Quoted from Jazman:I've been a mostly electric smoker just because of the convenience. But, have really only done pork since there is such a HUGE temperature swing with them (at least based on the 2 I've had). Was going to go pellet and go cadillac (Recteq) but really liked what I saw with regards to the Masterbuilt vertical charcoal units that were talked about earlier in this thread. Never got a close out deal at Walmart. But decided to go "cheap" and pull the trigger on a smaller (560 sq in) unit at Home Depot. Did a break-in and monitor with my wifi thermometer over the weekend.
Definitely a temperature offset from the location of the thermometer the PID controller uses but very stable. Probably a definite swing across the cooking surface with the side closest to the firebox being hottest. You guys can chime in but I don't think this is unusual. Pellet smokers with center heat sources might have more even heat but I would think any offset smoker would be hotter closer to the fire.
Basically, I look at this as essentially an "automatic" offset-fire smoker.
Anyway, excited to try this new badboy out. Based on the reviews I've seen this may not last more than a couple years, but I take pretty good care of my kit so we'll see. I also don't intend to use it as a regular grill at all so maybe using just lower temps will help that. I really just got this for smoking as I'm still quite happy with my 20-year old Jenn-Aire gas grill for grilling. I've got an egg-knock-off for when I really want chargoal for grilling.
Anyway, happy morning all and GRILL ON!
Jaz
Here's my 2 cents and the pellet guys always get mad at me when I speak this truth, but if you actually know, then you know. Pellet grills just are not great smokers if you like a reasonably deep smoke flavor. I'm not talking burnt or dirty smoke, I just mean the kind of results you'll typically get with a stick burner (even when burning clean rolling some sweet blue). It was kind of a shock to me when I got my pellet grill when I was used to my stick burner results. I don't care what brand of pellet grill you have, or what kind of pellets you use, or even if you have a smoke tube going in the pellet grill at the same time, the pellet grill just isn't going to produce great smoke flavor. I don't know what kind of results your electric smoker provided but if you are used to great smoked food cooked on a stick burner or over a pit, its just not gonna be the same. That said, plenty of people are very happy with the results they get from their pellet grills and will try to swear up and down the smoke flavor is great. Unfortunately the laws of physics just prove that wrong. I miss the deep smokey flavors I used to get from my stick burner but the truth be told, I ended up selling my stick burner and keeping the pellet grill. The convenience was just too much to pass up. Definitely something to keep in mind when shopping for a new grill.
Another thing to think about is a pellet grill is a pellet GRILL. Its not a pellet smoker (although they do make dedicated pellet smokers). Its a sort of jack of all trades, and master of none. Its not the best grill in the world (IMO its a fairly poor grill) and its not the best smoker in the world but it will do it all. I really like camp chef products with the sidekick. It really adds a lot of versatility.
I have a few friends with the gravity charcoal and I am quite well versed in them. I really like the results you can get from them. They are able to come pretty close to stick burner flavor and they can get hot enough easily for good grilling and searing. I was greatly considering trading my pellet grill in for a charcoal gravity smoker. They have a few big time flaws though, the main one being just reliability and build quality issues. Flaps warp and sometimes they are very finnicky. They usually work great for about a season and then you start having all sorts of troubles with them. Theres an aftermarket for them to keep them running strong and improving them, but do you really want to mess with all that? Maybe you do, but I think I am out on the charcoal gravity setups until they get a little further refined.
As of right now, I am really liking the Camp Chef "pro" series. Thats the woodwind pro and the XXL pro. These are pellet devices that also have a tray you can load up with wood chunks and/or charcoal and from what I have seen they are the closest thing yet to real stick burner taste with the ease of pellets. The woodwind is a pellet grill setup and the XXL is a pellet smoker setup. I personally am in the market for the XXL as I have just gone back to the old reliable Weber for my grilling needs and I don't need a pellet grill, I want something thats dedicated to smoking. Camp Chef is a good brand thats on par with the upper mid range type grills you see from Treager, pitboss pro, and others. I've heard of a few bugs they are still ironing out here and there on their new series but it seems incredibly appealing. I've been happy with my camp chef SG series for the past 4 years or so, but I've been tasting that smoke taste dragon ever since. I'm ready to move on to the XXL pro