traeger, green mountain, or Louisiana?

[lamrith]

still trying to learn my gmg.  I love the set and forget ability for those long low and slow cooks.

What do you folks cook on yours, everything? burgers steaks etc?  How is the sear and pellet consumption?  mine goes thru a ton of pellets to reach and hold the high grilling temps, makes me wonder if keeping my propane would be more economical and faster to use for my burger/dog/steak grilling needs.

[undertoad]

What will you require of it? Grilling? Low and slow smoking? Roasting? Making pizzas?

I've cooked huge loads of food on a Traeger at least once a year, for the last decade or so. Personally, I would never buy one.

Why? Pellet grills generate all their heat by using a fan to blow over the pellets and make them burn hotter. The higher the setting on the fan, the less smoke you get. IMO, this is the great flaw in the design: You have to choose heat or smoke. You can't have both. Turn the switch up to 400 degrees, and it's just an outdoor oven.

Also, they do not get what I would consider hot enough.

I prefer a grill that separates the functions of smoke generation and heat generation. For my own patio, I chose a Chargriller Akorn Kamado-style grill.

http://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-16620-Kamado-Charcoal-Barbecue/dp/B00GJEPTJS#

I love it.

[blazenfish]

Man I love my gmg I have the blanket over it love I can adjust by 5 degree increments and when smoking on high heat I use a smoke tray with pellets in it.. same smoker tray I would use for cold smoke cheese mmmmm pineapple upside down cake pizza papa Murphys works wonderfully... freeze them and use cold smoke tray for 30 mins or so while it thaws moisture helps hold smoke in remove and turn to the loving 425 and cook as normal...

[lamrith]

What will you require of it? Grilling? Low and slow smoking? Roasting? Making pizzas?

"yes"  most of what I do is grilling, burgers/dogs/chicken

Love the features of the gmg, tall for bigger items, programmable cooking profiles, 5* increments for temps, easy to clean grease tray set-up.

But, I have burned 70# of pellets thru mine now, still trying to dial it in to do what I want.  Temps in mine are not what the controller is claiming which can make cooking problematic and not seeing the amount of smoke I expected from it.

I wonder if a Louisiana LG700 might have been a better choice since it has even higher temp and is set-up to direct flame sear.

[CoryTDF]

I noticed that the pellets went faster than I thought they would. I have used mine to do lots of deer and chicken. I even did a salmon on it. I was using a charcoal grill before this and i loved it but i am pretty sure i burnt through the charcoal much faster than the pellets. The searing is not really an issue for me i dont care about the grill marks. All in all I’m happy with it.  Did have a problem with grease leaking out the bottom but that was operator error and bad assembly on my part. Gas is great for those fast last minute things but the flavor is so much better with this new grill.

[lamrith]

Glad you are enjoying it Cory! 

Being my 1st, I am getting used to how pellet rigs run.

[haugenna]

One of the three that bought one with Lamrith and CoryTDF.  I had a traeger and am glad it is gone.  I enjoyed cooking on it but got tired of babysitting it and trying to smoke meat on a range of 160 degrees to 320 degrees.  No reason why it fluctuated the way it did.  The GMG is well ahead of traeger and I am glad I made the purchase.  Doing ribs on it this weekend.  I am not sure if it goes through pellets faster or is it because I have done ribs on it 4 times for 5-6 hours and I am using it more for longer cooks because I can with a better regulated grill.

[CoryTDF]

One of the three that bought one with Lamrith and CoryTDF.  I had a traeger and am glad it is gone.  I enjoyed cooking on it but got tired of babysitting it and trying to smoke meat on a range of 160 degrees to 320 degrees.  No reason why it fluctuated the way it did.  The GMG is well ahead of traeger and I am glad I made the purchase.  Doing ribs on it this weekend.  I am not sure if it goes through pellets faster or is it because I have done ribs on it 4 times for 5-6 hours and I am using it more for longer cooks because I can with a better regulated grill.

I was thinking that too. Though I have no basis of comparison as this is my first pellet grill. But I went from speed cooking on my gas grill to slower cooking with my charcoal grill and now super slow on my GMG. It stands to reason that the longer you operate the grill the more pellets it would use. Almost all my cook times have gone up as I now have the ability to slow cook without burning. The food has been fantastic!

[Whitpirate]

Trying to decide what GMG I want...

[lamrith]

Whit,
What sort of cooking do you do mostly, and for how many people?  What size grill do you have now and how full do you usually have it?  That will tell you want you need to get, the smaller you get the lower pellet consumption will be.

For me I had a big 4 burner gasser, but normally I only used 1/2 of it at most.  Once a year I would use all of it, was/is a challenge to know what grill I should get to make sure I had that once a year ability but not waste pellets.  Given I like to smoke two pork shoulders, or 3 racks of ribs at a time I went with the Daniel Boon from GMG.  It will fit two 8# pork butt with no problem, turkey in Nov will be simple, we have cooked large and family size papa murphy's pizzas, homemade pizzas and calzones, burgers.  Right now it has a 14# brisket on it.  It is their smaller of their full size 110v std grills.

They have the Davey Crocket, but that is very small designed for taking tailgating and use in RV's.  It does though also have the ability to flame sear, rumor had it that option is being worked on for the full size rigs.

I am over 80# of pellets now in almost 2 months.  But I did quite a bit of testing and running it high temp.  If you push a pellet grill to reach 400-500* they really really suck down the pellets.  I am considering selling my big 4burner gasses and old smoker and getting a small 2burner gasses for the burgers/dogs cooks so as not to waste pellets.

[Whitpirate]

What's a Boone set you back as it sounds to be the right size...

[lamrith]

I think if you want the fancy wifi boone they are $759, the normal units are $599.

[lamrith]

Might have line on one for you whit.  Sending pm.

[Mossy]

I noticed that the pellets went faster than I thought they would. I have used mine to do lots of deer and chicken. I even did a salmon on it. I was using a charcoal grill before this and i loved it but i am pretty sure i burnt through the charcoal much faster than the pellets. The searing is not really an issue for me i dont care about the grill marks. All in all I’m happy with it.  Did have a problem with grease leaking out the bottom but that was operator error and bad assembly on my part. Gas is great for those fast last minute things but the flavor is so much better with this new grill.

I have the gmg, my weber genesis, master built electric and weber gold and fyi, there's a need for all of them. Although I have no problem with grill marks and sear on my Daniel boone, my preference is a reverse sear. Throw a steak or tri tip on the pellet for some low temp smoke and finish it off on the gas genesis with a hot sear.

[CoryTDF]

Pulled Pork Pizza on the GMG!! Smoked the pork for 10 hours.

Pizza: assemble in order

Baked beans
Pork
Onion
Cheese
Crushed Red Pepper
Little more onion
BBQ sauce drizzle

I use the jiffy pizza dough. 3 boxes for this size.

Bake for about 20-25 min on 425