RT-1250 My new grill

[Chevys10zr2003]

I am new to pellet grills but not smokers. So I was originally going to get a RT700 and a Bullseye and then add a second shelf and front shelf to the 700. Then I found out the second shelf I found was carbon steel, which I wasn't a huge fan of with the rest of the grill being stainless. Then I almost ordered a Yoder or a Lone Star Grillz pellet grill and then I heard about the 1250 coming out. So I ordered the 1250 last Thursday when it went on sale.

It shipped out on Friday and I have an appointment for delivery this Friday. I hope that the delivery goes good and then I can assemble it. Trying to decide what I want to make on it first. Maybe I'll go all sorts of fancy and make Oscar Mayer hit dogs WITH CHEESE!

 

[IPlayWithMeat]

Congratulations!! Hot dogs with cheese sound perfect!

 

[Waterboy]

Sounds like the perfect amount of investigation and procrastination! Enjoy the grill. Did you get the Bullseye too?

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Sounds like the perfect amount of investigation and procrastination! Enjoy the grill. Did you get the Bullseye too?

No I did not. If I would have went with the Yoder or the Lone Srar Grillz I would have had to wait and save up more credit card earnings. Since the 1250 was more than the 700 I skipped on the Bullseye for now. If everything goes good, I can see myself getting it within a year.

 

[Waterboy]

With the 3rpm auger motor and the upgraded contoller (with higher max temp) you may not need it. Good luck with the new grill. Be sure to let us know how it works out for you,

 

[jac365]

My 1250 is inbound now. Waiting for call from Estes

 

[Dr. Jones]

Patiently waiting for pictures! Have fun this weekend!

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

So I got the grill and immediately started on it. I noticed right away that I was missing my Basil, Sage and Thyme pellets and one of the Recteq pellets bags had a hole in it from the grill poking a hole through the top of the cardboard and I lost about 1/4 bag of pellets.

Overall the grill build went pretty smooth with one hiccup. The nut that is tacked to the inside of the lower shelf was either damaged or placed at an angle and I could not get the bolt started in the nut. So I used an impact on it and broke the nut off. Other than that the assembly went great.

First thoughts are that I wish the grill was about 2" taller but I get that it's designed for most people and the comp cart would fix that.....for $400. I wish that the front shelf was up about 6" more so that it was flush with the lower rack or an inch below. I also see why the lower rack is one piece instead of two pieces like the 700. The lower rack slides out just like the upper rack so it needs to be one piece.

 

[Waterboy]

Looks good. I wondered if the lower shelf pulled out. That’s a nice feature. Customer Service will take care of the pellet issue. Enjoy the new grill and let us know how the first cooks go (with pictures of course!).

 

[IPlayWithMeat]

Thank you for the updates, and please feel free to share additional thoughts!

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

I just emailed them about the pellets issue and the nut issue and told them I wasn't worried about the nut but wanted to let them know about it. I'll definitely be taking pictures of the food I make on it.

I just have to figure out how to get some bigger casters on it. I haven't really looked at it yet but shouldn't be too difficult.

Edit: I also just realized that my horns didn't come with any padding or gasket so I am not sure if I will have the same hot handle issue that some else mentioned in a different thread.

 

[JGW]

Just email them and ask about them...they might just send you a set out.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

@JGW they said that the pads are only to prevent scratching during install. I baked a skillet cookie at 375 last week and the horns at the base were hot but the actual handle part was not. So I'm not worried about it

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

I'm smoking ribs and salmon for my first long cook on the new smoker and the temps are a ways off from my Fireboard. The 149° and 177° are when it was set for 215°. The 186° and 196° are during the overshoot after opening the lid to do ice water tests and the grill said it was at 232°. The dips in the graphs are where I did ice water tests on my fireboard probes to verify they were accurate and they read 32.4° and 32.7°, so I am going to say they are accurate. Not really sure what to think at this point but I'm going to let it ride and see how it goes.

Now that I think about it, the skillet cookie that @Mannydog posted was supposed to take 30-35 minutes and mine took close to 50 and was still undercooked in the middle. So maybe I will try adjusting my offset. If I can figure out how.

 

[JGW]

@JGW they said that the pads are only to prevent scratching during install. I baked a skillet cookie at 375 last week and the horns at the base were hot but the actual handle part was not. So I'm not worried about it

Yeah, different people are getting different answers from Rec Teq which shouldn't be happening, but a LOT of their pictures on their site show them installed.

