Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Pellet Grills and Smokers => Topic started by: TwoPockets on February 28, 2012, 05:16:10 PM
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Academy Sports has just got in a new pellet grill and pellets. They have a pellet grill that looks exactly like a Traeger that is selling for $499 and they are selling B&B cooking pellets for $9.99 for a 20lb bag. The pelllets come in mesquite, hickory and apple. I am seriously considering buying this smoker. Any of you Traeger users have any info on how good these things cook? The info says it cooks from 180-375 degrees and it has a smoke only setting (cold smoker?).
Ken
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Academy Sports has just got in a new pellet grill and pellets. They have a pellet grill that looks exactly like a Traeger that is selling for $499 and they are selling B&B cooking pellets for $9.99 for a 20lb bag. The pelllets come in mesquite, hickory and apple. I am seriously considering buying this smoker. Any of you Traeger users have any info on how good these things cook? The info says it cooks from 180-375 degrees and it has a smoke only setting (cold smoker?).
Ken
Ken, I have a few friends that have Traegers and they love them. Tenpoint5 has one I'd ask him he seems to like it a lot. 499.00 is a great price and 9.99 a bag of pellets ain't bad either, I pay 12.00 for a 20 lb bag of Traeger pellets from my sponsor (BBQ team)
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B&B is the company out of Texas that makes our natural lump oak and mesquite charcoal and all our smoking wood chips, chunks and mini logs. These pellets are all natural with no additives or fillers, all wood. One bag was broken in shipment and has a pound or two missing. I will be taking that one home to play with on my grill and TBE. This grill is an exact clone of the Traeger, same digital readout and knobs and settings. I will have to look at the size again tomorrow to see if it is the size as the Lil Tex or the Texas grill. I know the barrel on it is 30 inches wide by 20 inches deep, so it is probably the size of the Lil Tex.
The grill is not online yet but here is a link to the pellets:
https://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopNavCatalogSearch?Ntt=pellet+grill&Ntk=All&langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&N=0&krypto=iCh8P1m15tXjVBH9QPcbcs%2Fl7ECvxFC%2F1S5m2lRDFcbgGQEy1SGicul6JCtVRZ%2Fi
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Ken, any idea when Huntsville will get an Academy Sports stroe? I hate the 25 + mile drive just for a few things I have to do now
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Ken, any idea when Huntsville will get an Academy Sports stroe? I hate the 25 + mile drive just for a few things I have to do now
The Huntsville/Madison area is definately on their radar. I would think it could be in the next 1-2 years at the rate they are adding new stores.
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Ken the pellets are a bargain !
The grill is basically a mechanized offset, eliminating the stoking, changing vents, adding wood chunks etc.
WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT :o
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Ken the pellets are a bargain !
The grill is basically a mechanized offset, eliminating the stoking, changing vents, adding wood chunks etc.
WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT :o
I know, it almost feels like cheating.
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Ken the pellets are a bargain !
The grill is basically a mechanized offset, eliminating the stoking, changing vents, adding wood chunks etc.
WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT :o
I know, it almost feels like cheating.
It's called getting a good night's sleep!
I have 2 Traegers and a MAK pellet pooper. Wouldn't trade them for the world. ;D
You won't get the heavy smudge/smoke like you would with a stick burner, but they are so so so easy to operate..
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Traegers are a really good entry level pellet grill. I love mine!
You can't beat the convection cooking and wood fired flavor food :)
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Thanks for the input. Now I have to figure out how to get past the Chief Financial Officer who says I can't buy any cookers until her Kitchen is redone.
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I gave my Traeger to 10.5
My MAK puts a hurt on any pooper out there.
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I gave my Traeger to 10.5
My MAK puts a hurt on any pooper out there.
I hear MAKs are killer grills only bad thing Kimmie would kill me If I even thought of buying one
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Word to the wise: You get what you pay for. If you buy this thing please don't judge pellet cooking by the results. There are some incredible, fantastically capable pellet cookers available but the technology is still expensive because the pellet share of the outdoor cooking market is still tiny compared to charcoal and gas.
If you have not cooked with pellets before, see if you can get some experience from a nearby pellet user or do some reading up. Fact: you can get great flavor and control on a pellet cooker but your approach and recipes will need to be adapted. This is a process, not an event. Also, if you like smoke as the only or dominant flavor in your cooking you might be disappointed. You have to learn how to instill smokiness with a pellet cooker and over-smoking is very hard to do.
If you were looking for a new gasser, $500 would get you a pretty good one. In pellet cookers $500 is extremely bottom of the line and even a quality used one in good shape will go for a lot more.
Hub
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Yikes, look at the price on this one!!
http://www.cookshack.com/store/Grills/Fast-Eddys-by-Cookshack-Pellet-Grill-Model-PG1000
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The info says it cooks from 180-375 degrees and it has a smoke only setting (cold smoker?).
180° would be too hot for cold smoking, but perfect for Hot-Smoking temp.
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The info says it cooks from 180-375 degrees and it has a smoke only setting (cold smoker?).
180° would be too hot for cold smoking, but perfect for Hot-Smoking temp.
The smoke setting on a traeger thermostat is a algorythm that ignores the cooker temp and times the pellets so that there are smoke cycles created. The average temp for these cycles is 160F to 200F depending on ambient temp, load in cooker, pellet type, ect. So in this mode the thermostat does not try to maintain a certain temp but a good amount of smoke is generated. You can run your cooking in this mode for the first couple hours to get some extra smoke flavor and then set the temp to what you want to cook at.
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The smoke setting on a traeger thermostat is a algorythm that ignores the cooker temp and times the pellets so that there are smoke cycles created...
You can run your cooking in this mode for the first couple hours to get some extra smoke flavor and then set the temp to what you want to cook at.
Good info, and that's exactly how I use both the MAK and Stoven if want want more smoke flavor. Sometimes I'll even use it totally in smoke mode for hot-smoking bacon, sausage etc.
I guess my point was about the temps. 160°-200° is still too hot for cold smoking as it will cook the food as well as provide smoke. But that's the perfect hot-smoking range. Hope this makes sense!
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Word to the wise: You get what you pay for. If you buy this thing please don't judge pellet cooking by the results.
Agreed and well put!
I hear MAKs are killer grills only bad thing Kimmie would kill me If I even thought of buying one
Not if she saw the quality & cooked on one. Have your wife call mine. ;)
I'm not knocking anyone's grill. You know what your family budget can handle. But, like most working families, we don't have money to waste. We looked hard at different pellet grills before deciding on the MAK. The cost difference was easily justified by the huge difference in quality of materials and available options.
Still, the smartest thing I did was let her be the first one to fire up & cook on our 1 Star General. She was immediately sold!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J57imAAoFkQ/To5y1YcT_TI/AAAAAAAABpk/tr0N69G2kIk/s640/1STCOOK1.JPG)
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The info says it cooks from 180-375 degrees and it has a smoke only setting (cold smoker?).
180° would be too hot for cold smoking, but perfect for Hot-Smoking temp.
The 180-375 was for the grilling mode and it says it has a smoke only mode also. We got a memo that said we had to remove the thermometer that came with this unit and replace it with a thermometer we sell. When the assembler took it out the name on the thermometer was one of a well known pellet smoker manufacturer. Since we are selling this as an Outdoor Gourmet branded unit, we could not have their name on it.