Considering a B380, but a couple of questions...

Powercat

Active member
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37
1. Is there a drain plug on the hopper so you can change flavors of pellets?

2. There is a protective grate at the top of the hopper to avoid getting hands in the auger. Can that grate be removed for easier access, or to empty the hopper if there is not a drain plug.

3. Am I making the correct assumption that there is no wifi or app control on this model?

4. Is the PID controller on the 380 as accurate as the Recteq barrel grills? And do you get fine increments of temp control? For example 5 degrees at a time?

TIA
 
1. No, 2.Yes, and if you are handy you can remove it. 3. Yes, 4. Yes, see below:
I have been grilling with my Bullseye for 8 months now. Some of my observations, The grill runs hot. My grill is about 25 degrees hotter than the grill temp readout. The increments are in 25 degree segments, I cleaned the fire box after my first 4 cooks. Since then, I have not cleaned it out, and have never had a problem lighting it. Smoking is a problem as on lo temp it is about 200 degrees. Warm up time is 15 minutes or less. Riot mode gets a little over 750 degree . I changed the griddle to a cast iron smooth top one and never looked back. My probe thermometer is a little off and I used a hand held just to check the temp. You need to have some type of grease catcher. I use aluminum pie plates or toaster oven throw-a-way aluminum plates. If I don't put something under the griddle, I can and did get a fire. It was easy to put out but scarry. If you use your Bullseye as much as I do, you will need to clean the vents from time to time.
My summary is for two people the Bullseye is perfect. Plenty of grill space, easy maintenance, very clean burn, portable but a poor smoker. My next experiment will be with a stick smoker. I am in no hurry for that. As to pellets, I have homed in on Bear Mountain and use them exclusively. You probably already know most of this, but I wanted to give my two cents.
 
1. No
2. Yes, I took screws out of mine and just set grate back in.
3. No Wi-Fi
4. Increments of 25, temp swings a little more. No worse than older style controllers. I use for it as a kettle grill replacement. I use my trailblazer for smoking and longer cooks.
 
1. Is there a drain plug on the hopper so you can change flavors of pellets?

2. There is a protective grate at the top of the hopper to avoid getting hands in the auger. Can that grate be removed for easier access, or to empty the hopper if there is not a drain plug.

3. Am I making the correct assumption that there is no wifi or app control on this model?

4. Is the PID controller on the 380 as accurate as the Recteq barrel grills? And do you get fine increments of temp control? For example 5 degrees at a time?

TIA
1. No - I've never had a grill with this but I've heard they can cause issues. I (like others) took out the guard and it would be easy to scoop out pellets and change out. Pellet flavors while they make a difference, it is much much lighter than real wood so doesn't have a ton of difference. If you want to add in a wood smoke flavor, use a pelllet tube with wood chips mixed into the pellets.
2. Yes - see above.
3. No wi fi - it would be nice to have since my Bull has one. I don't know what the future holds for this grill...
4. No - this controller does not have the response time that the Bull has or other grills with same controller. But once it settles in, it does hold temps well.
 
This community is very helpful and appreciated. Thanks for the information. I ordered a 380 today. I figured for their sale price of $399, if it doesn't work for my needs, I'll just donate it to someone.

The rep on the phone did tell me that they have discussed creating a wifi controller and are doing some testing, but nothing yet for the 380. Also, he told me that the temp settings were more granular than 25 degrees. So we will see.
 
This community is very helpful and appreciated. Thanks for the information. I ordered a 380 today. I figured for their sale price of $399, if it doesn't work for my needs, I'll just donate it to someone.

The rep on the phone did tell me that they have discussed creating a wifi controller and are doing some testing, but nothing yet for the 380. Also, he told me that the temp settings were more granular than 25 degrees. So we will see.
You will love it. When I got shown through the warehouse last month, they had gobs of them, stacked up. What "supply chain" issues ??!! As Chef Greg and Jody will tell you, the Bulls-Eye is a great daily grill. I love mine. If you don't have small kids around, then by all means, get rid of the auger guard. For a starter, there is a YouTuber called "Smokin' Steve", and he has a 380 and a 700. One of these days, when I'm in Sarasota, I'm going to have try and look him up. He has some good recipes on the 380. Steve I think, spends a little too much bandwidth on trying to keep it, just like it came out of the box -- it it a grill. Enjoy it. I know you will.
 
