Pellet Smokers

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I do something like that on occasion to get a heavier smoke profile. Compared to an offset or charcoal cooker, a pellet cooker can have a much lighter smoke profile.

Tomorrow I’m cooking a pork loin on my Mak. I’ll start it in the “smoke” setting which is a temp range between 170 and 190. On smoke, the forced air fan runs extremely slow. After about an hour or so I’ll kick it up to 225 or possibly higher to speed up the cook.

To me, it seems to make the meat a little more smoky but I have never done a side by side comparison to a constant temp cook.

If you have the time Id be interested ti hear your opinions with your MAK. Is it a current generation with flame zone?

[omega9]

If you have the time Id be interested ti hear your opinions with your MAK. Is it a current generation with flame zone?

Yes, it’s a current generation 2 star general with the flame zone. Overall I really like it, build quality is better than the average box store pellet grill, but for the price it better be. I got mine during a forum group buy with about 20 other people so I didn’t have to pay full price. I have had it for about two years and everything I cook on it turns out great.

The flame zone works ok, but not as good as a dedicated searing station or gas/ charcoal grill. It take probably 30-35 minutes to go from ambient temp to 500 degrees, so be prepared to wait. I typically use the flame zone for chicken wings, burgers, or sausage. The elevated bumps with the holes for the flame zone can be a pain to clean since you can just run a scraper across it.

I love the cold smoke/ warmer box. I smoke cheese in it ever few months and everyone loves it. It also works well for keeping appetizers warm while waiting for the main course to finish.

If there’s any other questions you have just let me know. Good luck with your search!

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Very appreciative of any insights. Im a bit disappointed to hear that about flame zone both the time and the quality of the sear. On the group buy I assume this is forum related? Is it a good forum to review for general pellet grill info?
One a high note I picked up the last five bags of Kingsford pellets on clearance at Lowes today. $9 for a 20 pound bag.

Yes, it’s a current generation 2 star general with the flame zone. Overall I really like it, build quality is better than the average box store pellet grill, but for the price it better be. I got mine during a forum group buy with about 20 other people so I didn’t have to pay full price. I have had it for about two years and everything I cook on it turns out great.

The flame zone works ok, but not as good as a dedicated searing station or gas/ charcoal grill. It take probably 30-35 minutes to go from ambient temp to 500 degrees, so be prepared to wait. I typically use the flame zone for chicken wings, burgers, or sausage. The elevated bumps with the holes for the flame zone can be a pain to clean since you can just run a scraper across it.

I love the cold smoke/ warmer box. I smoke cheese in it ever few months and everyone loves it. It also works well for keeping appetizers warm while waiting for the main course to finish.

If there’s any other questions you have just let me know. Good luck with your search!

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I find it somewhat hard to believe that every little shop making these things is writing their own code, not to mention I'm not sure that's a good use of resources if you are. The fact that so many of these guys brag about it seems to me even more misguided.[/LIST]

Ive seen it multiple times in the electrical field, guys setting parameters on a device claiming they are “programming”.
If you’re not familiar with what they are talking about it sounds impressive, at least thats how I interpreted their actions kind of overstating their technical prowess in an attempt to sound more technically adept than they actually were.
Im wondering if something similar is happen with grill builders as programming drives is an Engineer level task.
Heres the instructional page for setting parameters from Fireboards website. This should rarely be a step the grill owner would take as all of this should be preset before the grill is shipped. More for the grill builder or a retrofit application. I havent had the opportunity to examine a Fireboard in person but if locking this page is an option I would think a smaller company building grills would lock it to keep an owner from changing the settings.
https://docs.fireboard.io/drive/settings.html

Blazing grills claims their controller is the only learning controller on the market but Im guessing MAKs is too. I believe Auber Instruments uses learning in their charcoal controllers and they have been around for some time. Instead of having fan drive settings they use a variety of fans with differing cfm. Im assuming about Auber they may have settings but I think theirs is a simple on off situation whereas Fireboard is possibly a more complicated variable speed drive application.
Lots of assumptions in this post Im not inclined to spend the time to really delve into it.

