Buying a new BBQ
 

I'm finally looking at upgrading my bbq at the house. My old one I have is a great quality bbq it just doesn't work very well anymore and it's time for an over hall. I was looking at purchasing last years Vermont 401 Signature Series but the local dealer only had 3 left at a sale price and are now gone before I could pull the trigger. The new ones are almost $ 2K (CDN) which is a bit more than I wanted to spend. I bbq quite a lot and I am willing to spend a bit more for a quality q. I'm just not sure if the Weber or Broil King type ones are any good and will last? Any recommendations or reviews?

Saber Infared
https://www.sabergrills.com/Products/Grills.aspx

A lot of people nowadays are raving about the Traeger pellet grills. I think they're worth at least checking out. If you go with a traditional gas grill, I'd definitely go with an infrared. They're so much easier to clean and will last longer since your not getting crap all over the heating elements directly. I've got one and like it. And then I've also heard some people like the Big Green Egg grill. It's also worth checking out but depends if you like how they work and look.

I have a traeger and absolutely love the thing.

a lot of good chatter about the green egg....

You should absolutely look into pellet grills. You can cook anything from pizza, and cake, to ribs, and briskets on them, and it will all be amazing. I actually work for a company called Green Mountain Grills, which were just voted the best pellet grill for the price, in America. Right now, you can also get $100 off any grill you purchase. Check out the website at GreenMountainGrills.com, if you are interested. I highly recommend looking into this avenue.

+1 for the treger best thing ever for smoking and grilling!

I love my big green egg! It will cook anything. I never put pizza in the oven anymore and we keep cookie dough around for when it's cooling down from a cook. Definitely check it out.

+1 for Big Green Egg! We were looking at a large but went with the XL and have never looked back! As mention above, it literally cooks EVERYTHING. Ribs to homemade pizza to Thanksgiving turkey... We even buy the Costco chicken pot pies and cook those in there too. They come out awesome. Cannot say enough good things about ours!

Traeger all the way, just bought my second one. Smoke (cook) on it like 3-4 times a week.

Traeger or Weber. I love my Wever for cooking on a daily basis . Typically use the traeger for smoking on the weekends or a day I work from home. I absolutely love my Weber Genesis though. You can't kill a Weber and if you do you can go to any home improvement store and buy any needed part. My Buddy has an ol Weber that's about 15 years old and looks like hell but cooks like a champ. He buys replacement grates and burners every couple years. Every time we cook at my house he drools over my new Genesis but we laugh about his never giving in.

I spent a year picking mine and ended up with a Cal-Flame and hat was 10 years later. I had bought every type of BBQ before that and they never lasted. I have not even changed one part and everything works as it did day one. I have had several small smokers and the green egg. Most of the competition guys do fully custom machines or green egg's which is why I went that way. I still prefer to have a few options depending on what I am cooking, but hard to beat green egg. I am check out Traeger though. Probably the best$100 that can be spent is on BBQ'ing is a thermapen though. I am damn good and touching and telling doneness, but this just makes 100% it is perfect and does not let the juices out. Since getting this I never pull off a hunk of meat and find out I was a little off one way or another. It was the last time I spent $100 on meat, rubs, marinade, smoking for 12 hours only to find out I was running a little hot and overcooked them. My touch it felt medium. From that day on I never have missed my temps since.

Well everyone, I appreciate your thoughts but it looks as if I'm probably going to pull the trigger on a new Saber https://www.sabergrills.com/product/...-Cast-500.aspx . I went and checked one out at a local dealer and really like the infared idea although I can see it being a bit more clean up once in a while. I BBQ quite a bit and already have natural gas hook up at my house and I don't really want to have to deal with pellets all of the time. With the saber you can throw wood chips right between the grill to get the smokey flavor and from what I have seen online you can still bake with them as well. I'll update later once I have it and have done some cooking on it.

all you Traeger fans. Anyone looked at Rec Tec. I like that green mountain has been voted best for the price though... in my limited research i havent found good things about the Traeger Pellets. Can i use any pellet on any grill or is it best to stick with the manufacturer's pellets?

So I won! ha. Hopefully you like it, I felt the same way, but compared to other infareds it is very easy to clean, or so the sales guy showed me. I thought it was testiment enough that this Grill specialty store was moving from carrying other high quality brands to Saber and extrememly pleased about it. Once I am in a position to drop coin on a grill I will likely be going the Saber route as well.

Traeger! These were originally manufactured (now manu'd in China) 10 miles east of me and have quite the popular following here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. I've always enjoyed any piece of meat, fish, etc. cooked on here.

I've decided on Rec Tec. Better built solid grill for at around the same price as a traeger of equivalent size. More 304 stainless parts and a much better temperature controller. aslo a 6 year warranty and I spoke with them on the phone yesterday. An owner answered and I don't think you can find better customer service.

It's awesome to hear the pellet talk here! I own Simi Pellet Grills, or the Pellet Grill Outfitters as we're also known in So Cal. If you guys have any questions about them or any pellet related products, please let me know! And Travis, I know I've talked to you a few times!

Jhart, congrats on the Rec Tec. They are making a great grill! They are a great company, but I wish they had a dealer network. Anyways, Traeger pellets aren't bad, they are all alder and they use flavor oils, as opposed the real wood that they say they are on the bag. Alder doesn't produce as much heat as a good oak based pellet like the GMG's or BBQr's Delight.

Hey Eric, that is too funny, such a small world! If I'm ever down in your neck of the woods we'll have to hitch up for some riding! Rec Tec does make a very nice grill! You are spot on about the pellets from Traeger as well.. Thanks for the support!

