As an owner of both a 700 and 380X, I have to agree with both
@Jim6820 and
@Waterboy. I can run at 200-225 on my bullseye deluxe BUT much easier on the Bull. It takes a while for me to stabilize the temperature. It can be done with some patience. On the Bull, it is bam and right at 225 in ten minutes. Having both tools is great.
I also own a 700 and (my new) 380X. To me, they were primarily designed for different purposes. But you can do low & slow on he 380X…you just need to make accommodations for the grease.
I’m not trying to defend RT and how they dealt with the original member’s post but I can tell you my 380X sounds very different than my 700 when they’re running. And I’m specifically referring to the sound of the pellets. With the 700, I don’t hear the pellets being fed through the auger chamber to the fire pot. And I’ve successfully used a lot of different brands of pellets…including the Kirkland pellets. With the 380X, I often hear a crunching sound of the pellets…and it worries me that I’m going to have a jam. I am currently using Cookinpellets.com pellets (various flavors).
But I used some “special” pecan shell pellets on my 700 recently and they are noticeably harder than other pellets I’ve used. And I did hear some crunching from the 700 when I used those pellets. They weren’t long but were harder. I would be concerned about trying them in the 380X.
When I was pondering my 380X purchase, I viewed a number of YouTube videos about the 380 series. There were a number of them that spoke to clearing auger jams on the 380. (There’s a slightly different method for the 380X.)
With that in mind, and my brief experience with my 380X, I’m wondering if the auger motor, the thickness of the auger, or the design of the auger on the 380X is different from RecTeq’s other cookers. The 700 is solid. The 380X is lightweight…bordering on fragile. (Yes, mine has the sturdier base frame versus older 380s.)
Again, that’s my general impression. But I can envision pellets potentially being an issue. That and grease.
I’ve noticed in my RT app that the factory default feed rate for the 380X is quite different from my 700’s factory default feed rate. Why that is I don’t know. But it is a lower number. Does that mean the auger is going to turn slower? If the auger motor isn’t as strong as my 700’s auger motor, would that result in less torque turning the auger make longer or harder pellets more likely to jam the auger? I’m still figuring it out on my 380X.