As Jimsbarbeque said, don't forget about the used market.  That's where I got my P&S from at a VERY good price.

Now the Recteq RT-700 and the Blaz'n Grid Iron are on my short list. This decision isn't getting any easier.

I like that the Recteq has a lot of stainless in sensible places. It's relatively cheap too. They claim their shutdown cycle blows most of the ash out of the burn cup. Can anyone confirm or deny?

I like that Blaz'n is double-walled and has a slide-out firepot for easy cleaning. That black cherry finish is pretty, too. But by the time I add all the accessories I would want, it pushes the cost up to within spitting distance of a Maverick 1250.

Hmmm.....

I live near Parker, so if you want to check out a Blaz'n Grill or a Yoder, you could swing by the house sometime. Near Lincoln & Chambers.

I also recently just bought a ton of Smoke Ring pellets and would be happy to sell you some at my cost.

I'm also in Parker, near Motsenbocker and Main. Small world. I may take you up on that if I can convince my wife to go along with this.

My first was a rec tec, if you want to grill, this is not the one to go with. You would be better off with a pit boss with the sliding tray or the camp chef. When I was looking to buy it they told me would grill just as well as a gas grill. 5 years later when I needed a controller I was talking to the RT guy and he said yea they are not great for grilling. Wish I had talked to him 5 years earlier. I had grill grates also.

I love my Maverick 850.  It holds temps within a few degrees and seems like it uses less pellets than the GMG did.  I got the two piece drip tray and haven't tried searing on it yet.  And if the wind blows the pit off your porch, you're in trouble.  It is very heavy. 

I had the wifi on the GMG and seldom used it.  You can always get a Meater thermometer when they're on sale and do the same thing.  It will show meat internal temp and grate temp on the app.  The downside is it kills the battery on my phone very fast.  I think it's because of having to have the location services turned on.  I only use it with briskets and pork butts.

I have a few questions about the 850, if you don't mind. It looks like the internals are all uncoated steel. Is that right? Is there any rust concern with that? Seems odd that they would powder coat the exterior and leave the interior bare.

Do you feel like it's big enough? It's really hard to find info on that specific model, because everyone seems to opt for the 1250 instead. The pictures make it look dinky, but then the 1250 looks enormous. If you were called on to grill for a BBQ hosting 20 people, could you do it in one batch?

How often do you have to vacuum it out? Is it a pain?

As for wifi support, I agree that it's very nice for monitoring temperature probes. I have a Weber iGrill (not wifi, but bluetooth) for that purpose that suits me well.

My first was a rec tec, if you want to grill, this is not the one to go with. You would be better off with a pit boss with the sliding tray or the camp chef. When I was looking to buy it they told me would grill just as well as a gas grill. 5 years later when I needed a controller I was talking to the RT guy and he said yea they are not great for grilling. Wish I had talked to him 5 years earlier. I had grill grates also.

What about it makes it unsuited to grilling?

My first was a rec tec, if you want to grill, this is not the one to go with. You would be better off with a pit boss with the sliding tray or the camp chef. When I was looking to buy it they told me would grill just as well as a gas grill. 5 years later when I needed a controller I was talking to the RT guy and he said yea they are not great for grilling. Wish I had talked to him 5 years earlier. I had grill grates also.

What about it makes it unsuited to grilling?
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Mine would not go over 435 I could set it at max and let it run for an hour+ I called they sent parts, the parts sent were much quieter than the originals. But no different, then they had me taking pictures and sending, the fan is not deep enough in the hole, you need to get under there and bend the legs to set i deeper. I get under it and beat the xxxx out of it with a hammer and 2x2 sent them more pictures they said that looks great, I said it didn't change any thing. we ran tests and I timed and we tested and I timed, and go no where. they were not sure, and by that time they had messed me around just long enough to pass the 30 day return window. My help to over come my issues had pretty much dried up as it was mine now.

 There is no open flame so and not getting hot enough or quick enough made it not great. Most units that work well to grill have a system to allow you to direct grill,, like sliding drip pans or something of that nature. think about your gas or charcoal grill, are you going to light one side or set up the hot coals on one side and grill on the other? No you are going to grill over the direct heat source.

