Pellet grill newbie questions


 
A

AndrewJackett

New member
Hey all,

I'm building an outdoor kitchen at iur new place and have a quick fellows I want to understand from people with a SmokefireEXP6 pellet grill...

1. I currently use a 4 burner gas grill to cook burgers, kebabs etc. Will this still do a good job for a quick fast bbq? Love an impromptu bbq at home...

2. Has anyone been able to integrate one of these into an outdoor kitchen? Ie able to remove it from a stand?

3. Smashburgers, I love them... tell me can do them on this beast...
 
Reality is most pellet grills don‘t replace a gas or charcoal grill, most don’t sear that well. Weber, MAK, and a few others sear OK. However, this is on par with a Weber Spirit at best, still well short of what a Genesis or charcoal grill can do.

Not many built ins out there for pellets. MAK, Reqtec, Memphis, Coyote are the ones I can think of at the moment. Smokin Brothers looks easily convertible too. All those are fairly price though depending on your budget. I wouldn’t touch Memphis since they moved manufacturing overseas and still continue to raise prices. Haven’t heard anything good about them since the outsourced manufacturing.

It can replace a gas grill for quick cooks, but it will likely take a few minutes longer to get to temps and will likely cook a little slower because of the indirect nature of pellet grills. Hard searing steaks and such is where many are not as good as gas, other than that I prefer pellets over gas.
 
Also, smash burgers aren’t really where pellet grills shine. They’re really an outdoor wood fired oven or smoker, more than a grill despite their name. A few models including MAK and Weber offer griddle inserts that can do it, but with pellet grills being more like ovens they perform best with the if you’re looking you ain’t cooking mantra. They don’t hold as steady of griddle temps with the lid open and compared to something that has burners spread throughout the underside of the griddle instead of just a small firepot in the center.
 
A little more about ‘converting’ a freestanding pellet grill into an outdoor kitchen. If you try to convert any ole pellet grill into a built in by removing the stand and putting it in, you could create long term headaches. In my experience, pellet grills are pretty reliable, but have lots of moving parts. You have an auger, controller, grease tray or bucket, ignitor, fans etc. If you build one in that’s not designed for it, you might have a nightmare trying to replace a controller, clear and auger jam, etc. The models designed for outdoor kitchens have been carefully designed to put access to all the needed places on the front, back, or from inside the cook chamber. Quite a few regular pellet grills require access to the sides and bottom to get to various parts.

The Smokin Brothers I mentioned above, looks like an exception. I don’t see a built in option just looking at the grills, but they have a kitchen island section that appears to be their regular grills shipped with a customized island. So, they must have designed their grills around that. Most of their ‘stuff’ is on the front.
 
I have an old (10+ years) Memphis Pro that has been my go-to for all smoking. There is an adapter that allows it to be built-in buy removing the side tables and relocating the controller. It goes from 180 degrees to 650 degrees and there is a removable section of the deflector plate that opens directly above the burner pot, allowing a hard sear or using a pan for smash burgers. It only smokes up to 300 degrees. Above that is just heat.
 
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