New Weber pellet grills for 2020


 
I'd say 95% of my outdoor cooking is for just the two of us.
If I do a butt, or brisket, it lasts for several meals, so, other than ribs, I don't barbecue that often. It seems to me that the main function of a pellet grill is for barbecue.
I do grill a lot, and don't see the advantage of using a pellet grill.
If I lived in an area with frequent fire restrictions, I would give serious thought to one though.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Looks like there is a new elephant in the room. I've noticed that Traeger has upped their advertising a whole lot recently and a couple of the others also have stepped it up too. Going to be interesting especially when the spring grilling season starts.
I'm not a player at $1K, but will keep an eye out for a used Traeger or Rec Tec to give it a try. The last new grill I bought was my Gen 1000 LX in 1998 all my others are used rehabs. Actually If you exclude the 1998 Gen my other nine grills I didn't spend $1000 for all nine of them.
Click to expand...

I hope you can find a used Rec Tec at a good price. Now and then one pops up around here. Nothing against Traeger, but I think Rec Tec is better.
 
Honestly if you really want to see pellet take off, a bigger name with a cheaper entry is what is needed. If CharBroil gets into the game they will dominate
 
My 2 cents worth:
My dad has had a treager since they came out years back and before they were made in China. I've cooked on it several times. And at his age 87 it serves him well.
But as far as a grill, there is no grilling to it. Theres no open flame so its just a oven fired by pellets & run by electronics. Skill level zero. I gotta agree with Jim Lampe on this one.
I look at the price range, its gotta be junk from China. Like Treager and all the rest that come from there. If you have to have a pellet pooper the best out there is MAK. Made in the USA.
They can be used as a grill over live fire or just as a oven. But, they cost 4-5 G. That's the price of USA quality. Once again skill level: ZERO. I'll be BBQ'ing a 9.5 lb Snake River Farm Wagu Beef Ribs on my M! stick burner Monday for the midnight Donkey game. I'll be burning stick wood all day long the way that its suppose to be done. Being retired is great.
That is just my 2 cents worth. So go MAK or go home.
Have a great football Sunday!
PS week 3 the Broncs will take the Pack.
 
Bob Correll said:
I'd say 95% of my outdoor cooking is for just the two of us.
If I do a butt, or brisket, it lasts for several meals, so, other than ribs, I don't barbecue that often. It seems to me that the main function of a pellet grill is for barbecue.
I do grill a lot, and don't see the advantage of using a pellet grill.
If I lived in an area with frequent fire restrictions, I would give serious thought to one though.
Click to expand...

Same here it's just Barb and me 99% of the time. When I do my annual brisket we have leftovers for about anywhere from 10-12 meals lasting about 9 months. So we do a lot of grilling and not to much BBQ. My main smoking is bacon, pepper stout beef, pulled pork and smoked turkey.
That's exactly my thinking about the ever popular fire restrictions, to at least have a way to do some smoking. The restrictions say "charcoal or open flame" cannot be used but gas is okay nothing said about pellets. Seeing that a pellet grill is much more contained than a charcoal grill it might pass.
But before I jump in I'll make sure I won't get a $450 dollar ticket for using a pellet grill during fire restrictions.
Don't get me wrong I really like my WSM but during the winter when there is no restrictions with a foot of snow outside you won't find me chasing temps on the WSM.
 
Last edited:
russ olin said:
My 2 cents worth:
My dad has had a treager since they came out years back and before they were made in China. I've cooked on it several times. And at his age 87 it serves him well.
But as far as a grill, there is no grilling to it. Theres no open flame so its just a oven fired by pellets & run by electronics. Skill level zero. I gotta agree with Jim Lampe on this one.
I look at the price range, its gotta be junk from China. Like Treager and all the rest that come from there. If you have to have a pellet pooper the best out there is MAK. Made in the USA.
They can be used as a grill over live fire or just as a oven. But, they cost 4-5 G. That's the price of USA quality. Once again skill level: ZERO. I'll be BBQ'ing a 9.5 lb Snake River Farm Wagu Beef Ribs on my M! stick burner Monday for the midnight Donkey game. I'll be burning stick wood all day long the way that its suppose to be done. Being retired is great.
That is just my 2 cents worth. So go MAK or go home.
Have a great football Sunday!
PS week 3 the Broncs will take the Pack.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything, but especially your last line.
 