You will love it. When I got shown through the warehouse last month, they had gobs of them, stacked up. What "supply chain" issues ??!! As Chef Greg and Jody will tell you, the Bulls-Eye is a great daily grill. I love mine. If you don't have small kids around, then by all means, get rid of the auger guard. For a starter, there is a YouTuber called "Smokin' Steve", and he has a 380 and a 700. One of these days, when I'm in Sarasota, I'm going to have try and look him up. He has some good recipes on the 380. Steve I think, spends a little too much bandwidth on trying to keep it, just like it came out of the box -- it it a grill. Enjoy it. I know you will.
What a nice note. Thank you! Yes I will remove the auger guard. As for the 380, I just want one of my cooking devices to have a quick heat up for everyday grilling. I have a vertical smoker, so low'n slow is not a priority, but I'm sure I'll try a few things just to compare. I was at a friends house the other day, and I was really impressed with how fast it got to riot mode from 250. I will try that mode a few times, but if I can't sear a steak at 550-600 degrees, then take the tongs out of my hand. I figure running a grill that hot just lessens its life. But we'll see. And yes Smokin' Steve is a little anal, but I think he gets some compensation from Barkeeper's Friend for featuring their product. And I can speak from experience that B'K's Friend is a great product. I just now want to find the right cast iron grill and griddle. The Aura grate is attractive, but I find the diamond pattern to be hard to clean. Open to suggestiuons.
 
I'm probably in the minority here, but I'll give my opinion. I've owned a 380 for roughly 18 months now and am going to be selling it locally on CL or FB marketplace. It's just too much hassle to use for everyday/quick cooks when compared to my gasser. The biggest annoyance is the temperature swings, it runs hot, all the time and has only gotten worse over time. It never heats up to the correct temperature anymore, it always overshoots by 100 degrees at least and then I have to leave the lid open for minutes to get it back down to where it should be only for it to heat up past that point again. Another annoyance is the constant grease fires I'll get, I've let the ash build up inside as per RecTeq's advice only to have the issue persist and then ironically enough have them tell me I need to clean out all of the ash build up to fix the temperature swings (it didn't). Everyone raves about RecTeq's support and their helpfulness. I've found they blame everything but the grill for being the issue. I do have a 590 that I love and still use for smoking, but will just stick with my gasser for items like burgers, fast cooks, etc. I should add that the 590 does have a warped heat deflector that RecTeq won't replace until it's warped to the point of pushing up on the grill grates, seriously.
 
It never heats up to the correct temperature anymore, it always overshoots by 100 degrees at least and then I have to leave the lid open for minutes to get it back down to where it should be only for it to heat up past that point again.
I’m not trying to talk you into or out of anything, but I did want to add that opening the lid to lower the temperature in a pellet grill has the opposite effect. The controller interprets the dropping temp as the grill not getting enough fuel to maintain temp, so it cranks the fire up. There is one grill manufacturer (I forget the name) that has added a hold feature on the controller to counter this effect when the lid is opened to flip, wrapped, rotate, etc. Better to leave the lid closed and allow the grill to stabilize, and if it still runs hot, change the offset or just set the grill to a lower temp to begin with.
 
1. Is there a drain plug on the hopper so you can change flavors of pellets?

2. There is a protective grate at the top of the hopper to avoid getting hands in the auger. Can that grate be removed for easier access, or to empty the hopper if there is not a drain plug.

3. Am I making the correct assumption that there is no wifi or app control on this model?

4. Is the PID controller on the 380 as accurate as the Recteq barrel grills? And do you get fine increments of temp control? For example 5 degrees at a time?

TIA
NO, YES,YES,NO,YES
 

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