Pellet Grills

A motor tends the fire in a pellet grill. Compressed hardwood pellets sit in a hopper, an auger screw drops them into a small fire pot, a fan supplies air. A controller runs both to whatever temperature you dialed in.

What that produces is a wood fired convection oven. A good controller reads the chamber and adjusts feed rate continuously, holding within 10 to 15 degrees across a twelve hour cook, where a cheap on and off controller swings 30 degrees or more. Consumption runs near 1 pound of pellets an hour at 225 degrees and up to 3 at 400. A 20 pound bag covers seven to twenty hours. Heat reaches food indirectly by design, which explains why smoking is easy and searing is not, and why the whole machine needs a 120 volt outlet and quits mid cook in a power failure.

Offset smokers make heavier smoke and demand a log every 45 minutes across the same cook. Electric smokers hold temperature just as calmly using a chip tray instead of a wood fire, and they cost far less. Gas grills sear properly and smoke barely at all. Pellet sits between all three, which is both its appeal and its ceiling.

Beginners and overnight cooks gain the most, since a brisket can go on at 10pm and be watched through a probe alarm rather than from a lawn chair. Anyone hoping for one machine should think about steak, because most pellet grills stop near 450 to 500 degrees at the grate and need a slide plate or a separate sear zone to do better. Rule it out where outdoor power means running an extension cord across a wet lawn.

Judge the controller before anything else, then the hopper, where 18 to 20 pounds of capacity gets you through a night and a cleanout door lets you change wood flavor without emptying it by hand. An insulated body earns itself below 40 degrees, where thin steel makes the auger work overtime. Vacuum ash out of the fire pot every 15 to 20 hours of cooking, since a clogged pot can burn back up the auger, and keep pellets sealed and dry, because damp ones swell, crumble and jam the feed.