Anyone else here run a pellet grill?

Just curious how many pellet grill owners we have here, I have a Green Mountain Daniel Boone model, bought it a little over a year ago and love it.

 

im running one of our21-PG100 pellet grills at home and im flat LOVIN it!

http://www.englanderstoves.com/pelletgrills.html

can smoke or cook direct on it. since ive had this thing i have literally forgotten about my Big Green Egg though i truly love my BGE as well.

 

Yes, those new Englander (Fast Eddie Cookshack) grills are real nice.

 

I bought a Grilla last year. Last grill/smoker I should ever have to buy. I cook a lot on it. The only thing it doesn't do very well is sear a steak, but it's great for most everything else I throw at it.

I'd upload a pic of one of the meals I cooked on it, but I just updated my phone to IOS 8 today and uploading pics the way I ised to doesn't work anymore. Sumpin changed with that update.

 

This is my first year with my Traeger and I love it. It is great to load it up and not have to worry about stoking or adding fuel.

 

I'm intrigued. Do you all use regular pellets or must you buy fancy cooking pellets.

Mike, does Englander actually make the grill or is it a resell?

 

I use cooking pellets. A store not far from me carries BBQ Delight and Traeger pellets.

I've read that some folks use regular heating pellets, but I don't necessarily trust what may or may not be in them.

 

Cooking pellets only. The fuel pellets can have fillers in them. Traeger pellets are supposedly compressed wood dust with no binders or fillers.

So far I have used apple, oak, hickory, maple and pecan Traeger pellets. I tend to use more of the apple but the pecan pleasantly surprised me and the oak is good with beef for a more robust flavor.

 

The Englander model is 1200$ at home depot. Yikes.

How do the other pellet grilles compare?

 

we bui

we build them here, the fast eddie is very similar but the control system and some of the other components of our unit are of our design. we also had then UL listed , making it the only pellet grill on the market which carries the UL certification

 

I would love to have an Englander pellet grill. Too spendy though. I have an NC 30 wood stove and it kicks azz. I got it new and 'cheap' on the HD online deal shipped for free from VA a few years ago. If only I could get an Englander pellet grill for that kind of coin? Fast Eddy is a great smoker. Best design out there that I have seen.

I have an early model Traeger 'Lil Tex made in Oregon. I have never seen another one like it. Mine has an oversize hopper and holds a full bag of pellets. It also has some other features not found on other 'Lil Tex models. It makes great smoked food. I posted photos of it on this site before, back before we had the smokehouse room on this site. The newer Traegers made in China are not nearly as good. I only smoke on low heat, and use the Ortech smoke setting and dial which is really just a timer. I also only smoke for about 30-40 minutes, as tests show that once stuff gets warm the smoke does not stick to it nearly as well. I finish it off in the oven.

Note that these pellet smokers are not designed or intended to grill on, so do not buy one for searing steaks. Wrap some corn in foil with a little butter and garlic salt, and smoke them for about 10 minutes, and you will have a tasty treat. Bread and corn chips smoked are also good. Potatoes do not smoke so well for some reason. Pork ribs, chicken, brisket, pork butt, turkey, jerky, salmon, corn on the cob, pulled pork, and more are all good smoked on these things. I use several types of wood smoking pellets, like Bear Mountain and Gourmet BBQ (100% species). I use mainly apple and alder pellets. I never use heating pellets, which here in the PNW are all softwood like fir. You should NOT use any kind of conifer softwood to smoke with. Also the binders and other stuff in heating pellets is not good for smoking with.

 

yeah, the traegers are great for smoking but you are right they are not for "grilling" this is the seperation between ours and the rest of the crowd, the 21-pg100 has both indirect and direct cooking so you can slow smoke or sear steaks, grill burgers and such which require a higher heat output than you get with a straight smoker. like having 2 appliances in 1

 

definately not , the cooking pellets are made differently than the heating pellets are , with heating pellets a lot of the manufacturers use plastics to lubricate the extruder dies which leaves small amounts of plastics in the pellets themselves , obviously you do not want to ingest this stuff so only cook with pellets made for cooking, they usually use veggie oil to lube the dies so the ingredients so to speak of the pellets are simply wood and veg oil in a small quantity.

 

I beg to differ, I grill on my GMG all the time, it ( and most pellet grills) has a operating temp range from 150 to 500 degrees, more than enough to grill on especially if you use a set of grill grates or mangrates with it. Thats why they call them pellet grills

 

Here you go:
http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/index.php?threads/good-morning-for-a-brisket.6230/

 

"I beg to differ, I grill on my GMG all the time, it ( and most pellet grills) has a operating temp range from 150 to 500 degrees, more than enough to grill on especially if you use a set of grill grates or mangrates with it. Thats why they call them pellet grills"

didnt know on the GMG , i suppose more of the grill makers are setting tem up to cook direct now, the traegers we looked at a while back simply wouldnt get hot enough to sear.

 

No, GMG's are not set up for direct heat, they do get however get hot enough to grill on, Actually their new model the Davey Crockett has some type of sliding perforated shield over the burn pot area so if you want more heat you can slide it out of the way, but they are not set up like yours or Eddies and some others for a true direct heat. But like my pics show you can grill on them

 

gots me a MAK 2 star........