Ever Consider Another Brand Pellet Grill?

[DarkStar11]

Bullporky, I agree with you on all points. I started cooking over fire around '83. I have fond (and not-so-fond) memories of all the lessons learned from using a lot of inferior gear, as well as some really great stuff. For a while, a cheap hibachi was my only cooking tool. And I'm still learning, hopefully, with almost every cook.

Stellar BBQ does takes work, but lots of folks are happy with "dang, that's good." Hopefully easier entry points on both cost and fire management make great-to-top-notch 'Q more interesting and attainable for folks - and then they shoot for stellar. To me, that is the "Recteq lifestyle". I got my 680 back in the day because I was tired of babysitting cooks on various coal/stick burners. RT was the most affordable of all the quality pellet options, and had (still has) great customer service. And it can turn out truly stellar food.

My grilling arsenal will likely always contain 3 grills, as long as I have space for them: Weber Kettle, a decent gasser, and a RT Pellet. And hopefully I have enough space to play with other things, like the MB Gravity. If RT would make a great gravity charcoal grill, it would probably replace the kettle and the gasser. The pellet will always have a place, in my opinion.

 

[cookingjnj]

During my research process I had a hard time getting any hands on many grills. Being in NJ, pellet cookers were not, and still not very popular. I was able to get my hands on a Treager and GMG. Both seemed very flimsy in construction. I have a Weber Kettle, a Happy Cooker Kettle and Weber Gasser which all had much better construction in my opinion. My finalist came down to the RT, Blazin' Grills and the Yoder. I chose the RT for the price point, and the package offered with the purchase and never looked back.

 

[Fhughes]

I had already previously owned 2 traegers when I bought my Bull. I will say that if I hadn’t bought the Bull I would have bought a Yoder.

 

[Waterboy]

I was looking at Pitts and Spitts and then started hearing about the SmokeFire and got excited about that. The SmokeFire excitement didn’t last long. The Pitts and Spitts seem well built (like a Yoder without the paint problems) bit are very expensive. Rec Tec (before the q) kept popping up in forums and internet searches so I started checking them out. When you add it all up quality, cost, warranty and of course customer service the decision kind of made itself. The only thing I feel is lacking is a second shelf that slides out.

 

[bfletcher]

I'm very well-pleased with my RT-700 experience but I did not add it to my arsenal as a high-heat cooker. As an aside, I also have the Ironwood and most recently the Gravity 560.

I prefer the RT-700 because I like the smoke stack and I see TBS 100% of my smokes. On the Ironwood, I sometimes need to twist, bend, and squat to see smoke. But I cannot discern any difference in the finished products.

I have used the 560 for low & slow and HH cooks and I've been very happy with it but I don't want to use any one cooker exclusively; the change-up is part of my interest. During assembly, there were two or three ill-fitting components, though.

I honestly don't expect my lids to have the integrity of a car door, so when I open them I lift near both edges, lol.

 

[TexasManInCajunLand]

Very refreshing. You have a healthy attitude about the situation. We're kind of drifting off the RT thing that brought us together here, but there seems to be a somewhat different crowd here at this point in time. Quite a few folks with broad interests/experience in outdoor cookers. There was a time, not very long ago, we had a bunch of newbs jump on board. That in itself is not a problem, but they were more the whiney, inexperienced, "feed me" type. Such is life.

Your comment about the MB folks going to all lengths to try to make a silk purse out of the sow ear reminds me of my interplay on another forum with Pit Barrel Cooker folk. They are a near cult like devoted group to that little barrel. It is a fine smoker for what it is, and the owner of the company is active in the industry and has a compelling back story. But it has it's limits as delivered. Pretty much a 275-350 degree smoker that has little control capability. It makes the user adapt to it rather than the other way round. If you want to grill on it you can but you have to do some minor mods. To broaden it's temp control capabilities requires some skilled mods or spending of some moderately significant money compared to it's $350 initial cost. I enjoy poking the bear (who knew?) at times and remind them that my Oklahoma Joe's Bronco will do everything the PBC will do, plus is easily set up for grilling, and has fixtures that allow excellent temp control from roughly 200-500 degrees. That's out of the box, no mods, no add ons, just use it properly..............all for $300 retail and at times close to $100 on clearance. There's more to the story, but that would get more boring than this already is. Outdoor cooking people latch on to ideas sometimes that they are reluctant to let go of. Grab a bag of popcorn, sit back, enjoy the show.................................

POST OF THE MONTH NOMINEE!!

As always, you provide us with yet another great post Unc...or it might just be me that's so easily entertained.

 

[TexasManInCajunLand]

I first heard of Rec Teq through a friend's brother, and he expressed nothing but high praise for their products, so that's when I got curious and started researching. Through this research I found that Rec Teq, Yoder, and Memphis IMO were making the better pellet grills available today. Like @Beach Bum, I eliminated the Memphis due to its price point. Mainly because I was looking for something that I could use on my porch and I felt like the Memphis grills that I was looking at are better suited for an outdoor kitchen type of setting...and of course, way out of my price range at the time. Now that it was narrowed down to two, I kept going back and forth between the Yoder & Rec Teq. While the Yoder is built like a f'n tank, I just really liked the idea of having the better internal components and controller that the Rec Teq was offering. And the fact that their CS is pretty much second to none, that pretty much sealed the deal for me. And though I really wanted the Bull to be my first RT purchase, I decided to go ahead and go with the 340 to get my feet wet in the pellet grill world, and then add the Bull later on. So far that's been a solid decision, because I couldn't be more happy with my "Lil' Toro".

