Grilling Pellets

DesertRat

Well-known member
Messages
309
Grill(s) owned
  1. Bullseye
I’m looking for recommendations for an inexpensive but non-problematic pellets to use when all I want to do is bring the temp up to 480 and grill something. I see no reason to use good smoking pellets. Any ideas? TIA.
 
A couple of thoughts on your question. First, the cost difference between “inexpensive” and “good smoking pellets” is pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

Then, there’s the issue of “non-problematic pellets.” “Inexpensive” pellets are “inexpensive” due to the materials used to make them and the quality control during and after manufacturing. For the sake of discussion, lets just call those “inexpensive” pellets “cheap.” They are cheap because they are made from cheap materials like scrap wood from furniture manufacturing, bark, etc. That potentially leads to poor burning characteristics and the imparting of an off flavor.

As for lax quality control, that can show up in a wide variance in the size of the pellets, with excessively long ones potentially jamming up the feed auger. And, cheap pellets may also include significant amounts of sawdust that potentially leads to other burning issues.

My point here is, how much will you save on a given cook by using cheap pellets? A dollar? Maybe two at most. And, what is the potential cost? Ruined meat, jammed augers and random burning problems. Seems to me that is false economy. YMMV
 
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Bear Mountain or Lumberjack. Bear Mountain can typically be found for about 10 bucks a 20 lb bag and Lumberjack about the same. Have had great luck with both brands. That being said prices vary by location so it may be different near you.
 
Thanks Bradbq. I thought I had carefully worded my post to avoid the idea that I was looking for a cheap product. As a matter fact, I had originally written the word cheap and deleted it and substituted inexpensive. I am not looking to create a problem for my 590, thus the word non-problematic.

I’m in a town where we pretty much buy Traeger or we buy online. I’ve gone the online route on virtually all of my pellets and so am familiar with a limited number of brands.

I could better have asked for a clean burning lower priced brand. I have tried to use the best pellets for smoking, but if there is a substantial price difference I would choose to burn the “cheaper“ products for grilling.

Anyhow, I’ll be using what I have on hand to smoke some country style ribs today.
 
@DesertRat i don’t know if you saw my post a few days ago but Costco has Bear Mountain pellets for $24.99 delivered for 40lb. bags. It’s slightly above the $.50 a lb. threshold but not bad for a delivered price.
 
I didn’t see that post about Bear Mountain pellets. Oddly, I still can’t find it. . Thanks a lot. I’ll go onto Costco right now and order a couple bags.

Just ordered two bsgs of bourbon and one gourmet.
 
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The savings isn't the hassle of emptying out the hopper just to change out the pellets. Go with good pellets and save the time.
 

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