 I learned to use mine to its limitations, low temps cooks, and highest temp would be 350 maybe 375. I did put a faster auger motor in that helped but still could not max out the temp at 500 in under and hour. So for me pretty much no high temp grilling and little to no smoke flavor using their pellets, left me less than thrilled with my easy bake oven. I bought a little GMG it was a far better cooker than the rec tec ever was both from high temp cooking to smoke flavor. The RT was a $1300+ mistake for me.

I'll bring up Yoder again, to keep you in the right direction.

I'll bring up Yoder again, to keep you in the right direction.

Yoder is actually one of the first grills I ran across when I was starting my research. I was willing to overlook its homely looks (subjective I know, but I think they're ugly) because it looked super cool. Then I started looking at what people were saying about them.

All I could see were two camps: people who were over the moon about theirs; and another, equally large, group whose smokers were constantly rusty, who didn't like the controller, who said the heat was uneven. Some of the folks who love theirs admit the rust issues, but dismiss them because they are willing to sand and paint on a regular basis. I know myself, and I know that I wouldn't keep up with that, and my grill would just rot.

IIRC Yoder paints their grills instead of powder coating because a damage paint finish is easy to repair, whereas a powder coating is beyond the abilities of many to fix should it be damaged. Fair enough, but the result seems to be a lot of rust for a lot of folks.

It is very easy to talk oneself up the price ladder. As I looked more and more at Pitts and Spitts, I started worrying about the uncoated carbon steel interior. If I'm spending that kind of money on a grill, I want it to last as long as possible. So then I start looking at the all-stainless versions...

...which puts me in the price range of a MAK. I had mostly been ignoring them because they seemed like a poor value for the money, and I wasn't willing to spend $3k on a grill. But it's hard to ignore the vociferous hordes of MAK owners who love their grills. I have never read a single bad thing about them. And they look super nice...

...or, if I can't convince the wife to go along with that kind of expenditure, I could get the Camp Chef and resign myself to replacing it when it dies.

So I'm still looking at a trio of grills. Camp chef woodwind, Pitts and Spitts 850 stainless, and MAK 2-star. The MAK is frontrunner in my mind right now.

Thanks for all the advice and for putting up with my questions.

If you are in the price range of Mak you should look at the PG1000 of PG500. Mine 500 is a beast and grills great food as well with ease. If you want one that does both it's literally perfect. If I had the money I'd get the 1000.

If you are in the price range of Mak you should look at the PG1000 of PG500. Mine 500 is a beast and grills great food as well with ease. If you want one that does both it's literally perfect. If I had the money I'd get the 1000.

Respectfully, I'm curious why everyone is obsessed with Cookshack. I look at them and I just don't understand it. The subdividing into zones leaves limited space for a given task. The high heat zone is tiny, whereas on the MAK for example you can use the entire bottom grate to sear. The controller is non-PID (though, does it have a feedback loop with the thermostat? That's all I really care about, not the exact algorithm employed) and sounds like it has lots of fiddly settings, requiring experimentation, whereas on the MAK it's simple.

About the only thing I like better on the Fast Eddy is the pull-out ash drawer. IMO that (or something like it) should be standard on all pellet grills, but instead it's relatively rare.

I also don't understand why anyone would buy the PG1000 over the 500. They look like the exact same cooker, only the 1000 looks like a traditional grill whereas the 500 has this weird french door cabinet thing going on. And for that nicer form factory you pay almost $1200. Am I missing something? Because if not that's a lot of dough for not much benefit.

But I've just done (WAY too much) research on the internet, and no amount of that can substitute for actual experience. So, again respectfully, can you explain to me why I'm wrong?

I have several brands, but not a Cookshack.  From what I can tell, you will never get a MAK as hot as a Cookshack.  I do own a MAK.

> I look at them and I just don't understand it.

The different zones and complexities of the controller were the reasons I steered clear and bought a Memphis. However, after seeing folks here and on the old PH site explain how it works, how much food you can actually cook on it, and how simple it is to use, I realized I was a bit hasty. Knowing what I know today, I would strongly consider a Cookshack if I were buying again. I love the Memphis for smoking and even baking - but don't care for the way is sears and grills.

