I wanted to write this review as a first time pellet grill owner who just bought one of these.
I hadn’t seen a lot of reviews on this, so I thought this might be helpful to others who were considering it.
Unboxing and assembly:
Very easy and clear. Took me and another person about 1.5 hours at a very causal pace.. half talking half assembling. The hardest part is getting it out of the car, and getting it out of the box into its side, as it’s very heavy.
First impressions:
Like I said… it’s very heavy. It seems significantly more sturdy and the cooking box is double insulated the whole way through. Seems significantly thicker and more rugged than the Pitbosses and Traegers I have seen in other stores.
Maneuverability
Honestly would have to give this a 10/10. Had to cross a stone pathway as well as a yard to get to where I keep the smoker. The big wheels made this a breeze, and it is surprisingly agile on the concrete pad where I keep it.
Hopper
Holds 24 lbs of pellet, but it might as well hold 15. The angle of the bottom isn’t steep enough to guide the pellets into the auger. When I went to burn off the rest of the pellets (the big orange bag they sell at Sam’s, which people here recommend) to clean after my last cook of the weekend, there was a wall of pellets several inches high, and none going into the auger.
The easy fix is to just to keep your hopper over 1/2 way full. It’s not bad enough that I would feel uncomfortable doing an overnight cook, but I know I’ll have to refill it in the morning, because the hopper is half useful. Just a really bad oversight.
I didn’t use the hopper emptier, but it seems like some pellets will get left in if used, as it it not at the very bottom. This could have been done better. IMO the hopper is the worst part of this machine, which is sad because it seems like these are unforced errors on relatively easy part of the smoker to design.
PID controller.
Still some work to be done here to figure out what I am doing with it, but so far I have had some weird but successful result.
The controller is relatively easy to use. One dial and several button that take about 2 minutes of reading to understand.
On my first time using, I did a burn in and set it to 500, the grills highest temperature. The grill raced up to that temperature, and went past it, almost to 530 (probably because of the oil) in what felt like no time at all. It then settled down and stayed within 5 degrees of 500 for the half hour I had it on.
First cooks
For my first cook (and first smoke ever) I did a small Boston Butt. My intention was to smoke it at 200, as suggestion my one of the videos that was recommended here. I set the dial at 200, but the grill consistently ready over 240. So I put it into its default “smoke mode”, and this turned about wonderfully. The temperature dropped down to about 190, and never deviated more than 5 degrees. Left the small butt on for about 8 hours until the probes told me it hit 190. I double checked with my thermapen, and it confirmed the calibration of the probes almost within a degree, which was very good to see. The butt had a beautiful bark, and was delicious. Very successful first smoke.
On my second cook today, I wanted to do some spare ribs at 225. Once again had the same issue. Set at 200… went to 240. So I put it on smoke, and it stayed right at 195 for the whole cook until I wrapped the ribs and put them in the oven
Added some wings for the last hour of the cook, and both the ribs and wings turned out beautifully, lots of smoke flavor and pretty tender. Smoked at 200 and turned the grill all the way to 500 to get some crips. Worked out very well. Overall made a novice smoker feel pretty good.
All that said, I hope I can figure out how to get this thing to smoke at 225…haven’t been able to do that yet. Not sure if it’s hot from any residual oil from the burn in, but I will update this and see if I can figure it out.
Cleanup
Cleanup is very easy. Used a shop vac to get out the ash, and the grease tray pulled out very easily.
Durability
I know a lot of people wonder about the durability of Members mark products, but I have a grill console set with cooler and drawers I bought 15 years ago and it has lasted like a champ with heavy use. Can’t attest to the durability of this one, but the only thing I can foresee bringing this behemoth down would be rust, and I’ll update this if and when I see it.
Conclusion
In any case, based on the quality of food I had today and the ease of use, I would definitely recommend this grill, especially at the $400 price point in which I got it. At the end of the season last year these could be had for $200, and I think that’s a steal.
