You are correct it was the Perfect Mix.  Sorry for the mistake.

hmm...I primarily use cookinpellets perfect mix and hickory.  Please explain your BTU issue a little more to help me understand what your issue was with them and which grill you are using them on.

Long story, originally started having issues with my Traeger Texas being able to get to 350 degrees, went through all kinds of troubleshooting, ended up vacuuming out the rust under the fire pot and it did get better, but not much.  This led me to purchase a MAK II Star as I do like to cook at high temp at times.  Low and behold my new MAK had issues getting over 400 degrees.  Phone calls to MAK, I wasn’t very happy as it was supposed to get up to 500.  Problem was resolved when I switched to a Lumber Jack Blend that had Oak in it.  Also I donated my Texas to work and they told me that Temp was not an issue, they had switched pellets. 

In no way am I trying to denigrate Cooking Pellets Perfect Mix as they work awesome for low and slow.  They are a great pellet but did not meet my cooking style needs.  Actually they cost me $3,000 on a new pit, which I love, so a huge thank you to Cooking Pellets.

Interesting. I have a 2017 MAK 2 Star with the new Flame Zone as well. The only pellets I have burned are the Perfect Mix. I have done a ton of higher temp cooking (450°) and have never had an issue hitting that temp. Are you in a freezing cold climate?

He was going for 500*+, many do not shoot for that high on a pellet rig so would not notice a slight BTU shortfall.  But that is where you will see any real btu differences show is that max temp region.

Gotcha! The only time I really need temps over 450° is for steak. That’s where the Weber kettle comes into play... 500°+ is child’s play on a kettle...lol.

I use "full" on my rec tec weekly.  steaks, burgers, dogs, chicken breasts, pizza..  Just picked up a bullseye a few weeks ago though, so the big dawg gets relegated back to low n slow now.  I will be experimenting with pellets on the bullseye to see what puts out the most heat.

You are correct it was the Perfect Mix.  Sorry for the mistake.

hmm...I primarily use cookinpellets perfect mix and hickory.  Please explain your BTU issue a little more to help me understand what your issue was with them and which grill you are using them on.

Long story, originally started having issues with my Traeger Texas being able to get to 350 degrees, went through all kinds of troubleshooting, ended up vacuuming out the rust under the fire pot and it did get better, but not much.  This led me to purchase a MAK II Star as I do like to cook at high temp at times.  Low and behold my new MAK had issues getting over 400 degrees.  Phone calls to MAK, I wasn’t very happy as it was supposed to get up to 500.  Problem was resolved when I switched to a Lumber Jack Blend that had Oak in it.  Also I donated my Texas to work and they told me that Temp was not an issue, they had switched pellets. 

In no way am I trying to denigrate Cooking Pellets Perfect Mix as they work awesome for low and slow.  They are a great pellet but did not meet my cooking style needs.  Actually they cost me $3,000 on a new pit, which I love, so a huge thank you to Cooking Pellets.

Interesting. I have a 2017 MAK 2 Star with the new Flame Zone as well. The only pellets I have burned are the Perfect Mix. I have done a ton of higher temp cooking (450°) and have never had an issue hitting that temp. Are you in a freezing cold climate?

He was going for 500*+, many do not shoot for that high on a pellet rig so would not notice a slight BTU shortfall.  But that is where you will see any real btu differences show is that max temp region.

Gotcha! The only time I really need temps over 450° is for steak. That’s where the Weber kettle comes into play... 500°+ is child’s play on a kettle...lol.

I use "full" on my rec tec weekly.  steaks, burgers, dogs, chicken breasts, pizza..  Just picked up a bullseye a few weeks ago though, so the big dawg gets relegated back to low n slow now.  I will be experimenting with pellets on the bullseye to see what puts out the most heat.

Look forward to hearing what you think about the Bullseye.  Looks like a neat pellet “grill”...

I’ve found that I can’t get over 400 using Lumberjack Mesquite Blend.

I’ve found that I can’t get over 400 using Lumberjack Mesquite Blend.

I would check my Grill.. That Blend is 60% Oak and 40% Mesquite, and I have no problem reaching 500 or above with it or Perfect Mix with my Danial Boone or Davy Crockett..

Yippee I have a local Lumberjack dealer now.  At least local enough.  It is about 28 miles away.  I am heading there tomorrow to get me some pellets.

I use perfect mix and never had an issue hitting 500...

I ordered 4 20# bags of the char/hickory blend pellets before the NewYear. I was hoping for more heat due to the fact they had 20% charcoal in them. What I have noticed is they heat up very slow and do not produce the heat of a solid hickory or oak. These pellets are very long in length and I believe that I am not getting enough into the auger compared to a shorter pellet.
Also on my 055 Traeger, the flame feeds down the auger and gets my hopper smoldering, smoke spews out of it while grilling. I cleaned out my grill each time and this has happened 3 out of the 4 cooks I have done with them. I cant blame the pellet yet since I have noticed my firepot is starting to deteriorate letting more air in and may be the issue. I have another Traeger I will be using these in to see if it happens on this model also.

This is absolutely contrary to my experience with Char Hickory pellets.  When I burned them, they very clearly had higher heat output... and while I could clearly smell the charcoal smell while they were burning, I personally did not notice any flavor that I could describe as better than 100% Hickory smoke produces.

  On my PG500, with a typical wood pellet ( lets say 100% Hickory, from LumberJack ) , if I run the grill at a constant feed rate , where the auger runs for 1.5 seconds, then turns off for 13.5 seconds, I typically see temperatures around 180F on a day when ambient temperatures are around 72F.     If I run LumberJack Char Hickory, at those same settings, with same conditions, I can't get my grill to run less than 225F. 

   So, I don't know exactly how you were trying to figure out if your Traeger got hotter or not, but your information is very different then my own experience with Char Hickory pellets...

Wow, those things are considerably larger


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I've never seen pellets that big.  Surprised there is not a jam in the auger.

That is the Winner for me!  Longest pellet I have ever seen...by a long shot!  That has to be 2 1/2 inches...

Those aren't pellets, they are twigs.

Are all of the char-blend pellets that long and can they be broken up?

I was planning on getting a bag, but I don't want auger problems.

The Charhick can have some long ones due to the composition of the pellet and how they are made. 

While it may not be a huge sample size I have sold over a ton of them and I have not had a single customer comment about an auger jam, I myself have burned probably 6 bags since the beginning of the year.  They work awesome in my bullseye.  Honestly speaking if you auger cannot cut a pellet then it needs to be replaced.  Even with shorter pellets your auger will have to cut pellets, they do not magically just drop into place as everything is moving, and the system should be designed to cut them so.