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Wood Pellet blue tooth controlled grill/smoker


Foxman

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Anyone with any experience on these things. I am considering one of these, but not 100% certain how much I will smoke, so, I would want something that grills also. I know there are some deals out there. What is the best bang for the buck?

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Only experience was with a Trager, it was a friends, we could never get it to stay even close to the set temperature. We set it on 225 degrees, i put 2 maverick wireless thermometers in it a little over the grill in different places and it would swing between 150-350 degrees no matter what we did when set to 225. 

Could he have gotten a defected model who knows but it definitely was terrible, he sold it. I would never get a Trager after dealing with than one. But now there are many other brands so pick carefully and read reviews, the idea is good and very convenient if it works correctly.

 

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The Trager my brother has definitely will not grill, as in it will not sear a steak.  If you are going to smoke meats every now and then, but grill a lot more often I would suggest a small offset smoker that can be used as a grill, or a bullet style smoker which can be configured as a grill which most will do.  Use a natural lump charcoal and/or wood for the heat source.

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Not sure about other pellet smokers / grills. But I have a Trager while it will smoke somewhat decently you have to basically break it down after or before each use to vacuum all the pellet dust it makes while cooking otherwise it gets all over your food the internal combustion blower stirs it up

 

I tried a Pit Boss before the Trager it damn near exploded.  I took it back after seeing it blow the cover up a few inches with a loud boom. 

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I just bought one of these over the summer

 

https://www.smokedbbqsource.com/masterbuilt-gravity-series-560-digital-charcoal-smoker-review/

 

It is a smoker and a grill. It is not a pellet smoker, but charcoal. But it's gravity fed, so you don't have to continuously load the hopper. It has an electronic timer, you set the temp you want and it does the rest with a control fan. It has bluetooth and you can control the temp from the app and also check the meat probe. You can crank the heat up to 700 degrees for searing.

 

 

Worth checking out for sure, I love it.

 

 

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My son has a Yoder pellet grill, yodersmokers.com.  I don't know the model but he likes it and he does produce some outstanding food.  He had a Traeger and sold it to buy the Yoder because of the temperature fluctuations.  It is an automatic feed.  Set the temperature and in about 30 minutes it is up to temp and stable. Don't know about bluetooth. Can be used with direct or indirect heat although I don't know that he uses direct heat very often.  They're not inexpensive but are heavy and appear well made.

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2 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

I just bought one of these over the summer

 

https://www.smokedbbqsource.com/masterbuilt-gravity-series-560-digital-charcoal-smoker-review/

 

It is a smoker and a grill. It is not a pellet smoker, but charcoal. But it's gravity fed, so you don't have to continuously load the hopper. It has an electronic timer, you set the temp you want and it does the rest with a control fan. It has bluetooth and you can control the temp from the app and also check the meat probe. You can crank the heat up to 700 degrees for searing.

 

 

Worth checking out for sure, I love it.

 

 

I got the 1050 two months ago.  It's a great smoker - holds the temp very well but it's big.  Masterbilt just came out with a model 800 that I wish I had known about.

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11 minutes ago, Montego said:

I got the 1050 two months ago.  It's a great smoker - holds the temp very well but it's big.  Masterbilt just came out with a model 800 that I wish I had known about.

 

Yeah, even the 560 is not that big, but heavy. It took three people to get it up on my deck.

 

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3 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

I just bought one of these over the summer

 

https://www.smokedbbqsource.com/masterbuilt-gravity-series-560-digital-charcoal-smoker-review/

 

It is a smoker and a grill. It is not a pellet smoker, but charcoal. But it's gravity fed, so you don't have to continuously load the hopper. It has an electronic timer, you set the temp you want and it does the rest with a control fan. It has bluetooth and you can control the temp from the app and also check the meat probe. You can crank the heat up to 700 degrees for searing.

 

 

Worth checking out for sure, I love it.

 

 

 

I saw that at the Sportsman's warehouse I was at. it is the only charcoal one of these I have seen, I am glad you mentioned it because I was curious. It sounds like an excellent option.

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I stayed away from Traeger due to the temperature fluctuation claims.

 

I got a great Black Friday deal 2 years ago on a Green Mountain pellet grille.

It is excellent maintaining low and slow temperatures and can put out a constant up to 500 degrees for grilling.

Also do not have the soot problem. After 2 years I took it all apart and didnt find enough soot to worry about.

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2 hours ago, tromprof said:

Take a look at Masterbuilt smokers.

Webber makes one like that, they are highly rated but not for the most part set and walk away like a pellet fed smoker. 

 

Myself I built my smoker, I didn't want pellet fed, like with a charcoal grill if I didn't stock up on pellets I might not have them if I decide to smoke. I use wood, caveman style. :lol:

We have a wood burning stove for heat here so I always have plenty of wood, I just cut it in smaller pieces for the smoker. Oak and Hickory.

 

My choice would be offset smoker to burn wood, and yes if I open the air dampers it can get to 600+ degrees but I smoke at 225. This is the second smoker I built, the first was way to big so i sold it and made a smaller one, it uses much less wood and works great.

 

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1 hour ago, Shakeydeal said:

I had considered pellet grills, but everything I read pointed to charcoal just doing a better job on the flavor (which makes sense). I think a lot of people like pellets because of the convenience, but the MB grill/smoker gives you the best of both.

 

 

Better flavor no doubt, now that I have tried both.

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OMG remote controlled BBQs or smokers? You guys must have busy lives:) I have a Kamado(big green egg) that I use for everything. Grilling, smoking and in between. But it ain't remote contolled. You having to F'ing pay attention to what you're doing, what a shame.

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Pellet smokers are great. I have owned a couple of different factory ones and built one also. They do a great job and the flavor is awesome. A lot depends on the pellets you use. I prefer 100% hickory pellets, but there are all kinds. Lots of variables at play when you try comparing one cooking technology with another. I've smoked with green hickory wood, charcoal, & pellet smokers. All can produce good smoked meats. I prefer the pellet smoking myself. There are forums dedicated to these type smokers. Check them out.

 

I have a separate gas grill I use for grilling. I swapped out the regulator for a HP regulator like you might use with a turkey fryer. This way I can sear steaks for a couple of minutes on each side to get the affect we like. A regular gas grill just doesn't get hot enough. There are a couple of good threads on this forum about pellet smokers and smoking.

 

 

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I have a Kamado grill that also works as a smoker, it's not hard to control the temp at all. In fact I just smoked a small brisket for Thanksgiving, took about 7.5 hours from start to finish, easily kept it at 250F and that's with an outdoor temp that varied from 26F to about 40F.

 

Good luck on your search!

 

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