Originally Posted by russ olin
My 2 cents worth:
My dad has had a treager since they came out years back and before they were made in China. I've cooked on it several times. And at his age 87 it serves him well.
But as far as a grill, there is no grilling to it. Theres no open flame so its just a oven fired by pellets & run by electronics. Skill level zero. I gotta agree with Jim Lampe on this one.
I look at the price range, its gotta be junk from China. Like Treager and all the rest that come from there. If you have to have a pellet pooper the best out there is MAK. Made in the USA.
They can be used as a grill over live fire or just as a oven. But, they cost 4-5 G. That's the price of USA quality. Once again skill level: ZERO. I'll be BBQ'ing a 9.5 lb Snake River Farm Wagu Beef Ribs on my M! stick burner Monday for the midnight Donkey game. I'll be burning stick wood all day long the way that its suppose to be done. Being retired is great.
That is just my 2 cents worth. So go MAK or go home.
Have a great football Sunday!
PS week 3 the Broncs will take the Pack.​
Click to expand...

Bruce said:
I agree with everything, but especially your last line.
Click to expand...
...and I agree with BOTH of you, EXCEPT your last line.;)
 
Well, I don’t agree but do believe strongly that it is “to each his own.” Pellet grills probably will be the new “GrillGrates” provoking strong division of opinion.

I agree that the computer controls, WiFi connections, etc. make it much easier to produce consistent, good results making bqbq but see nothing wrong with that. Hey, people are using ThermoWorks Smokes and now Signals and even electronic computer controlled fans on WSM smokers and everyone seems ok with that. And gas grills also eliminate most of the effort of regulating temperatures. As I mentioned before, my Green Egg justifies a lot of its cost by the reduction of effort it requires to set and hold temperatures. Finally, if my oven could make really good bbq I would use it on days with lousy weather. It can’t. A pellet grill is not an oven but a smoker. The heat and smoke source is burning wood which is perfectly acceptable in bbq competition not to mention often winning those competitions as well.

Dolphins 2020...Ok, maybe 2030:eek:.
 
Last edited:
I agree with you Jon. a pellet grill is just a different process to get to the same goal. Electronics and computer controls are in grilling and bbq in almost all aspects of outside cooking. From Mavericks to watch grill and meat temperatures to computer controlled temperature of your smoker or grill.
My feeling is if you don't like pellet grills don't buy one and just because it's made in China or some other country doesn't mean it's not a quality item.
Remember it's a changing world. GM manufactures and sells more cars in China then in the USA, think it's going to come back and manufacture cars here...I don't think so.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Same here it's just Barb and me 99% of the time. When I do my annual brisket we have leftovers for about anywhere from 10-12 meals lasting about 9 months. So we do a lot of grilling and not to much BBQ. My main smoking is bacon, pepper stout beef, pulled pork and smoked turkey.
That's exactly my thinking about the ever popular fire restrictions, to at least have a way to do some smoking. The restrictions say "charcoal or open flame" cannot be used but gas is okay nothing said about pellets. Seeing that a pellet grill is much more contained than a charcoal grill it might pass.
But before I jump in I'll make sure I won't get a $450 dollar ticket for using a pellet grill during fire restrictions.
Don't get me wrong I really like my WSM but during the winter when there is no restrictions with a foot of snow outside you won't find me chasing temps on the WSM.
Click to expand...

It's weird they prohibit " open flame" but a gasser is ok?
I mean a gasser has an open flame going all the time.. right?

Tim
 
When it’s all “digitally controlled” where is the art and hands on effort? Might as well be “Smoke flavored Soylent Green”
Give me,personal attention to my food or it becomes... mechanically processed “nutrition” (that’s what they have started calling hospital food), how sad.
Give me some challenge, some artistic license...FUN!
 
timothy said:
It's weird they prohibit " open flame" but a gasser is ok?
I mean a gasser has an open flame going all the time.. right?

Tim
Click to expand...


Having spent some time out there, not enough though, I can see the fineline between open flame and gas grill nit picking. In a gas grill, the flame is certainly open but, the burner is contained and will doubtless not have and wind blown embers cast out on the dry grasses which can be deadly. At first blush, it seems it does seem crazy but, all it takes is ONE ember to start a mess!
 