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My buddies Camp Chef SG smoker came in but he was out of town so I assembled it and did a trial run to get all the oil off. His son was helping me then I showed him dry brining on a couple of butts I picked up on sale a 9 & 7 pounder.
Then he made a double batch of Memphis Dust rub. We threw them on the smoker Sun am for a typical low n slow smoke at 225 with the highest smoke level. Wrapped in foil at 160 and turned smoke down to 1. I left about 4 that afternoon and both butts were within a couple degrees of each other close to 200. His dad was delayed so he put them in the oven at 170 until his dad got home. They had about a 3/4” smoke ring and an abundance of juice I assume resting in the oven at 170 for several hours helped. All in all it was a great experience for his son snd a fantastic first smoke.

There was one screw during assembly that had buggered threads I fixed that on a belt sander. The wifi hooked up easily during the trial run but couldnt get a good enough signal at the smoke to connect. That was a bit of a disappointment as I really wanted to check out the app. The wi fi at his house is weak I dont think it was a problem with the smoker.
All in all I really liked the smoker. The variable smoke setting is nice. I checked the smoker several times and temp was close enough. I would really like to see if the app has a graph for the smoke detailing pit and meat temps. Maybe next smoke.

I still want a double wall smoker. The pellet smoker made it super easy. I really liked that part. I know another guy who smokes a lot. He was part of helping Weber fix a lot of their problems with v1 of their pellet smoker and ran some experimental parts as a field test for them. Im going to be looking at those a bit closer. My main concern is parts availability in the future and I think you could count on Weber in that regard more than any other mfg. im no where closer to a final decision than when I started but I do have quite a few more smokers on my list than when this thread
started. Thanks for all the input.

Oh funny thing during the assembly his son told me “these washers are broken” . I was sure he was fucking with me but turns out he had never seen a lock washer. 😂

[scjbash]

The variable smoke setting is nice.

I've been experimenting with the smoke settings. This weekend I smoked NY strips with hickory and cranked it to 10. An hour or so at 185° got the steaks to 112°, then I moved them to the Weber which was preheated to 550°. One minute sear on each side brought them up to 122° and after resting they were 129°. I like them at 130° or slightly below so that worked out well.

An hour with the smoked setting on 10 was more than enough smoke using hickory. My wife thought it was pretty much perfect but I may dial it back to 8 or 9 next time.

[BobLoblaw]

I've been experimenting with the smoke settings. This weekend I smoked NY strips with hickory and cranked it to 10. An hour or so at 185° got the steaks to 112°, then I moved them to the Weber which was preheated to 550°. One minute sear on each side brought them up to 122° and after resting they were 129°. I like them at 130° or slightly below so that worked out well.

An hour with the smoked setting on 10 was more than enough smoke using hickory. My wife thought it was pretty much perfect but I may dial it back to 8 or 9 next time.

I did basically the same thing with some T bones at 170 for about an hour then seared but my wife said between the salt and smoke, it was just too much. I plan on dropping the smoke down to 5 for the next batch of ribeyes. I'm also considering smoked compound butter on some filets, smoking a tri tip like a brisket, and trying to incorporate some smoke into a 24-36 hr sous vide chuck steak.

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I did basically the same thing with some T bones at 170 for about an hour then seared but my wife said between the salt and smoke, it was just too much. I plan on dropping the smoke down to 5 for the next batch of ribeyes. I'm also considering smoked compound butter on some filets, smoking a tri tip like a brisket, and trying to incorporate some smoke into a 24-36 hr sous vide chuck steak.

Did you sear on the smoker or something else?

[BobLoblaw]

Did you sear on the smoker or something else?

Sidekick BBQ box. FWIW, cast iron pan on the sidekick is better. I was a little worried about deforming the BBQ box though (that burner is impressive). Unless I make hot dogs or burgers, the BBQ box might be permanently shelved. Seared crust > grill marks

[rob_s]

Seared crust > grill marks

I totally agree.

I use alumigrates on my Weber, and I keep half of them flipped over so the flat side is up for burgers and the like. such a great crust!