Hello all from a 40 year smoker.

[Bluepig]

I want to start by coming clean; I DO NOT OWN A REC TEC!

About 8 years ago I bought the Rec Tec one below the (now) RT 590. The names were not the same back then. When it got here I was happy with how heavy and sturdy it felt, but the welds were garbage, and there were other quality aspects I did not care for so I sent it back. This is not a hit on Rec Tec, because they were awesome with the return process.

From that return, my wife and I purchased a Daniel Boone Green Mountain Grill. It was amazing for two years, but we sold it and bought the larger Jim Bowie. We are now on our second Jim Bowie, and about to move, so I've listed it for sale over trying to break it down and move it over buying another pellet grill.

I provide the back story because there were several things I really liked about the Rec Tec they shipped us, and in spite of the fact I did not think they were ready for my needs, the grill made an impression. With that lasting impression, I am now considering the Rec Tec RT 700, but have some questions for the Forum.

1. Are they really made in China?
2. I've read about problems with the fans and controllers - does Rec Tec replace them, or was the repeated response that they tell you to spin the fan with a screwdriver until it frees up accurate?
3. How comprehensive is the warranty? It is proven that returning them is easy (not my goal), but referring to number 2, it tech support a bubba's garage version of you fix it?
4. As to the temp controller, I've read several places and watched reviews that talked about the internal temp is between 15-20 degrees off from actual?

Reading my own questions it sounds like I'm on a quest for perfection, but my goal is long-term out-of-the-box reliability.

Current 28 year Utah resident, in the process of selling and moving to N. Florida. Prior svs USAF AFSOC. 41 years in the martial arts. Own a security concern. Tactical and Situational Awareness Trainer. Married for 37 years this June. Three kids either in or served in the USAF (my son is a current Flight Engineer at Hurlbert Field AFSOC, youngest daughter a munitions reservist on Falcons after 8 years active currently completing her CFII then going back as an O for military flight school, my eldest daughter was Emergency Mgmt - All have been deployed). Do all of the regular Utah outdoor activities, am not of the standard Utah persuasion.

Thanks for your patience, the forum, and the ability to field a few questions. Smoke-It!

 

[C. Keeper]

Made in China and customer support has been awesome.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Greg Jones]

Greetings, and welcome! I’m approaching the 2-year anniversary of my RT-700 and I’ve cooked on it a lot. I have not had a single problem with it and have never changed any of the user-adjustable settings, such as calibrating the pit temp. I have 5 recteqs total and I have had a lot of trouble with the Bullseye (different controller) so I’ve had my share of experiences with recteq support. Great people, knowledgeable, trained, and all in-house. They don’t farm out support to a call center half way around the globe.

 

[Bluepig]

Greetings, and welcome! I’m approaching the 2-year anniversary of my RT-700 and I’ve cooked on it a lot. I have not had a single problem with it and have never changed any of the user-adjustable settings, such as calibrating the pit temp. I have 5 recteqs total and I have had a lot of trouble with the Bullseye (different controller) so I’ve had my share of experiences with recteq support. Great people, knowledgeable, trained, and all in-house. They don’t farm out support to a call center half way around the globe.

Great news. I hate calling any support number and having a guy or gal tell me their names are Bill or Betty, and they are in Tejas, when they are clearly in Punjab, Jaipur, Surat, New Delhi, or Mumbai. I was an Engineer for part of my life and spent my last 10 years designing and building data centers. With that experience, we increasingly saw and were being programmed to accept outsourcing of helpdesk efforts to (at the time) the largest outsourcing company in India. I've canceled service contracts as soon as I heard the words; "We are very interested to help you now and completely understand you're having issues with ______________."

 

[C. Keeper]

Recteq isn't sharing the call center with Dell.

 

[ccmjr77]

I can only truly speak from my own experience, but I have had my Rt700 for about 1.5 years. I have contacted customer support 2 times. First one was at delivery, one of legs was wrong and they sent our replacement along with the full set of rubs because of the trouble. The second time, I was looking for a replacement temp probe and was not working properly. I was expecting to pay for it, but they sent me 2 new ones free of charge. I think their customer service is better than any company I have dealt with. The product, I have not had any real functional issues. Temps may not be dead on all the time, but I do not have huge fluctuations. I use pellets that are from several manufacturers and I usually do not pay more than $16/40 lb bag, so I am not using the expensive pellets. I have been very happy with RT. I looked at others, but just kept coming back to RT and finally purchased and other than it is not kept as clean as I should it works great and I love it.

 

[fullhouse32]

Like most of the family here, I too did my research to find the right grill for me. I had a Traeger, CampChef, and now the RT-700. I have had it for 2 months and loving every minute. I only had to contact customer service 1 time and they made it right without any hesitation. You will enjoy The Bull and the meals that come off it. Best of luck in your relocation and God Bless you and your family for their service.