It is very easy to talk oneself up the price ladder. As I looked more and more at Pitts and Spitts, I started worrying about the uncoated carbon steel interior. If I'm spending that kind of money on a grill, I want it to last as long as possible. So then I start looking at the all-stainless versions...

When I got my P&S, it had surface rust on the inside of the barrel.  It looked like the guy had washed it out and let it sit with water in it for a while.  I brushed all the rust out and seasoned it with olive oil then did a burn in.  No sign of rust anywhere a year later.  Here's a link to the pics.  I need to add some more of how it looks now.  https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=4635.0

If you are in the price range of Mak you should look at the PG1000 of PG500. Mine 500 is a beast and grills great food as well with ease. If you want one that does both it's literally perfect. If I had the money I'd get the 1000.

Respectfully, I'm curious why everyone is obsessed with Cookshack. I look at them and I just don't understand it. The subdividing into zones leaves limited space for a given task. The high heat zone is tiny, whereas on the MAK for example you can use the entire bottom grate to sear. The controller is non-PID (though, does it have a feedback loop with the thermostat? That's all I really care about, not the exact algorithm employed) and sounds like it has lots of fiddly settings, requiring experimentation, whereas on the MAK it's simple.

About the only thing I like better on the Fast Eddy is the pull-out ash drawer. IMO that (or something like it) should be standard on all pellet grills, but instead it's relatively rare.

I also don't understand why anyone would buy the PG1000 over the 500. They look like the exact same cooker, only the 1000 looks like a traditional grill whereas the 500 has this weird french door cabinet thing going on. And for that nicer form factory you pay almost $1200. Am I missing something? Because if not that's a lot of dough for not much benefit.

But I've just done (WAY too much) research on the internet, and no amount of that can substitute for actual experience. So, again respectfully, can you explain to me why I'm wrong?

The PG1000 is insulated, and I *believe* is a different grade of stainless steel.   The truth of the matter is on any of the grills is that the only real searing you are going to be doing is the area right over the fire pot, so while the other grills may seem to offer more area vs the PG 500/1000  for searing it’s just not so IMO.   You are hung up on them being fiddly with both the zones and the controllers and they absolutely are not, there are no diffusers, drip tray exchanges etc to go from smoking to searing, just turn up the temperature and you are ready to go.   The controller has the ability to be fine tuned, but it absolutely does not need to be, especially with the newer software that they are using.    The zones are pretty self explanatory, but for the most part I use either zone 1(direct)  or 4(indirect) using 2 and 3 sparingly mostly to throw some veggies in while the meat is cooking.    Getting back to why anyone would buy a 1000 vs 500, I have the 1000 because I got a smoking dealing on it, but I wouldn’t spend the extra money on it knowing what I know now.    It holds the heat too well during the summer and can be tough to maintain temperatures of less than 225*.    That said, I would not hesitate to spend the money on the 500.

So, to summarize, the FEC is the best around at direct flame grilling. Right?

I need to reemphasize that I really am far from a master griller. I have so far been pleased with my Camp Chef SmokePro's ability to grill. On high (which is somewhere between 400 and 500 depending on outside temperature, wind, etc.), I get grill marks on chicken and burgers. The food tastes great. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing?

I've been reading Meathead Goldwyn's book, and he rhapsodizes about the magic of a good sear. So maybe I'll try finishing on a cast iron skillet inside the house one of these days. And if I end up with a MAK, I can get sear grates for it. The results look pretty good from where I'm sitting.

Back to your question about RT 700 clearing its ash from firepot: Don't have experience with the 700, but the 590 and B380 seem to keep the ash down to allow all the perforations to allow full air flow.  Now as for searing, while I was satisfied that the 590 with GrillGrates has temps on FULL near 600* and sears very well. Since you are looking for a smoker that will clock 500*, the 590 set on 500 will get you there in about 24 minutes on an average ambient temp day. If you set it to FULL, it will get you to over 500 in about the same time, (faster feed). I have had it up to 540 or more without the GG's installed.