How are the newer Recteq grills compared to circa 2020 grills?

[Casadetrevino]

I bought a 590 back in early 2020 when the company was still called RectTec.

The grill has never failed me and is built like a tank. I've only had to call Recteq a few times for help with issues. The two early calls I made were remedied without hesitation at no extra cost to me (cosmetic). I've been impressed with quality of the grill and the customer service.

I have a friend who is considering buying RecTec because of mine and I want to be sure and steer him correctly.

Since I originally purchased, ownership has changed hands and new models have come out. I saw a Recteq at Scheels not too long ago and the metal didn't seem to be as thick on it as it was on mine. So, I've wondered if build quality has gone down since back around the time I bought in 2020?

Any old school owners out there who know the answer to this?

Also, are the newer Recteq's still a good investment worthy of recommendation?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Greg Jones]

Any old school owners out there who know the answer to this?

One of the challenges with your question is that old school owners that are happy with their RecTec grills will not have reason to buy a new recteq to compare it to. I re-read your post, and I think you answered your question! I have a RT-700 that will be 6 years old before too long and I’ve no reason to buy a newer model recteq. I don’t us the app or miss remote start, don’t get overly excited about warped diffusers, gave up on using troublesome covers on these grills a LONG time ago, and the occasional rust spots on the stainless steel clean up easily with a little Barkeepers Friend, and I haven’t had reason to call Support in so long now that I don’t know the names of anyone working there that does support.

I also have a WyldSide that is over 4 years old, and I don’t think recteq has a newer model of that one to tempt me with! I have other outdoor cooking tools that I have bought since I bought my last recteq, but I still own two recteqs and cook on at least one of them on a regular basis. Now that I’m settling into a milder climate with a good supply of Live Oak for fuel, I’ll be cooking on the Wyldside more often also.

 

[Casadetrevino]

Thank you for the reply.

After reading your post I do need to amend my "the grill has never failed me." The app updates certainly failed several times during holidays due to high traffic. I don't know if that has been remedied. I also had a warped deflector but that never bothered me. But the grill itself has never failed me.

It is true that many who bought the older models haven't had a need to upgrade but some still do for various reasons.

My question was: Are the newer models made as well and are they showing dependability like the "old" ones?

I thought I remember reading a post some time ago about the quality and customer service changing for the worse. This was around the time of the new acquisition. There is always some chirping when a company changes hands and time is the final arbiter. So... I was just posting to see if anyone had any real experience with the old and new.

 

[TheRicker]

Thank you for the reply.

After reading your post I do need to amend my "the grill has never failed me." The app updates certainly failed several times during holidays due to high traffic. I don't know if that has been remedied. I also had a warped deflector but that never bothered me. But the grill itself has never failed me.

It is true that many who bought the older models haven't had a need to upgrade but some still do for various reasons.

My question was: Are the newer models made as well and are they showing dependability like the "old" ones?

I thought I remember reading a post some time ago about the quality and customer service changing for the worse. This was around the time of the new acquisition. There is always some chirping when a company changes hands and time is the final arbiter. So... I was just posting to see if anyone had any real experience with the old and new.

I made a tech support call last year because I was losing hearings on the swivel wheels on my 700. The tech support call response was good. Replacement wheels received 2-3 days later. So I was very pleased.

I called tech support this past Friday because of an intermittent WiFi issue on my fairly new 380X. I left a message and received a call back a few hours later. Because it was a WiFi issue, they’ve referred it to “the WiFi team”. And it was late in Friday so I requested any callback to be Monday (today). Again, I’ve been pleased with the tech support for the past 4-5 years…which has only been 3 calls.

 

[Muldokken]

Well I seen the other day that they started pushing grills out to some retail stores, so went to their website to look. It only showed 1 place in oregon not far from me, odd. someone had mentioned that ace hardware had partnered, so did a web search and sure enough 2 of 10 around me claim to carry them. so I went to look. I bought 2 rt700 and a rt340 shortly after the company was up and running to get some good feedback. they have been great, no real problems and built very well. got to the hardware store they had 1 backyard beast. it looked to be a redesigned rt700. the redesign was not good imo. smaller hopper for a big grill, moved it to the right side with controller, took away the smokestack and was shorter then the 700 not to mention no remote start. so better? not in my opinion. C/S has went to crap, product redesign is poor and they couldnt even list the stores on their website correctly that are carrying the product.