Travis, it is a small world. If it wasn't for you guys, there would be no way I would be as passionate or as involved as I am with pellets. GMG is a top notch company and I sure enjoy representing and selling your products. If you are down in LA or find yourself near Bass Lake, let me know!

Here we are showing off the grills and cooking for the Rockwell Supercross Team at Anaheim II this year:

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And nice brisket cooked on the Memphis Elite this week:


http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...9D8B6C7E0C.jpg

We currently have a gas grill that I want to replace. These electric pellet grills are very intriguing. Would they be a good replacement / upgrade to a gas grill? Are they still as simple to use as the gas grill?

I say yes, and I think a few others around here would agree too. I know a lot of my customers never tough their gas grills once they get a pellet unit. I know it was the case for me 6 years ago when I bought my first Traeger. It is a different way of cooking, but learning to cook on these makes you a better cook in the long run. The reason being, is that you learn to cook by food temperature (I know this was mentioned earlier) which yields in more consistency and is much safer.

Gas grills have direct flame. These utilize indirect heat. There is a fire pot in the middle of the grill that is fed by an auger. This fire pot has an igniter that gets the pellets burning. After the pellets ignite, the igniter shuts off and the fire and temperature is maintained by both the auger feeding pellets and a combustion fan providing air. These are controlled by a computer. Over the top of the firepot is a heat deflector. A drip pan then goes into place over the het deflector that diverts grease and drippings out to a container outside the grill. The grates then go over this.

The GMG's, for example, have a temp range of 150-500 degrees, in 5 degrees increments. So, if you wanted to grill, you turn it on, set the temp to say 500, let it get up to temp and you can cook burgers and hot dogs just like any other grill, but you don't have direct flame impinging on the food, so it's not going to burn. At 500 degrees, you're gong to get some good sear marks from the grates. Some people dislike not have a true direct flame, but there some grills that have direct flame setups and most can be easily modified for a direct flame. In my opinion though, and even though I have grills at my disposal with awesome direct flame setups, I never find myself using it. We rarely, if ever just do hot dogs an hamburgers as I'd rather cook other food.

Pellets are becoming more and more available, and their prices are coming down because of this. You will start seeing pellet units in big box stores in the next year.

So in short, yes, they can replace a gas grill. One company even offers built in units.For most people I find it does replace a gas grill, however, there are some that still hang on to other cookers.

Eric, thanks a ton for the explanation. i checked your website and most said in-store pickup only. Do you guys not ship?

Ian, I can't ship GMG or Yoder, but I can Memphis. I'd be more than happy to refer you to someone in your area. Please feel free to give me a call.

Too bad you weren't here in So Cal. I've got a nice demo fleet to give you a chance to try one to decide if it fits you.

Eric,
Can I use the hardwood pellets that you are talking about in my Traeger? I love my Traeger, but I do notice that the smoke flavor is not as intense as I would perfer. Maybe the pellets from other manufacturer's might do the trick. Right now to intensify the smoke flavor, I put wood chips on a piece of foil on top of the heat deflector. It seems to work okay, it would be nice if there was another option.

Yes, a Traeger can burn pellets other than the Traeger brand. Traeger pellets are just ok in my opinion. I know Traeger says you can only use their pellets, but I've never heard of them refusing warranty issues because of someone using a pellet other than Traeger.

My suggestion is to set the grill on smoke or its lowest setting for two hours. This introduces the most smoke possible from the grill. The issue though, is even at this low temp the pellets are still burning rather efficiently, not producing a whole lot of smoke. This probably won't give as much smoke flavor as what you're doing with the chips. Meat stops absorbing smoke after about 2 hours.

I really recommend the Amazen smoke tube. You can see the tube in the pic above with the brisket. You fill it with pellets, light them with a torch and they will consistently smolder. It works really well.

Thanks for the info Eric. I was wondering what that was next to the brisket.

i recommend the Rec Tec much better built than traeger. and it looks sweet. and the temperature controller is 10x that of the dated traeger controller. Owner says it has 70lbs on the similar traeger or green mountain. 6 year warranty etc. customer service i bet you cant beat. ok i'm done promoting my decision.

can you use the amazen smole tube in a regular gas grill if you set the temp to low??
Thx, Pete

Absolutely. They work great in a gas grill.

So would I just put the gas grill on the lowest setting possible and then throw the smoker tube on the grill.

Yes, that's all there is to it!

I just won a Tragger grill in a raffle at a Catholic auction Saturday. Can't wait to try it! Question. How long will a 20lb bag of pellets last?

depends on how often you use it, and what temps you are smoking on, you can use other pellets and not just traegers pellets. you will be happy you won it.

So basically a 20 lb bag should be good for a couple of bbqs or do I need to go buy 10 of them?

Paul,

Checkout pelletheads.com they should have info on how long 1lb of pellets will last in your model grill for various temperature settings.

Thanks!

Well, I finally picked up my new Saber last week and got to use it on the weekend. The one thing that really stood out to me was how much juicier the meat is. I did both some nice thick steaks and some sausages. Both came out great. I can't wait to get some other things going on it. Will be doing some burgers this weekend.

Paul, unfortunately pelletheads doesn't have any consumption testing information on the Traegers. However, I can tell you from experience that the 07E will burn a little more than a pound and hour at 225 and at it's highest setting will burn 3-4 lbs an hour.

Here's more food for thought:

My average customer uses about 40 lbs per month. Of course that is here in So Cal where the weather is always good. Most of my customers will buy 200 lbs at a time.They find them selves using the grills at least 3 times a week.

If you don't have a way of reading food temps, I highly recommend getting a good food thermometer, preferably something wireless!


Bc, congrats on the Sabre. They are great units!

Thanks Eric! I will do that! Went and got my first bag of pellets last night, and will do the initial firing process tonight! Ribs Friday!