So, I ended up putting the ribs on my 4 burner Genesis, with 2 smoke tubes going. As it turns out, that is pretty damn convenient too. It held rock solid all afternoon. Got comparable, if not more smoke flavor than I would have on the Yoder without tubes.

I also had to fire my Egg up yesterday for the chicken and mac n cheese. Ideally, for room, it would have all fit on the Yoder. However, it was a pretty fun cook running a couple different cookers, and overcoming the issue.

Honestly, I can now see my self using the gasser and pellet tubes more in that fashion. Shame on me, I know. :-D

rwalters said:

If MAK Grills decides to do a another Brethren group buy deal... you’ll see a new thread started right here on this forum. Stay tuned

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What kind of discount did you get with the group buy?

You can make good food on any type of grill or smoker. The question for some uses is convenience. Using a pellet grill is totally different than charcoal or gas. I used a Weber kettle from 1975 until 1995. Then I used a gas grill for about 18 years with a smoke box. In 2015, I got a vertical cabinet smoker. This past year I bought a pellet grill and probably use that more than any of the other grills / smokers I've had. It's far more convenient than either the Weber or gas grill. It heats up faster than either the Weber or the gas grill and there is next to zero work involved other than plugging it in and turning on the controller. It's far more convenient because it has built-in temperature control which neither the Weber or the gas grill had. Because I know the temperature can be set, we use it for things that we never cooked on a grill before like pizza.

As an example, if I was going to use the Weber, I would have to put the charcoal into the grill, load a starter chimney, and wait 20-30 minutes for that to get up to temperature and then put that into the grill and wait for the charcoal to get "just right." That's a total 40 - 50 minutes wait time. With the pellet grill, I simply turn it on, wait until it beeps and I know it's at the temperature - that's about a 20 minute wait. So, for not wasting time waiting - the pellet grill wins over charcoal.

As for the gas grill, the heat up time was about the same, but since it didn't have built in temperature control, I was constantly baby sitting it while it worked. Again, the pellet grill wins for convenience and also has better smoke capability.

Because of the inherent temperature control and stability of the pellet grill, I find myself using it for more different types of dishes and cooking. I have a basket to smoke vegetables, a cast iron pan for grilling / smoking, a cordierite stone for pizza, and a soapstone for grilling. Does the pellet grill give the same level of smoke that the vertical cabinet smoker does? No. But, using the cabinet smoker is a waste of time and charcoal for only two pieces of chicken which I WILL put on the pellet grill.

When I'm doing two racks of ribs, 20 pieces of chicken, four fatties and two meatloaves the cabinet smoke wins hands down - but, I'm not doing that every week. The pellet grill gets used two to three times a week and the cabinet smoker gets used 4-5 times a year.

For me the pellet grill makes life easier, cooks faster, is far more versatile and produces enough smoke to lend the additional flavor to the food. Is it the end-all, be-all? No. No grill or smoker is. They each have their pluses and minuses. The pellet grill has far more pluses than minuses for my use.

Your question was - "am I missing something"? My answer would be, yes. The pellet grill / smoker provides automatic temperature control and that means not having to constantly monitor the heat, charcoal, etc. while you're cooking.

CivilTrojan said:

What kind of discount did you get with the group buy?

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Although I have a good idea, I honestly don’t know what the exact deal worked out to be. It was good enough to sell 29 MAK’s though

Being this is/was something that MAK doesn’t typically do, they will request that each interested individual contact them directly for discounted pricing. They will also request that it not be made public. The Brethren seemed to do a very good job of respecting their request last year... which I have no reason to believe we won’t do again.