Weber's smart pellet grill holds its own against Traeger
- Thread starter LKruse
- Start date
Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Interesting. First of all, I think the fair comparison is with the Traeger Ironwood with which the SmokeFire is comparably priced. For the price of the very nice Timberline, you could replace all the SmokeFire grates with stainless, buy front and side shelves, a cover, pellets and some other doodads. The Weber shines even brighter in comparison to the Ironwood.
I am really wanting a second smaller pellet grill to make my small bbq events less stressful. I love cooking with charcoal, but since I no longer own a Big Green Egg, that means LOTS of time consuming work tending multiple kettles. Doing one or two is OK, but when you have a lot of different cue to turn out all at once, a pellet grill sure looks appealing
.
The SmokeFIre EX-4 seems to fit the bill perfectly, offering great low and slow bbq (as we have seen shown here many times) and an occasional variation from the gas grill for burgers, steaks, chops, etc. That sticky hopper seems to still rear its head, though, as it did on this review, in spite of all the improvements. That's a big downer for what I want.
The competition is (1) a Recteq Bullseye for half the price. The more I have read, though, the more I see this as a gas grill high heat replacement and much less as a low and slow bbqer. It CAN do that, but the lack of grease management gives me pause, even though I love the idea of interchangeability with all my Weber 22 kettle grates and accessories.
(2) The dark horse candidate is the Oklahoma Joe Rider DLX for $549 at Lowes right now. In between in price, allegedly capable of searing AND low and slow with its spin cover over the firepot, and more room than either of my other options. Yea, I get it that the quality is not as high, but I am not sure that as a 2nd grill and with very good care that I couldn't get my money's worth out of it.
Love to hear your feedback. Also, how exactly does someone with many kettles, several gas grills, a Rec Tec RT-700 Bull and parts for innumerable flip gas grills convince his wife that he really NEEDS a second pellet grill?!!!!
I am really wanting a second smaller pellet grill to make my small bbq events less stressful. I love cooking with charcoal, but since I no longer own a Big Green Egg, that means LOTS of time consuming work tending multiple kettles. Doing one or two is OK, but when you have a lot of different cue to turn out all at once, a pellet grill sure looks appealing
.The SmokeFIre EX-4 seems to fit the bill perfectly, offering great low and slow bbq (as we have seen shown here many times) and an occasional variation from the gas grill for burgers, steaks, chops, etc. That sticky hopper seems to still rear its head, though, as it did on this review, in spite of all the improvements. That's a big downer for what I want.
The competition is (1) a Recteq Bullseye for half the price. The more I have read, though, the more I see this as a gas grill high heat replacement and much less as a low and slow bbqer. It CAN do that, but the lack of grease management gives me pause, even though I love the idea of interchangeability with all my Weber 22 kettle grates and accessories.
(2) The dark horse candidate is the Oklahoma Joe Rider DLX for $549 at Lowes right now. In between in price, allegedly capable of searing AND low and slow with its spin cover over the firepot, and more room than either of my other options. Yea, I get it that the quality is not as high, but I am not sure that as a 2nd grill and with very good care that I couldn't get my money's worth out of it.
Love to hear your feedback. Also, how exactly does someone with many kettles, several gas grills, a Rec Tec RT-700 Bull and parts for innumerable flip gas grills convince his wife that he really NEEDS a second pellet grill?!!!!
Brian B Atlanta
TVWBB Gold Member
Yup that price for the Oklahoma at Lowes is a sale price till the 23rd its 100 bucks off.
Rich Dahl
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Like I posted earlier I would love to have a EX4 but the upper shelf is a lot smaller than my Camp Chef PG24. Also the EX6 is just too big for the two of us. The new Camp Chef with the new gen two PID controller with smoke control would be my preference. I can upgrade mine with the gen two controller and that's what I may do, tighter temp control and smoke control would suit my needs.
If you can manage to sneak another one onto the patio, if you have enough of them it will blend right in.Also, how exactly does someone with many kettles, several gas grills, a Rec Tec RT-700 Bull and parts for innumerable flip gas grills convince his wife that he really NEEDS a second pellet grill?!!!!