Need your advice... YS, GMG, LG, RT, Traeg

gtsum said:

My grill grates have been as high as 914 via infrared thermo. This is with the two piece deflector plate with the door out. Take it or leave it.

The timberline will never ever sear as good as a yoder. It's physically impossible without a direct sear solution. As I said, there is a lot of great tech with the timberline and the double wall lid is one example. No doubt it cuts down on pellet usage. But lack of direct searing killed it for me. At this point, the only other pellet grill I would consider over my yoder would be a Memphis elite, but that's also 300% more money


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Cooking directly over a fire pot on the yoder dripping grease scares me to be honest. 500 degrees with a timberline still indirect cooking is good enough for me. Why you would need to cook at 900 degrees makes no sense to me.

I have two Komodo Kamado grills that cost more than my last car lol, and they can hit 1100 degrees without issue. Because they can isn't reason for me to go there. I cook pizza deep dish at 475 and bake at this temp. I do regular pizza at 550 and sometimes steaks at 600 max!!!

If you really want to compare yoder direct cooking to timberline, there is nothing stopping you from removing the deflector with the grate in low position. That would get me some serious heat. But again, I don't like the idea of grease dripping over top of a burn cup but maybe that is just me.

Yoder has a pretty open temp swing compared to the +\-5 degree swing on the new timberline. Another plus for me personally.

With all that said the biggest turn off for me with yoder was that i have read so many stories about having to paint them and sand rust etc. I didn't want to get into that.

Quality machine, and it has a great reputation in the industry. Yoder is an excellent choice, however, the timberline is a great competitor in the market and worth a look. Being the new kid on the block, there isn't much info or fan following as of yet but give it time!! This grill is worth the buy

You're smart to use a kettle for grilling. Only spend money on this once. Get a few hundred dollars more and get a mak 1 star.

You said 1500. That won't cover the yoder with shipping and everything. If this is a lifetime cooler get something that's stainless. The powder coat/paint sucks on most of these cookers. Do you have any places out there that carry any of these pellet grills? I know we have a few Memphis dealers and there was a scratched one which didn't affect anything for 2k. That was local to me so no shipping which can get pretty damn high. Also assassin is set to release a pellet grill soon.

I've owned the following pellet cookers:

1. Fast Eddy PG1000
2. Fast Eddy FEC100
3. Yoder YS640
4. Yoder YS1500
5. GMG DC WIFI
6. Traeger Timberline 1300

The best smoker flavor I got was from the YS640. Heaviest duty build quality is Yoder. The best support came from GMG with Cookshack being a close second. The best technology is in the new Timberline 1300.

Yoder - built like a tank (my YS640 had a pretty poorly fitting door) but had quite a number of upgrades, issues and were not efficient. Good smoke flavor in the YS640, not as good in the YS1500. Temps had a pretty big swing.

GMG - worked through a number of issues but the performance of the unit progressed with time. Decent smoker flavor, especially with later firmware updates. Temp swings were a bit high at times.

Fast Eddy - had some issues with the combustion dying off in the middle of the night. Good smoke flavor. If you dialed in the LHT/HHT on the PG1000, temp swings were pretty decent. The FEC100 did not have that option and had a bit of swing with the IQ4 controller.

Traeger Timberline - Decent build quality and heft. Technology is very good (WIFI/App) with very minor swings in temperature. Smoke output isn't as much as the other cookers but still sufficient at lower temps. Seems efficient and produces a good product. This is my newest cooker, so I don't have any real seat time with it yet.

You said 1500. That won't cover the yoder with shipping and everything. If this is a lifetime cooler get something that's stainless. The powder coat/paint sucks on most of these cookers. Do you have any places out there that carry any of these pellet grills? I know we have a few Memphis dealers and there was a scratched one which didn't affect anything for 2k. That was local to me so no shipping which can get pretty damn high. Also assassin is set to release a pellet grill soon.

pitboss02 said:

Sorry Guys... I know this has been posted (or variations of this question) a million times.

I'm getting married in the fall and my fiancé has given me the green light for a grill/smoker. I can spend up to $1500 on one, so I want to take full advantage of the opportunity!

Relatively new to the smoking game, so I like the idea of the pellet smokers. Here's what I'm struggling with.

Yoder 640 - Love the idea of quality - US made
Louisiana 900 - Love the idea of the direct flame for searing
Rec Tec 680 - Reviews have this as best value
GMG Jim Bowie - Cost efficient for entry level smoking!
Traeger Pro 34 - Most "popular" option to the masses

- I will be using for hosting BBQs with up to 20-25 people.
- I value quality
- I want ease of use!

Any advice would be appreciated!

P.s. Might compliment this setup with a webber charcoal grill for searing, dogs, etc.

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If you want to use it for grilling the Yoder might be the best choice. If you go the weber route for that, I think it's a harder choice. I like the heavy duty construction but have seen enough posts about paint issues and some pellet jams to be concerned. Paint I could potentially deal with but part of the value of a pellet grill is the ability to just let go without worry and so the jams would probably cause me to avoid it.

I would agree with your comments, I think Rectec is still great from a value perspective. It's a better deal than the original Traeger design. The Timberline ones though are interesting. I'm also personally tempted by the huge LG Champion at Costco just because of the capacity but it seems that folks are having to fuss around with them more than some of the other choices.

If I was buying today it would be between another Rectec or the Timberline. Again though, I don't need to grill on it.