 

[Bmseay]

I looked at GMG, Yoder, Camp Chef, weber and Rec Teq... ultimately I landed at Rec Teq, but after I went through a camp chef. I was really thinking about the Weber until the reviews came out and then I finally just bit the bullet.

GMG was too difficult to find at a decent price... Yoder has too many corrosion issues and I'm on the coast... Weber was just a horrible product to release like they did... I assume it's all fixed now... and my camp chef didn't last... I had huge temperature swings constantly, even after a replacement control module.

My RT's haven't been perfect, but I've had good customer service... to be honest on my bullseye, I'm not as happy as could be, but it is what it is... I wouldn't' go back on my bull now that I have the comp cart... I really needed the upgrade due to the wheel issues, and I love my matador...

 

[BretM]

I looked at the RT-700, the Yoder YS-640S, and the Pitts & Spitts Maverick 1250.

It was my first pellet grill purchase and there were other features of the Yoder and the P&S that I liked better than the RT, but it came down to price in the end...thus the RT.

 

[Handmade]

I have been around Awhile as well I think stared with what. They could afford it is later in life when our pockets are deeper and we can get better toys. Being in the service for 21 years it was always scrap or sell with every new assignment. Once I retired and moved on to a real paying job I wasted no time but again paying 1k for a grill or smoker is hard to try after so many $300 buck units my last home had a 20 in oil pipe grill and did some good bbq before all the gadgets then was and still accustomed to gasser for steaks and burgers. So my last one and still have my Webber genesis my first 1k grill just so I could still get parts. Then added a kamado smoker. I was looking at $1500 stickburner but after thinking of the amount of wood used and more time and nights tending I looked at the pellet grills i had spent months reading up on them I saw the RT products but was worried about buying what I can’t see or touch. Made the worst mistake and bought the Traeger

 

[Handmade]

Was Traeger Sivertron 810 latest WiFi controller crap temp control 25 or more degrees off no adjustment the worst customer service and after three attempts at calls got some one saying it can be. Complained about 1200 for a grill it better not so they agreed to send me a new temp sensor I got only a grommet for food probe that my grill does not have so back to Costco it went so back on the hunt. Looked at a higher end dealer at the memphis high priced kinda flimsy for the 2K cost Yoder was nicely solid so on the fence then saw a 590 at my sons neighbor house and was sold ordered my RT700 and loving it.

 

[Strobro]

She first try’s to open the lid by lifting on the left side of the handle, and the entire lid twists so badly that it won’t open because it is binding on the right side. Then the camera angle changes, she shifts her grip more towards the center of the handle, and with a big groan she gets the lid open! worth a watch.

Yeah, they did a nice quick little edit there also

Sorry, you can't watch the clip---it's a screenshot ... but... wow, that lid did twist

 

[TheMeaterator]

@DarkStar11 - what's the best aspect of the MB? And the worst? I love the concept admittedly

Worst would be a tie in build quality and customer service. I had 2 masterbuilt vertical smokers BECAUSE they were cheap and at the time all i could see paying for.
When i had issues its was literally months waiting on parts. 1 rusted out in less than 2 years. Both were kept INSIDE.
Bought a PitBoss vertical smoker and an 820 pellet grill. Had it 4 months . Went thru replacing an auger motor and board wthin a month. its for sale and a Rec Teq Rt 590 arriving Monday.
I will say this before purchasing the Recteq i exchanged emails with Jacob ( rec teq customer service) several times. He also CALLED ME twice. Once i had called to ask a question and inform him the grill was ordered and it was his day off. I Did not leave a message. He called me the next day.
Thats service

 

[Bgs41]

I can give a little perspective on this. I just put my bull together Friday, after deciding to leave traeger. I have owned six Traeger’s thru the years, with my last being a timberline 850. My neighbor has the 1300 mentioned above.
i did my first cook on the 700, a ten pound butt overnight. the 700 is everything I expected. The build quality is far, far ahead of the timberline. With thicker steel, real stainless, stainless hardware, grates. u guys know all of this already.
I tried to open my lid on my timberline 850 and had no such problem as in the video. It’s a much narrower lid. So I walked over to neighbors and tried the same. It twisted alittle but not much. Actually the lids on the timberlines are a strength. They are dual material, insulated, and come with an oven gasket that is top Of the line. The timberline is a fine smoker, and a lot close to the build quality of a Rec tech than Traeger’s other stuff ( closer, not equal) when I decided to sell mine last weekend ( I had been looking at recteq for a while, ordered last Tuesday, and it was delivered Friday!) I was very surprised at how new the timberline looked after a good cleanup. It has held up well to 2 years in the alabama heat. I love it’s layout, multiple stainless racks, the app is well developed with a ton of features, and beyond the fact that it takes an hour for it to reach 425 it performs very well.
so why did I switch? Customer service! traeger shipped me a new controller Monday morning. When I install it that will be controller number 4, in two years on a 2000 dollar grill. 3 of the four I beleve were bricked by software upgrades traeger pushed out with errors in them. I have also replaced a fan and an igniter in this time.
when u have an issue with traeger getting tech on the phone is not easy, and Talking to a tech that has actually used the product before is next to impossible.
nothing is more frustrating than getting a cook prepped only to find your smoker will not work, and in two years I have done this six times with the traeger, that’s why I am here. So original poster, you don’thave to wonder
“what if”. You made the correct decision the first time!

 

[Greg Jones]

Very nice perspective-than for sharing!

 

[Uncle Bob]

And proof of the ol' addage, "Competition improves the breed.".