I now own a Memphis. It is a well American made pellet grill that is all stainless, efficient on pellets, and goes from 180F to 600F without a problem. It did however cost much more than a Traeger.
But here is the thing. Memphis would have never got my business in the first place if it was not for Traeger. My experience with that little cooker sold me on pellet grilling. Before I could not imagine spending that much on a MAK or Memphis but after using a pellet grill for a year and wanting to "step up" it all made sense.
muebe, I guess I missed this in all of your posts and leadership here and other forums. How did you make the decision to pull the trigger on a Memphis? My Texas meets .... 80, 90% of my needs? I suppose I could afford it, but I'm like Don in wondering why I would do so. I met a Memphis owner a few weeks ago, he was ecstatic about his pellet grill. I don't think I'll be making the upgrade any time soon. Your feedback would be very much appreciated.
DK117
Well when I started looking at getting a new pellet grill I wanted something that lived up to that name "grill". So I started doing research and found that the Memphis fit this category nicely. With the top of the line model being able to reach 700F that really got me interested. I also felt like a very pellet efficient cooker will pay for itself in the long run in pellet savings. The Memphis also met this category. And after seeing regular steel powder coated grills that have their powder coating bubbling or flaking over time made me turn to stainless options. The Memphis also met that category.
Then after looking at the internals I really liked the design. The auger carries the pellets up a short distance to a small ramp where the pellets slide into the stainless steel firepot. I like this because there is much less chance of having the pellets ignite and burn back into the auger. Innovative and nothing like the Trager design. The hot rod is located just out of the firepot so it is not constantly exposed to heat and ash. I think this will result in trouble free ignition.
The fan is multi-speed and runs at low speed & bellows to create smoke/regulate temp at 180F to 295F. And at temps 300F and above it runs in grill mode where the fan runs at high speed. I like this automatic design myself. Makes it simple to use.
The controller is not as state of the art as MAK but it does a great job regulating temps. It has a built-in meat probe also that will lower the grill temp to 180F to hold the food once the set probe temp is reached. Hearthland spent a lot of R&D getting this controller dialed in and it does not disappoint.
The hopper is only 11lb capacity. It does not sound like a lot but in reality it does not need a huge hopper. I get 0.53lbs an hour consumption at smoking temps during overnight cooks. The hood is double wall and this helps with the low pellet consumption. You can put your hand on the hood while at smoking temps and not feel much heat at all.
The grease tray is located inside at the bottom of the cooker and slides out easily to be emptied. It is a nice design.
The grease tray(flavorizer) is thick gauge stainless.
Literally everything on this grill is stainless steel except for the controller and the wheels. And the fit and finish on this grill is phenomenal.
Those were my reasons for choosing the Memphis. Well I hope that answers some of your questions
