While thick walls are desirable for some types of cookers, they are not required in pellet smokers. As a guide, a pellet grill with a 40-pound hopper will give you around 40 hours of cooking time at standard smoking temperatures. Considering some cooks take around 20 hours, an 18 pound hopper, for example, is going to be problematic. This grill offers a generous 570 square inches of cooking surface plus a removable upper warming rack.
Despite its travel-friendly size, the Tailgater holds 12 burgers, two chickens, or three racks of ribs. While it doesn’t need as much fuel as larger grills to maintain its temperature, its 8-pound hopper will need refilling during longer smokes simply due to its smaller capacity. Ahead, learn more about what you can expect at this price point and find out which models are the best pellet grills under $500. The 440 outperformed some more expensive models in heating time, retention, and temperature recovery. The grill does have some hard-to-avoid hot spots, with the firebox adjacent to the cooking space and a heat shield that doesn’t cover the entire grill. We also noted some temperature dips during our long smoke test, about 50°F below the preset temperature.
Yes, it is pretty much maintenance-free (besides a simple cleaning of course), but when I first started using the Pit Boss, I was a bit surprised with how much food actually does stick. You will need to use a scraper to get food off the surface, and you may sometimes need to put a little muscle behind pit boss electric smoker it… don’t be surprised. We may earn a small commission through products purchased using links on this page. Free up precious space on your side shelves, making it easy to swap between tools as you cook. The pellet grill market is incredibly competitive, so there isn’t a lot of room between.
The grill has an LCD display for controlling settings, and we found its app quite useful. Connected to probes, the app let us monitor and adjust the heat, and it prompted us when the time came to turn the meat. Finally, the EX4 costs about as much as the average pellet grill, which makes it a great value overall. Speaking as someone who’s been voted most likely to dig a pit, build a fire, and slow roast meats on a spit on a random Tuesday, just because I can, and have, doesn’t mean I want to. Sometimes, I just want to grill some food quickly with the wood fire taste that’s unachievable with a gas grill. Sometimes, I want to slow-smoke food and control the level of smoke imbued without being tied to the pit for hours.
We were able to grill burgers with nice sear marks and cook chicken more slowly and evenly done throughout. Traeger’s versatile new flat-top propane grill features three burners to help create specific heat zones, with a heat range of 325 to 600 degrees to griddle, fry, pit boss flat top steam, sauté, and more. You want to invest in a griddle for the cooking experience, which is why this is an important feature that needs to be taken into consideration. You will find that the griddles have individual burners and more or less the same cooking system.
Right now, you can score it for 38% off—a total of $300 in savings. Pellet grills at the sub $500 price point have digital controls that allow the user to dial in a specific temperature, making them very easy to use. The hopper on a pellet grill holds the pellets the grill uses as fuel. Its capacity determines how long the grill can cook before you need to add more pellets. Hopper size significantly impacts ease of use, given that smoking certain types of food, such as brisket, can take 15 hours or more.
It’s also equipped with a “Flame Broiler” lever that produces heat up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, ideal for searing steaks and burgers. Deluxe models have a unique arched drip plate, (above), which is found on many Louisiana smokers. Attempting to create a hot sear zone, a small plate is used to slide over openings in the larger arched plate to open or close direct exposure to the flaming firepot. The idea of exposing foods to the fire pot is used by several brands of pellet smokers.