 

[Hawkness]

I am fairly new to the Rec Teq family as well, so I cannot give you long term data, but I will share what I data (and opinions) that I have (currently a RT-590 owner):

• I have contacted support a few times (mostly because I am a little OCD) the one time I did contact them with a "legit" concern (a scratched bull-horn out of the box) they sent me a new one, no questions. The other times, they have been super friendly, and knowledgeable.
• The temperature controller is WAY better than I thought it was going to be.
  • Far more accurate than the Traeger I started with (only had it for a month before some weird issues, and after another month of dealing with Traeger, I returned it to Costco, and went hunting a new pellet grill/smoker)
  • In fact, we do a lot of our baking on the Rec Teq now because the temperature is much more consistent than our oven in the kitchen.
• I too have used many different type of pellets, no issues yet, except with the Traeger Cherry pellets, low heat output, WAY too much ash.

I hope that helps some, and I wish you a safe/uneventful move, and a definite "thank you" for your service.

 

[missiledefense]

Bluepig, thank you and your children for the service to this country. We used to tell the USAF guys that they spent more money on the O club and golf course than on the runway.

I've had my RT700 about 1 year and have used it a good bit without an issue. I did make an adjustment on the temp probe just because it was about 10-20 degrees off from my Fireboard probes and I'm a little anal. I watched the RECTEQ video and the adjustment was straight forward. If I needed a new smoker today, I wouldn't consider anything else.

I hope you have a safe move and I think you will enjoy North Florida.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

 

[Bluepig]

Like most of the family here, I too did my research to find the right grill for me. I had a Traeger, CampChef, and now the RT-700. I have had it for 2 months and loving every minute. I only had to contact customer service 1 time and they made it right without any hesitation. You will enjoy The Bull and the meals that come off it. Best of luck in your relocation and God Bless you and your family for their service.

My time served was so long ago it has largely faded into the ether, but I thank you and will pass along the good wishes to my heroic kids. The military is not what it once was, and when you now look at the composition of the basic training candidates, you'd think we were a third-world armed force. The work ethic and distractions of constantly being on their phones mean the work does not get done, and when it does it is often wrong. I pray for our nation and its feeble steps forward.

 

[Bluepig]

Bluepig, thank you and your children for the service to this country. We used to tell the USAF guys that they spent more money on the O club and golf course than on the runway.

I've had my RT700 about 1 year and have used it a good bit without an issue. I did make an adjustment on the temp probe just because it was about 10-20 degrees off from my Fireboard probes and I'm a little anal. I watched the RECTEQ video and the adjustment was straight forward. If I needed a new smoker today, I wouldn't consider anything else.

I hope you have a safe move and I think you will enjoy North Florida.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

The Air Force and the Navy are the two branches that actually invest in their people outside of standard duty hours. When I was in the old adage was that any time we were TDY we were in a Holiday Inn (a luxury at the time?). Not always the case, and when you have a "falling from the sky" role, you are often relegated to sleeping in the dirt, under the wing of a plane on the tarmac, or in a makeshift rack of some type. Part of my time was in support of Army operations, and in my experience, they are the worst treated and lowest funded branch. For a very long time, I ran a posting board dedicated to once operational folk, and I live for if not thrive on interservice rivalries, banter and bashing. Doom on the person who chooses to mess with one of us when others are within earshot.

Sorry for the off-topic.

 

[Greg Jones]

Just to add to your off-topic, my son is a physics major at The Citadel in South Carolina attending on a contract from the Air Force. A 4-year degree there costs around $250,000 for an out-of-state student, and the USAF is paying for over half. He originally had an interest in attending on a USMC contract, but the non-interest they had in a physics major would make one shake their head.

My son-in-law was in the USMC stationed at the Marine Air Base in Beaufort, SC where he worked with technology in the air control tower. He kept trying to get them to support additional training for him, they were more interested in him meeting the BCP standards. He left when his active duty was up, took a position with a private contractor doing the same work at the Jacksonville FL Naval Air Station for more than double the pay, and in two years has received 3 promotions.

 

[Bluepig]

Just to add to your off-topic, my son is a physics major at The Citadel in South Carolina attending on a contract from the Air Force. A 4-year degree there costs around $250,000 for an out-of-state student, and the USAF is paying for over half. He originally had an interest in attending on a USMC contract, but the non-interest they had in a physics major would make one shake their head.

My son-in-law was in the USMC stationed at the Marine Air Base in Beaufort, SC where he worked with technology in the air control tower. He kept trying to get them to support additional training for him, they were more interested in him meeting the BCP standards. He left when his active duty was up, took a position with a private contractor doing the same work at the Jacksonville FL Naval Air Station for more than double the pay, and in two years has received 3 promotions.

To me, it seems the military overvalues its benefit structure. Granted, at certain E and O levels the BAQ/BOQ/BAH benefits will pay for a house, and your pay is for you to burn AYSF. The US Armed Forces takes a risk, and has to sort through a whole bunch of losers, but part of the risk is summed against the entire costs of getting kids with zero experience through basic and into fields where the ramp-up in training is expensive. My son has been in this year for 10 and does pretty well, but if he were out and doing the same thing for someone like Lockheed, or Boeing, he would be pulling down close to, it not six figures.

Congrats to your son, and hats off to any US Marine. So that I can turn this back to the topic, our love of grilling and smoking has not been lost on my son, as he does all of his own jerky. I suspect my daughters would too, but they are either training for their commission or recently relocated. Moving around is not conducive to smoking, and only barely to smoking.