I don't know how they protect the horns from scratching if they are not on the horns, LOL. I want to say mine were in a different bag than the horns, and they have pre punched holes that line up with the bolts.

Right, Wrong? I don't think it makes much of a difference.

 

[IPlayWithMeat]

I'm smoking ribs and salmon for my first long cook on the new smoker and the temps are a ways off from my Fireboard. The 149° and 177° are when it was set for 215°. The 186° and 196° are during the overshoot after opening the lid to do ice water tests and the grill said it was at 232°. The dips in the graphs are where I did ice water tests on my fireboard probes to verify they were accurate and they read 32.4° and 32.7°, so I am going to say they are accurate. Not really sure what to think at this point but I'm going to let it ride and see how it goes.

Now that I think about it, the skillet cookie that @Mannydog posted was supposed to take 30-35 minutes and mine took close to 50 and was still undercooked in the middle. So maybe I will try adjusting my offset. If I can figure out how.

IMHO, trying the offset adjustment first is a good idea. Doing that fixed a similar issue for me.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Yeah, different people are getting different answers from Rec Teq which shouldn't be happening, but a LOT of their pictures on their site show them installed.

I don't know how they protect the horns from scratching if they are not on the horns, LOL. I want to say mine were in a different bag than the horns, and they have pre punched holes that line up with the bolts.

Right, Wrong? I don't think it makes much of a difference.

The only thing I can think of is when you are sliding them around on the lid to line up the holes is what they are referring to. But yeah I'm not sure why mine didn't come with them. Oh well.

After I adjusted the temp offset the grill has worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the salmon and ribs. I always forget to take pictures of stuff as I'm too hungry and just start eating. This next week I will be doing a lot of baking in it along with some grilled chicken this weekend. Hopefully I remember to take pictures to post. Will also probably do a full clean out after this next week as I will most likely be through my first bag of pellets.

 

[JGW]

I stepped though all the temps, noting the difference between grill temp, and ambient temp via a known accurate probe (ambient probe, not a meat probe). I think I posted the spread sheet somewhere around here. I didn't note the time, but I think I left each temp at 20 or 30 minutes before I upped it again.

Here it is. I think I should do it again and see if I get the same results after burning through a few bags of pellets. (I did a set temp column to just dial it in instead of a temp offset adjustment because the value changed temp to temp (from less than 1% to 4%).

Set Temp	Actual	% diff	Set Temp to
225	216	-4.00%	235
250	240	-4.00%	260
275	264	-4.00%	285
300	295	-1.67%	300
325	322	-0.92%	325
350	347	-0.86%	350
375	373	-0.53%	375
400	394	-1.50%	410
425	440	3.53%	415
FULL			FULL
Average differential
	100
28-Jun-21

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

I stepped though all the temps, noting the difference between grill temp, and ambient temp via a known accurate probe (ambient probe, not a meat probe). I think I posted the spread sheet somewhere around here. I didn't note the time, but I think I left each temp at 20 or 30 minutes before I upped it again.

Here it is. I think I should do it again and see if I get the same results after burning through a few bags of pellets. (I did a set temp column to just dial it in instead of a temp offset adjustment because the value changed temp to temp (from less than 1% to 4%).

Set Temp	Actual	% diff	Set Temp to
225	216	-4.00%	235
250	240	-4.00%	260
275	264	-4.00%	285
300	295	-1.67%	300
325	322	-0.92%	325
350	347	-0.86%	350
375	373	-0.53%	375
400	394	-1.50%	410
425	440	3.53%	415
FULL			FULL
Average differential
	100
28-Jun-21

I really wish that it was more consistent but it seems to be all over the place. Looks like I will have to use my ambient probes every time I want to use it. Not that it's the end of the world since I usually have a bunch of meat probes going already, just kind of sucks that I can't use 2 more meat probes.

 

[IPlayWithMeat]

I really wish that it was more consistent but it seems to be all over the place. Looks like I will have to use my ambient probes every time I want to use it. Not that it's the end of the world since I usually have a bunch of meat probes going already, just kind of sucks that I can't use 2 more meat probes.

Have you found the same variance in your RT-1250, or did the offset calibration fix it?