Why do you use wood pellet smoker

I have a Memphis Pro and love it. I also use a horizontal wood burner, drum, and too many others to mention. :oops:
I love all of them. :-D
 
wearcd said:
I used to think my FEC was "running wild" when it overshot 20 to 30 degrees. I now know that's really not a big deal. But I have never seen it overshoot anywhere near 100 degrees. I could see it happening if I didn't lower the set temp when I opened the door for an extended period of time and the FEC was dumping pellets the whole time, but I learned early on to lower the set temp to 140F when I was going to add meat, wrap, or whatever. I have other "problems" with pellet smokers, but overshooting temps isn't one of them.
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A tip with the FEC's. If you are going to leave the door open for awhile just open the pellet hopper door too. The pellet door safety switch shuts off the pellet feed so it won't keep feeding pellets.
 
I owned a Yoder YS640 and had temp issues. They took it back and gave me my money back, pellet smokers are like everything, a general statement of temp swings can not be given to all pellet smokers.I also have heard of the modifications that have been done to keep a traeger running plus or minus. 3 deg. A Treager is just a starter pellet smoker I'm sure there has been a lot of owners that upgraded there smoker or modified it. Also I'm sure a lot of the Traeger owners have no clue as to how far the temp swings in there smoker. When is the last time any of us has checked there oven to see how it holds a temp. I'm in the process of getting a FEC100 that I'm sure will will hold better temps than my oven. Its all about getting more BBQ.
 
Don't judge all pellet smokers based on some piece of garbage made in China. My MAK is made in the USA and works better than that knockoff stuff.



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Why use a pellet cooker? This Saturday night i closed the door on my FEC100, pushed start and at noon on Sunday I pushed off, opened the door and pulled out 4 perfectly cooked Boston butts to the delight of 35 people ready for lunch.
 
I have had my Traeger 075 for about 6 months now. The price point fit my budget and is a real upgrade from my frankenoffset. Could I get something better - maybe, but I learned how to use this baby and it is producing some darn good BBQ. I've got it dialed in and now I can fire it up and come back when my temp alarms are going off.
I think it really comes down to what you are looking to get out of your cook. Be it from a stick burner to a UDS - each has mastered their own method of producing great BBQ, mine happens to be a pellet pooper that holds the temps and gives me a consistent cook time in and time out. Heck I'm even thinking about getting into comps now... It's all fun as long as you are getting what you want out of it.
 
northwesto said:
I have had my Traeger 075 for about 6 months now. The price point fit my budget and is a real upgrade from my frankenoffset. Could I get something better - maybe, but I learned how to use this baby and it is producing some darn good BBQ. I've got it dialed in and now I can fire it up and come back when my temp alarms are going off.
I think it really comes down to what you are looking to get out of your cook. Be it from a stick burner to a UDS - each has mastered their own method of producing great BBQ, mine happens to be a pellet pooper that holds the temps and gives me a consistent cook time in and time out. Heck I'm even thinking about getting into comps now... It's all fun as long as you are getting what you want out of it.
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Come out to the the Monroe, WA comp at the end of the month and say hi.

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Check out the pic links that start with PNWBA here, neighbor:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=5215efccb0189033
 
If you want to take the time to experiment and learn and be wowed and disappointed at times and be proud of achieving something, you buy an American made offset steel smoker. If you want to put your meat down plug in a cord and walk away you buy a pellet box made in China.
 
I have a Lang that turns out great product, but it needs babysitting. I'm one of those old timers that like to sleep. Can't cook all night and serve BBQ all day so I invested in an FEC500 for my business use the lang for comps.
 
Ahh, this topic...

I predict we will see more and more of it as pellet cooking becomes more ubiquitous.

I LOVE my pellet cookers. I have cooked on everything except stick burners, and far and away I dig on my pellet grills the most. Near convenience of gas once you have the idiosyncrasies of your cooker down with near charcoal smoke if that's what you're after.

I own a FEC100 and a GMG currently. I'll probably be adding another FEC to the arsenal and replacing the GMG for all my high heat needs. The FPG500 looks awesome to me.

The only complaint I have for pellet cookers in general is that many of them will not provide a grill style sear. That is changing, and the FPG I mention specifically can hit some ridiculous temperatures as well as other pellet cookers.

I fully realize I pay a bit of a premium in both fuel and acquisition costs compared to many alternatives, but for me personally it is worth it by a good margin.

One thing I will absolutely jump on the bandwagon with though is that all fuel types and cookers can produce awesome products if the guy/gal behind the device knows what they're doing.
 
I'd love to have one of the small tragers, just for the shape and ease. I've got an egg and a drum, but for smoking I almost exclusively use my drum. The drum is as dummy proof as it comes, especially with my stoker, but I wish it the cooking surface was rectangular like the traeger instead of round. Just seems like it would fit more stuff
 
I just purchased a used Traeger Texas from a friend at work. I spent four hours cleaning it. I spent several hours on three different test burns to get the temps dialed in using the P settings. As I have read a million times on this forum, "you need to know your smoker". I haven't cooked on it yet but I can tell you the temps maintain as well as my UDS and WBS. As I was messing around with the P settings, I did notice flare ups of 30+* however it settled right back down.

My friend used brick to help retain the temps. Using the P settings and the bricks, my sensor reading and my dome temp reading are within 10* of each other once the temps stabilize after about 30 minutes. I can't wait to cook on it this weekend.
 
Always find the funny in the bias people have against pellet poopers. Kingsford charcoal is the same thing as pellet fuel. Processed charcoal and re-formed into briquettes. Pellets are processed wood formed into pellets. Each offers itself as fuel. However the fact that pellet cookers are plugged in somehow offends the bbq purists who profess that the only "real" cooker is an American made steel cooker. These are people that drive cars with foreign parts, wear shoes made in China, shirts from Taiwan and home electronics from Japan and Korea, yet are steadfast in proclaiming anything in BBQ made in China to be junk. Good humor, we are all here to share bbq love guys, why the hate? It's all good.
 
All the Cookshack pellet smokers and grills are made right here in the USA. I own two pellet smokers, two WSM's and had a Klose stickburner. I love my pellet cookers but once in a while if I've got lots of time and beer I'll still fire up the WSM but I have a BBQ Guru on that so I guess that is cheating too. :icon_blush:
 
Pellet poopers are what got me hooked on bbq... Traeger owner for almost 3 years and just upgraded to a Mak.
 
GreenDrake said:
$2300 for a Mak, so...define works better.
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Stays at the temp I set it. Doesn't require messing with P settings. Has narrow temp swings of 10* or less, never was able to get better than 50* with my Traeger. Has a remote control, programmable cooks, alarms, multiple food probes, can ramp cooks up and down based on time or meat temp. Has a warming drawer for keeping serving plates warm or cold smoking cheese. Quick dump pellet door for easy changes of pellet types. Flame zone for higher heat searing. Well worth the extra investment for me.
 
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