I know nothing about the Blaz’n Grill Works Iron Grid Iron. I recommend you seriously consider the Yoder or LSG pellet grills. I have the LSG 42" on order - in production, hoping it will arrive by the end of July. It's a long wait for the LSG pellet grills. But I've spent a lot of time researching them. I think it will be worth it - for me, at least. It comes to me at just under $3,600 shipped to my home in CA, with stainless front shelf and the brass ball drain valves upgrades.
Here's where I'm coming from, just so you know and can relate or discount the info based on your situation. I've been through 3 Traeger grills over several generations of their builds, and 3 Louisiana Grills pellet poopers - got them all from Costco road shows, returning one to get the next with the Traegers, keeping 2 of the 3 Louisiana Grills... Details follow (links added for reference only):
TLDR: I've spent more than $3,600 on pellet grills looking for "the one", but haven't found it because I've shopped on a budget (up to $1,000 per grill). And, as the big names add more bells and whistles to the next generation product - wifi, meat probes, digital controls, beefy looks, etc - the build quality gets crappier. They're all made in China. The components and designs all seem to be coming from the same Chinese factories. The features may seem different between brands. But they aren't. Its just cosmetic, if you really look. But they are all using thinner sheet metal and pot metals wherever they can. So you spend more to get a fancier piece of garbage. Flimsy. Bad welds. Shoddy electronics. Given where the market is now, I'm done with the cheap, foreign made grills.
- Junior: before they added the "auto shutdown" feature to run the fan to burn off the pellets in the pot. I had backfire problems with that one. That's why most all pellet grills have this feature. And that's why I returned it.
- Lil' Tex Elite: Had the shutdown feature. A good grill, but bigger is better. It was still under the return period with Costco... I used this to my advantage... I still feel a wee-bit guilty about that.
- Tex Elite (2013 model year): Same control board as the Lil' Tex Elite, but bigger. I still have this grill. It's my "daily driver" grill. But I have upgraded it with Smoke Daddy parts and PID control board (non-patriot type). Upgrades improved it some, but not necessarily worth the dime dropped (debatable). Still, it's my "daily driver".
Others:
- Louisiana Grills Champion Series (purchased 2017): A behemoth of a grill. It seems it was only really sold through Costco and was an experiment for the manufacturer. They only made them for one year/season, from what I know. I posted on this forum about it. Big bang for the buck. A few negatives. But it is a great smoker for the price, with great chamber volumes. Mine still works, and will be given to a family member next week (making room for the new LSG pellet grill). My biggest beef with this grill, and all Louisiana Grills products: not a true PID controller. PID is superior, IMHO, as long as its engineered properly.
https://www.amazon.com/Louisiana-Grills-Champion-Pellet-Grill/dp/B071ZF8Z5V
- Louisiana Grills Vertical Pellet Smoker (large): A great smoker, overall. But that's all it is. My smoked meats come out different than those cooked on the standard pellet grills. It has a water pan that keeps the chamber humid. That's the difference. I don't like the placement of the control board below the door. The display is hard to read in sunlight, has a plastic face that scratches, and can get dripped on when the door is open and you're working in the chamber. It's sensitive to the airflow and will shutdown with an error code if the smoke stack isn't set at least 2 finger-widths high. I've experienced this. Also, it doesn't like high temperature cooking and can't handle ramping to higher temps quickly. Works great as as a low-and-slow smoker. That's it. I like it. But it's a specialty function for me. Is it worth having??? Sure, if you want a "just a smoker - smoker". It does have a 60 LB hopper with clean out, which is great for long cooks. And it's the only pellet grill I have with a clean out. That's handy, I must say.
https://louisiana-grills.com/collec...a-grills-7-series-wood-pellet-vertical-smoker
- Louisiana Grills Black Label 1200: Costco road show. Lots of bells and whistles. Could it be "the one"???
No. Brought it home, assembled the next day, did the burn in. Assembly really showed me how cheap the companies are getting. Flimsy sheet metal, lots of pot metal parts, really shoddy welds, holes not lining up well... very disappointing. Then came the wifi and the app. Deal breaker. Wifi worked. App was crap. It was super-buggy. And the worst bug of all was that when I toggled from Celsius to Fahrenheit, it cumulatively added the temperature setting - it kept increasing the temp just by toggling. So I ended up with a set point of 6000 degrees Fahrenheit on my phone and the grill jumped to max temp (600 degrees Fahrenheit) on the display. Oh, :tape2: no!!! I took it back the next day.
https://louisiana-grills.com/collec...00-black-label-series-grill-with-wifi-control
And that was the official end to my buying big name-made in china-garbage... and how I ended up looking for an American made pellet grill.
I seriously contemplated the Yoder 640S. There's a local BBQ shop that sells them. I laid hands on one and was impressed. But I felt the design could be a bit better, as it still had many of the same design aspects of the Traeger and Louisiana Grills. And no option for a hopper extension to feed long cooks. :hand: However, the Yoders are heavy steel (solid :thumb
. And the control system is far superior.
I also looked at other brands - MAK included. Despite great reviews, they just didn't seem to be what I am looking for. No disrespect to them. Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge... we all choose what suits us best.
Lone Star Grillz: This was just hitting the market. I think they were starting pre-orders when I started the search for "the one". Not as stylish as the Yoder. But it hit many of my benchmarks - American made, heavy steel (super heavy on these!), proven control board (same as Yoder, but I think they may have OEM'd it to some degree), ash clean out on the burn pot from below :thumb:, and a bigger hopper with clean out - standard. I watched many videos on the Yoder 640S and the LSG pellet grills, including some head-to-head comparisons, as well as an LSG pellet grill vs LSG stick burner cook-off. It was pretty impressive.
https://lonestargrillz.com/collecti...oducts/lone-star-grillz-20-x-42-pellet-smoker
In the end, LSG earned my dime. Now I'm just waiting for my grill to arrive. FYI - LSG's order to ship time on the pellet grills is around 18 weeks. After all of my frustrations with big name brands, I'm OK with waiting for quality. Buy once, cry once. I hope that holds true with this grill. I think it will.
Them things noted, that's my 2 cents. Do what's right for you.