The difference between open flame and a gasser is an open flame unit burning wood/wood products can shoot hot sparks out (and please don't say impossible I have seen it) and if on a wooden platform/deck can cause a fire. Just ask my brother about that one
 
The situation here is very dry open pasture lands and very windy days. Last summer we had a wild fire that the suspected cause was a charcoal grill. Within three hours it totally destroyed six homes and twenty outbuildings. It was pretty windy that day and the wind probably pick up some hot ash and blew into the dry grass.
That's not going to happen with a gas grill and even though they allow the use of a gas grill it must be under adult supervision at all times.

Those are houses and outbuildings burning a 1/4 mile from our house.
40237528890_f231b7dccd_z.jpg
[/url]100_3065 by Richard Dahl, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
When it’s all “digitally controlled” where is the art and hands on effort? Might as well be “Smoke flavored Soylent Green”
Give me,personal attention to my food or it becomes... mechanically processed “nutrition” (that’s what they have started calling hospital food), how sad.
Give me some challenge, some artistic license...FUN!
Click to expand...

I understand those that have a passion for using charcoal or wood for their cooking. But you say "give me that personal attention to my food" Okay you give personal attention when prepping it seasoning, brine, marinade whatever., but how much attention do you give it when it's on the smoker or grill besides maybe basting it or wrapping it all you're really are doing is monitoring the fire and temps. Same as any type of grill. I just don't see where the cooking device is going to be the game changer. Having experienced food off of a pellet grill I can say it's as good as any I've had off a WSM, it ain't hospital food that's for sure.
 
I'm not very enthusiastic about cooking out of doors but still requiring electricity. But that's my problem.

I am interested in fire safety. So far in the last three years we have only been able to use our fire pit about a half dozen times due to persistent lack of rain. There just ain't enough rakes to go around. The Municipality of Anchorage (Muni), the Anchorage Fire Department (AFD), and the Alaska State Division of Forestry collaborate on fire bans.

This is typical wording of a ban.
Barbecue grills (electric, gas & charcoal) are allowed today. Enclosed pellet grills (Traeger, etc.) are also allowed. Portable outdoor fireplaces may NOT be used today.
Click to expand...

The separate listing of pellet units may be due to a matter of semantics with stubborn users that refuse to have their expensive Traeger reduced to a lowly "electric" grill.

A bit over an inch of rain has fallen in the last two days but that's still not enough to lift the firepit ban. There is also a 10mph wind limit, sparks can be ugly.

A fair number of folks throughout Alaska preserve their fish and meat harvests via smoking so it has to be pretty extreme to shutdown smoking. But it has happened before where the charcoal units will be shutdown while waiting for rain.

Smokey sez, "Be safe out there."
 
Mike, they do it a little different here they will start around the middle of June if we've had insufficient rain and keep it in force until mid October. Normally our monsoon season starts in June and by this time in September we should have had 5-7" of rain. So far 1/2 inch is it. Top that off with 20 some days of 100+ degrees makes it tinder dry.
I'm all for the restrictions as I'm sure it's saved a lot of fire damage. I don't think it's going to change anytime soon. My interest in a pellet grill is if allowed like a gas grill it would allow me to do my smoking of Bacon and many other things I smoke. It's encouraging to see that in your area pellet grills are allowed.
 
timothy said:
It's weird they prohibit " open flame" but a gasser is ok?
I mean a gasser has an open flame going all the time.. right?

Tim
Click to expand...

Yea, that's just the Carpenter in me.:rolleyes:
I'm used to dealing with Architects, Inspectors and Project managers, and " the " wording is the law.

Tim
 
Rich Dahl said:
I understand those that have a passion for using charcoal or wood for their cooking. But you say "give me that personal attention to my food" Okay you give personal attention when prepping it seasoning, brine, marinade whatever., but how much attention do you give it when it's on the smoker or grill besides maybe basting it or wrapping it all you're really are doing is monitoring the fire and temps. Same as any type of grill. I just don't see where the cooking device is going to be the game changer. Having experienced food off of a pellet grill I can say it's as good as any I've had off a WSM, it ain't hospital food that's for sure.
Click to expand...

Rich,

Totally agree. And to be clear, I will NEVER give up my kettles! I just think pellet grills give you another good option, especially when time is not readily available to enjoy tending a charcoal fire.

p.s. I don't get any commissions from Rec Tec or any pellet grill company:smilekettle:!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top