Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Quadman750]

 With me it was a total accident, I walked into a hot tub store just killing time looking at barbeques and walked out with the Memphis Elite. That salesman had me sucked in right away.  I liked it so much I had to buy a second one for high heat grilling. What's your story?

[Bar-B-Lew]

I first found 1# bags of pellets in different flavors at Walmart on markdown in Sep/Oct timeframe.  Used to use them in tin foil or a smoker box in my Webers.  When I ran out, I found them by the 40# bag on samsclub.com.  When I ran out of those, I found out they were made by Traeger.  I then found out about this thing called a pellet grill.  Found a local dealer in Northern IL who let me borrow a Traeger Elite for two weekends over an Easter weekend.  I cooked for the whole neighborhood.  I bought a Traeger XL from him.  Somehow I stumbled on a forum about pellet cooking.  They had some performance tests.  I then bought a Memphis Elite.  Read some more performance tests, and bought a MAK 2 Star.  Guess I've been cooking on these things for 6-7 years now. 

[pmillen]

I went into a grill and fireplace shop to show a friend an infrared grill that has a thousand tiny flames below the meat.  The salesperson showed me a GMG and raved about it.  I landed on pelletheads.com by Internet searching. 

I read several performance tests and "Tips and Tricks" sections from the oldest to the newest in an attempt to determine which pit best fit what I thought my needs were.  I finally settled on my choice and bought it.  It was about $1500.  If Marcia could have picked it up she would have hit me over the head with it.

The fact that we've been married 53 years is a testament to her willingness to forgive. 

I'm about to test it again.

[Quadman750]

Just think if Bentley got commissions on all the pits sold because of all the performance tests he did. Bentley I think you would be a very rich dude.

[Kristin Meredith]

Just think if Bentley got commissions on all the pits sold because of all the performance tests he did. Bentley I think you would be a very rich dude.

Yeah, instead it was money out of our own pockets for meats, pellets and electricity.  Bent even delivered several pits for free to folks that got them using his own gas money. Wish I could say that the meat went to us, but we don't really eat much brisket, pulled pork or even pork ribs any more, so a lot of stuff went to work.  I had very happy co-workers though.

[Quadman750]

I may just have to apply for a job there.

[Trooper]

Well I just covered most of this in the Get Introduced section, so take a jump over there and get caught up with my comments.

[Bobitis]

A few years ago we had a give-away at werk for a Traeger Jr. I'd not heard of them till then.

I was getting tired of babysitting my WSM, and started some researching. This was about 4 years ago, and the number of smokers were few (in my price range). I took the plunge on Amazon, and haven't looked back.

 

[Queball]

I tried for years to smoke stuff with a gas grill but it wasn't the real deal. One weekend I was invited to a barbecue for pulled pork. The guy had a stick burner and the pork he made was really good. I started talking "Cue" with him and he inquired if I had heard about pellet cookers, since he was tired of tending fires. Came home searched pellets and up came Bentley's PG500 test. I was instantly hooked! Sold a valuable guitar I had, and used some of the money to buy one. Have never looked back and have never been happier with my purchase.

[pmillen]

Sold a valuable guitar I had, and used some of the money to buy one.

Wow!  Huge gamble.  I've heard of hocing an axe for food, but this...

[Bentley]

I was at a friends wedding in 1997, the caterer was using Traeger 075's If you can imagine.  I was still drinking in those days, so I drank instead of ate.

But I had a Buddy that was so impressed with the food he bought one, then another.  Well, late that year I had some of Tommy's Dry Rub Baby Back Ribs...Still hard to say, but rigorist honesty and all that.  I have been competing for over 15 years, have a few 1st in Ribs and 3 Grand Championships in that time...and to this day, I have never had a better BB Rib!  The guy had been cookin BBQ for 2 weeks!

Bought my 1st Traeger in 2002 and here we are!

[riverrat49]

I accidentally stumbled onto a site with someone named Bentley and his performance test on a GMG DB, after checking reviews decided it was affordable and had some good features, two years later did my 1st competition with the GMG and haven't looked back since. 

[TLK]

I was designing an outdoor kitchen and really wanted a smoker to be part of it (not just sitting off to the side).  Pellet grill seemed like a better fit so I started researching and found the other site.  Eventually settled on the Yoder and the rest is history

[InThePitBBQ]

As a died in the wool stick burner I was looking for a faster alternative for home use, ate a chicken dinner prepared on a cheap pellet unit from Menards cooked with hickory pellets and it struck me as one of the best tasting half chickens I'd ever had.

I bought a Pit Boss, took it home and quickly learned I loved cooking with pellets but the quality wasn't what I was needing and the research for a serious unit began and I wound up reading Bentley's performance test threads and settled on the PG 500 and we love it!

After 30+ years of stick burning with oak and cherry it was a real treat to be able to start using hickory pellets, there's just something about the flavor profile that takes my favorite recipes to that next level stick burning never did.

[LowSlowJoe]

For me, it was at a Traeger road show, at Costco, around 2011 or 12...   It had been years since I had cooked with wood, I knew nothing about pellets, or pellet grills.   Bought a Junior a few days later, that was all I could afford...   Learned a lot since then, with the help of a lot of good folk, like those around here.