High-end pellet grill rec?

Congrats. I'm interested in your journey with it.

stickman said:

I also liked the P&S hybrid but with that gas starter thing it looked to me like the firebox was kinda short. I don't really understand why folks want gas starters. A twist of kitchen roll with cooking oil on it under a small pile of charcoal will work pretty fast for most situations.

Click to expand...

For me, its two fold. The gas will keep my logs burning, and also work as a heat assist, and the pellet side works for heat assist as well as doing cold smoking.

stickman said:

Yes, that makes sense! Takes a bit of load off from fire tending.

Click to expand...

Exactly, sometimes you just want to add one log every hour or two and not worry about your temps dropping.

That looks like a nice unit. Very corrosion resistant. Lots of food space. Hope the cleaning chores don't grate on you.

stickman said:

Can't work out if this in reference to how nice I am going to have to be to my wife for letting me have such a big budget or what needs to be done to keep the stainless looking good!8)

Scuttlebutt on the modular grate system is that the inserts are MUCH easier to clean than the expanded metal grates. At 22+" they are probably too big for the dishwasher but you can for sure put them in the sink and use barkeepers friend on them. Definitely part of my motivation to get them.

Click to expand...

Your wife sounds like a keeper!

The cleaning challenge for most pellet cookers (not the Outlaw brand mentioned above) is access to the area below the drip pan where ash and other crud accumulates. For most pellet cookers, to prevent grease fires and assure proper operation, you have to constantly remove the grates, the drip pan, and the heat shield to get to the ash/crud. These parts will themselves be covered in carbon, grease, etc. and will tend to mess up whatever you set them on while vacuuming out the chamber and fire pot. I don't know why more pellet cookers don't have an ash clean out door or some other easy access to the area below the drip pan.

Vision said:

Mak has been a innovation leader for a long time. One of the reasons I like the Mak's are the grate size, they're unusually deep at 22" so you can fit ribs in front to back. I do think Mak should have been the one to come up with the wood chunk burning idea. Instead it was camp chef.

Mak's put out a lot of smoke but on meat it's that light, sweet, blue smoke taste. If you want smoky I'd check out a smoker that allows you to burn wood chunks in it like the camp chef woodwind pro or a pitts and spitts with the wood burning cage.

Click to expand...

I agree that pellet-assist is the way to go having built one myself years ago. FYI, Camp Chef's patent is on the sliding drawer idea, not burning wood above the firepot which was around long before Camp Chef's grill.

stickman said:

I think LSG has solved this problem - I believe the burn chamber is below the cooking drum and is accessible.

Click to expand...

Yes, at least to some degree. The LSG design gives you direct access to the burn basket but still hasn't dealt with the ash that blows around and falls throughout the bottom of the chamber.

I've had my Mak2* for four years now. In general I'm quite happy with it. Except for a much-needed cleaning it would appear this will last as long as I live -- thank you, stainless steel. Just some general comments:

Is the 2* big enough? Seems kinda small? This might be my biggest gripe. It is just a bit small. Usually, I can fit everything I want, three racks of ribs, a couple pork butts, etcs., but if I'm doing (Costco) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which come in six separate plastic wraps to a package, I can fit at most 4 of these packages and often have to do two batches.
How well do the cold smoke features on the 2* and the LSG work?
I can't comment on the LSG, but I have the cabinet addition for the Mak and I love it. I use it many times per year. I also use it for storage. :roll:
How convenient is the grease handling? I don't have an issue with grease at all.
How easy is ash cleanup? I would have liked it if they made this a bit easier. It requires removal of about six parts. It is very straightforward and takes all of three minutes, but it is still something I don't like.
Any comments on the smoke level they can produce? Smoke is very noticeable. The first time I used it was for grilling salmon, 3 minutes per side, very quick. The entire family loved the smoke flavor. My family is very sensitive to smoke though.

A few other minor things: The lid only goes halfway up, so it can be dark in there. Sometimes I can't see the food in the back, unless I use a flashlight.
While it can get up to 450* and can grill steaks fine, YMMV. In the winter when the temps drop around freezing and when it is windy, it takes a long time to get up there, if it does get there at all and when you open that sucker up to put the food on, it can drop to 370 or so and does a slow crawl back up, usually not getting up to temp when the food is done. I have to adjust my cooking style for this. Summer, not so much a problem. Of course, you're in California, so this might not be an issue.

I've liked this entire thread but was too lazy to "like" each comment after reading through them. Nice looking rig stickman