Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet smoker,
(Traeger Grills)

I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the guy
trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.

Thanks

Joe

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:00:28 GMT, "Joseph Rizzo"
> wrote:

>Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet smoker,
>(Traeger Grills)
>
>I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the guy
>trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.
>
You have to buy special pellets to run it. That's enough to put me off
buying one.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a University Somewhere in Idaho
"Anything, when cooked in large enough batches, will be vile."
--Dag Right-square-bracket-gren, in alt.religion.kibology

"Joseph Rizzo" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet smoker,
> (Traeger Grills)
>
> I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the guy
> trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.
>
> Thanks
>
> Joe

Around here you'll hear it's a lazy, expensive way to cook. But I've heard they
are an excellent cooking device.

_________
ht_redneck

Joseph Rizzo wrote:

> Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet
> smoker, (Traeger Grills)

I'll start.

Pro:
It can turn out good bbq.

Con:
You are limited to one type of fuel, which is expensive and a severe
limitation, IMO.

Joseph Rizzo wrote:

> Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet smoker,
> (Traeger Grills)
>
> I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the guy
> trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.
>
> Thanks
>
> Joe

Joe:

As a newbie to the group, and someone who has used (and will continue to use)
an offset for 10 years, I don't want to offend anyone. If you like BBQ, and
can't, or don't have the ability to spend hours maintaining the fire, drink
beer, maybe smoke a cigar and have a sip of single malt (if it's after noon,
of course), the Traeger has some definite advantages.

Trager has all ready done with pellets what the BBQGuru control is doing for
other cookers.

My experience is good (rented large Traegers, have friend with 'backyard'
model, if you like low/slow without worrying about feeding a fire, they do a
good job. There are options on controls, lower end have "smoke", "medium" &
"high" settings (you can do a steak). I believe they have an upgrade option
on control unit that gives you more choice as to temperature to maintain.

Pretty nice, plug it in, fill hopper with pellets, turn on, and it ignites,
and goes to selected temperature. On low (smoke) settings, you do get smoke
until pellets re-ignite. On higher temperatures, little smoke, tinge of
taste, similar to good briquets.

Pellets are nice if you don't have source of good wood, and their high BTU
value means it goes a long way. The rental unit I used had 3 stacked grates,
was 3' deep, 5' wide and about 5' high, and two (maybe three) burner units,
and in a 4-5 hour cook @ 250 deg. (85# of tri-tips) consumed less than a 40#
bag of pellets.

Dick

Joseph Rizzo wrote:

> Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet smoker,
> (Traeger Grills)
>
> I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the guy
> trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.

If you're considering pellet smokers you should take a look at the FE
models. He recently merged with cookshack, which means you'll get good
quality control and customer service.

One the plus side, pellket smokers are simple and convenient. On the
minus side, you need to use prefab pellets. Fortunately you can get the
pellets from many different suppliers.

FE smokers

http://www.cookshackamerica.com/Sear...?categoryid=98

Pellet forum

http://forum.cookshackamerica.com/cg...ubb=forum;f=23

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

Dick Wiegand wrote:
> ... and in a 4-5 hour cook @ 250 deg. (85# of
> tri-tips) consumed less than a 40# bag of pellets.

5 hours cook used almost 40#s of pellets?!?! Pass!!!!
--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that this was a rather large, trailer
mounted unit with 2-3 burners. If you were to scale dow to their
backyard unit, I figure you would have used around 10#'s of pellets,
cost = $4.00

Dick

frohe wrote:

> Dick Wiegand wrote:
> > ... and in a 4-5 hour cook @ 250 deg. (85# of
> > tri-tips) consumed less than a 40# bag of pellets.
>
> 5 hours cook used almost 40#s of pellets?!?! Pass!!!!
> --
> -frohe
> Life is too short to be in a hurry

--
Wiegand Assoc. Inc.
2820 S.E. 39th Loop, Unit "G"
Hillsboro OR 97123-8590
Ph: (503) 693-2592
Fax: (503) 693-2644

Dick Wiegand wrote:
> I'm pretty sure I mentioned that this was a rather large, trailer
> mounted unit with 2-3 burners. If you were to scale dow to their
> backyard unit, I figure you would have used around 10#'s of pellets,
> cost = $4.00
>
> Dick
>
> frohe wrote:
>
>> Dick Wiegand wrote:
>>> ... and in a 4-5 hour cook @ 250 deg. (85# of
>>> tri-tips) consumed less than a 40# bag of pellets.
>>
>> 5 hours cook used almost 40#s of pellets?!?! Pass!!!!
>> --
>> -frohe
>> Life is too short to be in a hurry

Well to me, pellets are something I shoot out of my pellet gun. Or maybe
something for roaches or rats.

Jack Curry
-yeah, it's sarcastic-

"Joseph Rizzo" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Does anyone have any advice on the pro's & con's to buying a pellet
smoker,
> (Traeger Grills)
>
> I have been trying to get the lo down of them that is unbiased like the
guy
> trying to sell it to me. Really appreciate any input.
>
> Thanks
>
> Joe


Well, I own a Traeger and I love it. I can throw a butt on before bed and
w/o a worry get consistent results for lunch the next day. My Traeger has a
temp set dial (not the original 3-stage switch). Temp range is Smoke (about
180) to 450. On warm days I can get it to over 500 at the dome if I need
to. The con is the price of pellets. If you have to order them by mail
they do get a bit spendy. Do some research and see if you can find a
wholesaler in your area that could give you a price break. I have enough
friends here locally to justify a 4 hour drive to the warehouse to pick them
up once a year.

Joe