 

[Muldokken]

I made a tech support call last year because I was losing hearings on the swivel wheels on my 700. The tech support call response was good. Replacement wheels received 2-3 days later. So I was very pleased.

I called tech support this past Friday because of an intermittent WiFi issue on my fairly new 380X. I left a message and received a call back a few hours later. Because it was a WiFi issue, they’ve referred it to “the WiFi team”. And it was late in Friday so I requested any callback to be Monday (today). Again, I’ve been pleased with the tech support for the past 4-5 years…which has only been 3 calls.

I had an issue with my rt340 dropping off the app. the did the same to me. 6 calls later and they didnt call me, first they blamed my wifi then because I know about stuff like that I cornered them and then they changed their tune. they then said the radio died in the controller. they had me buy a new duel band controller, put that in and guess what, same shit. I had told them it was something to do with their app and they said it wasnt the team checked, it was the time they were removing remote start, after they implemented that and the update came out, bam problem solved. I have now ditched their pos app and went another rout which gave me back remote start and voice control. good luck on your journey.

 

[Muldokken]

Thank you for the reply.

After reading your post I do need to amend my "the grill has never failed me." The app updates certainly failed several times during holidays due to high traffic. I don't know if that has been remedied. I also had a warped deflector but that never bothered me. But the grill itself has never failed me.

It is true that many who bought the older models haven't had a need to upgrade but some still do for various reasons.

My question was: Are the newer models made as well and are they showing dependability like the "old" ones?

I thought I remember reading a post some time ago about the quality and customer service changing for the worse. This was around the time of the new acquisition. There is always some chirping when a company changes hands and time is the final arbiter. So... I was just posting to see if anyone had any real experience with the old and new.

in my experience C/S has not only got much worse it tanked from 1 extreme to the other.

 

[SmokeyJim]

I had an issue with my rt340 dropping off the app. the did the same to me. 6 calls later and they didnt call me, first they blamed my wifi then because I know about stuff like that I cornered them and then they changed their tune. they then said the radio died in the controller. they had me buy a new duel band controller, put that in and guess what, same shit. I had told them it was something to do with their app and they said it wasnt the team checked, it was the time they were removing remote start, after they implemented that and the update came out, bam problem solved. I have now ditched their pos app and went another rout which gave me back remote start and voice control. good luck on your journey.

How did you ditch the recteq app? What did you go to instead that gave you back the controls you needed?
Since the latest update, it gave me nothing but problems and I'm not sure what to do.

All my cooks are separated graphs every time I open the app. So I might get a graph that lasts for 2 minutes and then another graph that lasts for 20 minutes and another and another and another. So when you have a 14-hour cook you might have 30 graphs to look through and with that it's really difficult to track a trend like you could with the old app. I'm ready to ditch the app but don't know what to go to

 

[Pacman]

Look for the "Tuya Smart" app on your phone in the Google Play or Apple App Store. I downloaded it and it does indeed connect to our grills just fine, but disconnects your grill from the Recteq app. I haven't had much time to play with it this winter, but think I will try it out for some cooks eventually. It does everything I need including on/off and setting a temperature. I haven't dug in to see if it can control feed rate, temperature offset, etc.

 

[Casadetrevino]

Thank you all for the feedback.
That is too bad about the CS. Back when I first bought my Recteq the CS was stellar and the forum was full of praise and testimonials.
My friend did end up buying the Flagship and is very pleased with it.
I came across a Recteq in our local Ace Hardware. It seemed to be built well, especially compared the brands you see and Costco, Lowe’s and Home Depot.
I’ll try and update again in the future.

 

[v1per95]

Id say take everyones opinions on here with a grain of salt, there are more than a few forum members that seem to just have a bias against RT at this point, and certainly one on this thread. I haven't had any issues with CS, and I haven't had any issues with my RT-590 (purchased end of year 2022, upgraded auger but before the redesign) and I have nothing to say about it but praise.

 

[Grampus]

I recently got the 410. I had concerns with temperature control. They did a couple quick firmware updates and life is good. So far, this is a great smoker. Solid and nicely designed. Although I do wish my timing was better, as I could have picked up the 400, but such is life.

Most surprising to me: the smoke flavor is noticeably better (so says my fam) than I've got from any other appliance, including another pellet grill I have, a gas smoker, a charcoal smoker, and a charcoal grill.