Looking to spend around 800.00.
SC
Excellent, because with a pellet smoker purchase, you're going to want to max out whatever budget you set. That's just kinda how they are -- you want to avoid discount models, because you will absolutely 100% regret it at some point. The absolute best brands you can get are MAK, Yoder, Green Mountain, and Rec-Tec (in my opinion).
With that being said, at $800, the Rec-Tec or the Green Mountain Grills David Bowie sure seem like the logical choices to me (and I even considered one before I doubled my budget). I personally own a Yoder 640, but that thing set me back about $1650 after it was all said and done, but it's of course 380lbs of American steel and is an absolute beast. I've also worked with a few Traegers in the past (with disappointment). The final factor in making that purchase was the fact that the Yoder, unlike any its competitors, can exceed 600F at the grate, essentially turning it into a full-fledged grill+smoker combo, especially when Grill Grates are used.
Since you've got that budget, I'd honestly stay far away from the Traeger offerings. You can do so much better than what they've got, and a lot of their higher-end models still suffer from the very same production and quality issues that the rest have.
The 3 most vulnerable items (and first to break) on a quality pellet smoker should be the igniter, the probe, and the auger. These items should not fail for at least first 5 years, for a quality pit, and should often last for 10+ years (maybe with the probe being the exception). Look at the manufacturer's warranty and take special note of their warranty periods for each section of the smoker. Many of the reputable brands will even replace these when they're no longer under warranty.
A lot of folks say their Traeger is great, but let me give you some examples of the most common issues I've seen on the 3 Traegers I've been around, and I'm betting a good number of those folks who swear by them have either experienced this and consider it minor, or are ticking time-bombs for it to happen:
1. The temp controller stops controlling temp -- You select 250, next thing you know it's climbing past 250, 300, 350, until it's maxed out and you're scratching your head going "WTF is wrong with this thing?!?!"
2. The firebox, in its poor design, clogs easily and pellets end up overflowing. Another side effect of this is temp control failure.
3. The igniter stops working altogether. I've seen this happen on 2 out of the 3 that I was around, and one of them was the Select Elite, their top-of-the-line $1300 smoker, and it was only 2-3 months old at most (very few uses). That kind of performance on a new machine is completely unacceptable.
Take special note that all 3 of these Traegers I spoke about in the previous statements were made
after they switched operations to China or wherever it is. I have had one experience with an older model when they were made in Oregon or Washington, and after 10 years of use, its igniter was the only thing to fail, and it had been beaten to hell. It's amazing the difference.
Just my 200 cents.
