Testing Timberline 1300 - MAK 2 Star General - Ongoing

[tom b]

I have been pellet cooking for 5-6 years we are on our second Traeger, I have only cooked with them, that is mostly what you see here. I recently picked up a Mak and would like to choose between the 2 and move one along. I needed to see what the differences between what I have and what is been raved about.

Please excuse all the babbling, I doing this to log my thoughts to help make a decision. Hopefully it may help somebodies a little easier or at least more informed

Test #1 a quick cook chicken thighs:
Weather cloudy and 64, no wind

I dry brined these with k-salt for 5-6 hrs then applied some garlic herb spice and some lemon pepper

I set both cookers to 375 the Mak was to temp in 17 min :-D and the timberline 48, my biggest gripe since owning this cooker

as far as visible smoke the timberline shows a bit occasionally and the mak ran 50/50 blue waves and light smoke, hard to see in pics but here they are

timberline

MAK

this is where I place the pcs on the cookers to see about zone differential

timberline

MAK

after 30 min I took a look, all pcs temp in the 155-162 range

timberline

MAK

I decided to let them go 15 more minutes, this what the looked like when I took them off al temping 188+

Bite shot, timberline on the left, MAK the right. Both had crispy skin but the tiberline bit through a little cleaner

Conclusion:
food quality and smoke profile had no noticeable difference.

Edge goes to the MAK for quicker start up time.

 

[Joshw]

Wow, that is not what I expected. Nice job on the comparison. Looking forward to a longer cook.

 

[rwalters]

I absolutely love this kind of stuff! Keep it coming Tom

 

[rwalters]

Wow, that is not what I expected. Nice job on the comparison. Looking forward to a longer cook.

What did you expect? Just curious.

 

[tom b]

Wow, that is not what I expected. Nice job on the comparison. Looking forward to a longer cook.

thanks, ribs may be next, I'm curios too Josh

 

[KevinJ]

The MAK is overhyped trash, sell it! :heh:

 

[SmittyJonz]

I say swap the controllers and run it again........

 

[tom b]

thats above my pay grade Smitty

 

[rwalters]

I find that often times, especially on poultry, the flavor profile is more pronounced the next day. I wouldn’t expect any pellet grill to be WAY different than the next when cooking at 375°... but you and your wife taking turns doing a blind taste test tomorrow would be interesting.

 

[KevinJ]

17 minutes to get to 375 not bad, getting ready todo a charcoal grill vs pellet grill test to see which is the quickest to get up to grilling temps for steaks (500+). I'm pretty sure I already know which will win but it will be neat to document it.

 

[rwalters]

17 minutes to get to 375 not bad, getting ready todo a charcoal grill vs pellet grill test to see which is quickest to get up to grilling temps for steaks (500+). I'm pretty sure I already know which will win but it will be neat to document it.

Lump or briquettes for the test? If lump, my $ is on the kettle.

 

[Joshw]

What did you expect? Just curious.

Just based on reputation, I expected the Mak to have a more pronounced smoke flavor. A low and slow cook will be more telling.

 

[Joshw]

17 minutes to get to 375 not bad, getting ready todo a charcoal grill vs pellet grill test to see which is the quickest to get up to grilling temps for steaks (500+). I'm pretty sure I already know which will win but it will be neat to document it.

I've never timed it, but I think it will be closer than you think.

 

[pjtexas1]

I find that often times, especially on poultry, the flavor profile is more pronounced the next day. I wouldn’t expect any pellet grill to be WAY different than the next when cooking at 375°... but you and your wife taking turns doing a blind taste test tomorrow would be interesting.

I agree. At 375 probably not much difference. Looking forward to more testing...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Lump or briquettes for the test? If lump, my $ is on the kettle.

If I can use the vortex, then I’ll beat ‘em all with briquettes

 

[rwalters]

If I can use the vortex, then I’ll beat ‘em all with briquettes

...and lighter fluid? [emoji12]

 

[smoke ninja]

thats a long warm up time on the treager. it would be a deal breaker......the whole point of pellets is convenience

 

[Crispy Bacon]

Size??

Not trying to throw gas on the fire here. Isn't there a pretty big size difference between these 2 grills? The MAK is smaller & should warm up faster right???

 

[rwalters]

Not trying to throw gas on the fire here. Isn't there a pretty big size difference between these 2 grills? The MAK is smaller & should warm up faster right???

Absolutely! That said, the Traeger Timberlines are “insulated” much more so than the MAK’s, so you’d expect (or at least I would) to see a shorter preheat time than 40+ minutes. That kind of caught me off guard. Regarding the MAK’s... I have owned 3 now (at different times). My first was a 2011 MAK 1 Star. It definitely took longer to preheat and recover when opened than my 2017 and now 2019 2 Star. When MAK released their Funnel Flame Zone in 2017 that was a game changer for them. By design, all heat is forced into the cooking chamber vs sitting around in the belly of the cooker before rising. There was a very noticeable difference when I started cooking on a MAK w/ FFZ.

 

[retfr8flyr]

My 1300 only takes about 25 minutes to get to 350°. I start mine at 225° and when it reaches that temp, I will increase it to whatever temp I am planning to cook. I did some Hamburger steaks the other day and it only took 35 minutes to get to 500°.