The Delivery By Date / Estimated Delivery Date for each product is shown beneath the ‘Add To Bag’ button on that products page. Additionally, once opened, use the opened bag of pellets first before opening the next one. Bags of pellets that are opened and unused for an extended time will become oxygenated. The compression of the sawdust releases natural substances within the wood.
This even heat and wide temperature range leads many to use pellet grills as smokers, as items can be placed in there and allowed to smoke for hours at a time. In addition, compared to either a gas grill or charcoal grill, pellet grills can provide an easier and more controlled way of smoking. Just remember to clean your grill properly to ensure the pit boss flat top flavors stay great. A pellet grill’s rack space determines how much food you can cook at one time. Small portable models have under 200 square inches of cooking surface, enough for a few burgers or a small rack of ribs. Full-size pellet grills have up to 1,000 square inches of rack space, which fits several racks of ribs, chickens, and pork butts.
This was one of the reasons I bought this grill, and so far, Pit Boss cannot keep their promise from the advertised Specs of the grill. Before I began typing this review, The display changed from displaying the grill temp and Probe temps, to displaying a bunch of nonsense. pit boss pellets I know practically everyone had that problem, and when I called support, they had no fix. I sure hope something can be done about the problems with this app. As it stands, I cannot trust the app to provide me up to date info if the app keeps wigging out.
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. The Ironwood 885 performed well when searing and baking, providing even, consistent heat across the whole cooking area. However, we noted that the grill performed just average in the smoking test even though it contained a ‘super smoke’ setting — a bit disappointing considering its high price point.
For both, connectivity packages that allow you to monitor temperature from your phone can be very useful. Pit Boss knows that the digital age requires monitoring of cooking times with our cell phones. You can purchase the Pit Boss Controller, allowing your grill to speak to your smartphone via Bluetooth. Once you download the Pit Boss app (available for Android and Apple platforms), you can digitally control aspects of your Pit Boss smoker from afar. Moisture may have created a toxic habitat within the pellet, potentially housing mold or fungus. Using heat pellets rather than food-grade wood pellets will not only worsen the taste of your food, but also make you sick.
We took 5 wood pellet grills under $599 and put them head to head in over 20 categories to determine which wood pellet grill is the best buy at that price point. While the Z Grills 700D ($500 at Home Depot) offers consistent heat, making it suitable for baking or smoking, its upper-temperature limit of 450°F doesn’t translate into a good sear. The Char-Griller Wood Pro Pellet Grill ($500 at Sportman’s Guide) also had a maximum temperature of 450°F, so searing was a challenge. We found multiple hot spots throughout the grill, and temperatures fluctuated during cooking. It doesn’t offer the bells and whistles of app connectivity or a range of temperature controls, most notably. It does outperform more expensive models in the smoking tests, though it doesn’t excel at searing.
The grill comes in at just under 50 pounds so you won’t feel like you’re lugging a bag of bricks to the campsite, the picnic table, or the parking lot for gameday tailgating. It has two metal side handles so you always have an easy grip as well. If you want to monitor temperatures on the go with probes, Pit Boss included one meat probe with your purchase. Unsurprisingly, there is no WiFi connection due to its focus on portability.
Remember that rack space a pellet grill lists may include a warming rack and upper rack, as well as the main cooking surface. You can smoke meat on the go with the Traeger Tailgater 20, the best portable pellet grill we tested. It weighs just over 60 pounds, making it easy to move around, and according to our team, the collapsible, fold-up legs make moving from ground level to a truck bed fast and easy. This solid Traeger grill brings most of the functionality of larger models to a mobile form. With digital controls and app connectivity, it reaches set points quickly (hitting its maximum temperature of 450°F less than 14 minutes) and retains heat moderately well. Despite its travel-friendly size, the Tailgater holds 12 burgers, two chickens, or three racks of ribs.
As you can see, there is more to smoking the perfect meat than just firing up a grill and turning the temperature to low. It’s simple enough to enjoy, but complex enough for you to formulate a perfect blend of flavors, temperature and protein type. Additionally, smoking wood pellets are safe as long as they have been adequately stored.