Tanner Rydalch – Man Scouts

I have been the blessed recipient of many great home cooked meals, both in my native Idaho, and my two year sojourn in Georgia. During that time, I was often treated to a smoked meat slowly heated for hours, priming the flavorful juices of brisket, pork, roast, and many others one hour at a time. Many others may have had similar experiences to mine, and are left wondering if they should acquire a pellet grill of their own to smoke their own delicious meats. One brand of pellet stove in particular is very well known in the smoking community: Traeger. A great company known for great products, Traeger has made a name for itself, but, being a name brand, Traeger tends to be more expensive than its competitors. This leaves many wondering if buying a Traeger pellet grill is worth the name brand cost. For those readers who are unfamiliar with pellet grills, they are a great tool used to slow cook food (usually meats) over several hours by burning small wooden pellets of various wood types, leaving your food of choice soft, juicy, and tender while imbuing it with a great smoky flavor (I’ve even seen tomatoes cooked this way, and it turned out great!). It is worth noting that pellet stoves in general tend to be pricey, but are well worth the additional cost. To make my judgement call, I looked at several different brands of pellet grills on www.homedepot.com, comparing and contrasting the capacity and reviews of Traeger grills against competitors of the same or similar cost marked as large. The names are as they appear on www.homedepot.com. First, a look at capacity and price. Grills in the $500-$600 range Traeger: Pro Series 22 Pellet Grill in Bronze Price:$599Primary cooking space: 572 square inches, fitting 28 burgers Camp Chef: Smoke Pro SG 24 WIFI Pellet Grill in Bronze Price: $599.99Primary Cooking Space: 811 square inches, fitting 40 burgers Grills in the $700-$800 range Traeger: Pro 575 Pellet Grill in Bronze Price: $799.99Primary Cooking Space: 575 square inches, fitting 28 burgers Camp Chef: Woodwind Wifi 24 Pellet Grill in Stainless Steel Price: $799.99Primary Cooking Space: 800 square inches, fitting 40 burgers Direct Wicker: Robinson Outdoor Wood Pellet BBQ Grill with Smoker and Digital Temperature Controls Price: $799.99Primary Cooking Space: 700 square inches, fitting 35 burgers Louisiana Grills: LG700 Pellet Grill with Flame Broiler Price: $799.99Primary Cooking Space: 707 inches, fitting 35 burgers Grills in the $900-$1000 range Traeger: Pro 780 Wifi Pellet Grill and Smoker in Black Price: $999.99Primary cooking space: 780 square inches, fitting 39 burgers Louisiana Grills: Champion LG900C Wood Pellet Grill with Smoke Box, Front Shelf and Grill Cover Price: $999.99Primary Cooking Space: 2309 inches, fitting 114 burgers Direct Wicker: Charles Wood Pellet BBQ Grill with Digital Temperature Controls and Smoker in Black Price: $939.99Primary Cooking Space: 700 square inches, fitting 35 burgers Broil King: Baron 500 Pellet Grill in Black Price: $999Primary Cooking Space: 560 square inches, fitting 28 burgers USSC: The Irondale USG890 Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker in Black Price: $995.24Primary Cooking Space: 595 square inches, fitting 29 burgers A look at this data reveals that for the same price that one may spend on a Traeger brand grill, they could get a grill of far greater capacity, even though almost all of the competitors that we looked at boast the same or similar features that the Traeger grills possess. Now, most people I know are not looking to slow cook one hundred-fourteen burgers all at once, but the trend is that one can get more bang for one’s buck by choosing one of Traeger’s competitors rather than the name brand itself. Traeger brand products almost across the board are very well reviewed. None of the Traeger grills I looked at were rated lower than four stars, with most boasting an almost perfect review rating. The large number of reviews present at Home Depot’s website reinforces Traeger’s reputation for being a great product. Many of the competitors we looked at though have similar statistics, just with much lower numbers of reviews-- like Camp Chef, but notably with Direct Wicker’s grills going unreviewed. It is also with noting, that Traeger has a product for just about anything that you may be up to, smoking wise, while other brands simply do not have that much variety. After looking at the information available to me though, I would choose to purchase a Camp Chef SmokePro DLX Pellet Grill. Boasting a nearly perfect review rating with over four hundred reviews at www.homedepot.com, it has a reasonable capacity for smoking, able to cook twenty-eight burgers at once, for four hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Traeger’s comparable grill comes with a price tag of one hundred dollars greater. Traeger simply isn’t worth the additional cost.