Pitt's & Spitt's Pellet Grill Impressions

[RanchoStarvo]

Took a plunge and purchased a new Pitt's and Spitt's pellet grill!

Some history: I have had a couple of backyard cookers, I currently own a Hasty Bake Legacy and a Weber Genesis gas grill. I love my HB, it's a great charcoal cooker and I have that thing down to a science for just about everything but big pieces of meat. It just runs too hot and while it is a master at anything over 300 degrees, keeping mine in the low 200 range is difficult and time consuming, this is just my experience though and I have friends with HB's who can nail a brisket.

I was considering a stick burner and looked at yoder, gator, klose and pitt's and spitt's, but I veered towards pellet grills after doing research online and talking to some retailers. With a 2 year old son and another one on the way, I just didn't think i would have the time, or sanity, to tend to a stick burner.

A buddy of mine recently purchased a "U1830" from Pitt's and Spitt's and I was really impressed but knew I wasn't going to get one. I started researching pellet grills online and went to BBQ Outfitters and BBQ Mercantile (RIP) in Austin. The Memphis pellet grills looked great, but were extremely expensive, I then looked at the Traeger at the store, but wasn't too fond of the models available.

This all comes back to another retailer I visited that had other P&S models and then had a Yoder YS640. I almost pulled the trigger on the Yoder right then and there but decided to go back and home and stew on it. That night I saw on P&S instagram (yes, I follow BBQ joints and pit builders on instagram) a post about their pellet grill but couldn't find any other information so I called them the next day and spoke with Ryan Zboril at P&S about the pg. He said it's their foray into the pellet market and they'll be revealing a lot more soon enough but he told me the model I was looking at was a U1830 with a hopper on the side instead of a firebox. That leads to him delivering my unit to me from Houston while he was also delivering several other units to stores in Austin that sell their pits.

On to the goods:

It's a solid unit and a heavy unit. SS lid looks great and it's easy pull back with the roll top feature. It's also easy to maneuver with the handles on the opposite side of the pit from the hopper. It came with a tshirt and a probe meat thermometer that plugs into the PID. The PID is intuitive, but I definitely felt better after reading the directions. There is not a thermometer in the hood and the range of the PID goes to a set 450, but if you hit max, it will go pedal to the metal to the extent that the unit can. I didn't run it at full blast, but I will next time and post the temperature. P&S said it gets north of 500, so that doesn't match my HB with a full firebox an inch away from the grate, but not many other grills save a kamado can push out temps like my HB.

I seasoned it using the directions that came with it. After a while at 350 I put a premade Central Market pizza on the lower grate since that was what my pregnant wife was craving.

Overall I am impressed, but need to really put it to work with big chunks of meat. From a build standpoint, it's really nice and puts my weber and HB to shame. The SS grate is one piece, and seems to be the same quality as the grates the nicer weber summit grills come with. I did not know it was coming with the SS grate and was very happy when I saw that addition.

Let me know if you all have any questions and I'll be posting more when I cook more.

The discoloration you see on the SS lid is where I peeled off the that laser sticky stuff that stainless is shipped with. Some of it was already off, thus it's dirtier.

Below is a link to the pictures, sorry I tried putting them directly in the post, but they are too large and too many.


http://imgur.com/a/dPj8F

[tom b]

nice looking pit. Have fun.

[Pocchampion]

Definitely post up after a brisket and let us know your impressions. Good looking pelt pooper.

[KevinJ]

Nice looking PG, congrats.

[bignburlyman]

That's a nice looking cooker. Just curious what are the shelf measurements?

[nmeyer414]

nice lookin cooker you got there.

Originally Posted by RanchoStarvo

That leads to him delivering my unit to me from Houston while he was also delivering several other units to stores in Austin that sell their pits.

let me make sure I understand what you posted ^^^ did you just get their new pellet version free to test? if so, damn!

[RanchoStarvo]

Originally Posted by nmeyer414

nice lookin cooker you got there.



let me make sure I understand what you posted ^^^ did you just get their new pellet version free to test? if so, damn!

No no no, I purchased it. Would've been a nice deal to test drive it.

[thesemicullen]

The pit and the pizza looks good! I've made a couple of mushroom/artichoke heart pizzas the past few weeks on my grill for my girlfriend. I liked hers better than mine (pepperoni).

[RanchoStarvo]

Originally Posted by bignburlyman

That's a nice looking cooker. Just curious what are the shelf measurements?

Measurements are the same as the U1830 on the P&S website. I'm not sure on the actual dimensions of the work table. I can measure and update.

[nmeyer414]

Originally Posted by RanchoStarvo

No no no, I purchased it. Would've been a nice deal to test drive it.

that it would have.

[Smith's Pig Pen]

That is sweet. Look forward to your cooks

[MidnightRidersBBQ]

What did it cost you?

[bbqwizard]

I used to own a P&S 30x60 w/upright trailer back in the day. I loved it! The only reason why I sold it, was because I couldn't afford to move it from MI, to NV. Anyway, great company, great people working there, and their craftsmanship is top notch. I am sure that you will love that cooker!

[ChrisBarb]

Is it on their web site?

[cuznvin]

Any updates on this unit? P & S sent me lots of pics and info. I'm very interested since I had a P & S offset smoker years back which was built like a tank