The thing about the FEC is that I have never heard about someone having a grease fire like most other pellet grills when someone switches from a low heat smoke with lots of grease to a high heat cook immediately after to sear or cook something else.  Others that own one can chime in on that.

The thing about the FEC is that I have never heard about someone having a grease fire like most other pellet grills when someone switches from a low heat smoke with lots of grease to a high heat cook immediately after to sear or cook something else.  Others that own one can chime in on that.

This is the PG1000 cut-away but the PG500 internally is the same.

The fire (12) isn't under the grease drip pan (19), so the old grease is never heated to its flash point.

That is the unit that I like.

The thing about the FEC is that I have never heard about someone having a grease fire like most other pellet grills when someone switches from a low heat smoke with lots of grease to a high heat cook immediately after to sear or cook something else.  Others that own one can chime in on that.

Agree, That is the genius of the design.   Clearly there are grills out there that are better at high temp grilling, similarly there are better smokers on the market, but I have yet to see anything that would convince me that there is a single unit that does both any better than the FEC.   If the goal is to have one unit to do everything, you simply can’t go wrong.

I have had my PG500 for two years and have never had to fiddle with anything. The zones are not confusing to me because I only smoke or grill and those zones work perfectly for either. It is simple, predictable, and very low maintenance. I could not be happier.

Can one of you FEC owners refresh my memory on the zones and what you cook in that zone typically?  I am again very intrigued by this grill and the price of only a few thousand can be feasible if I sell some things.

Lower Left - Zone #A -
Upper Left - Zone #B -
Upper Right - Zone #C -
Lower Right - Zone #D -

On the top shelf, I use upper right (Zone C) for vegetables while I'm cooking something on the lower right (Zone D).  Zone C will generally be roughly 20% hotter than Zone D.  Zone B will be even hotter.

• Zone A–
• Zone B– Baked potatoes while smoking something in D.
• Zone C- Asparagus or large tomatoes that I've stuffed with cheese after scooping out the pulp.  I pull them when they start to squat.
• Zone D-

If the grill was set at 250°, does anyone have documented roughly what each zones temp would be?

I do not believe there are any better PELLET (actually probably ANY) unit for grilling then the 500 or the 1000.  I guess I am about 11 years behind the times, and maybe several of the Manufactures have come up with grill options.  But the 500 & the 1000 were simply made for that.  And it is a flame grilled cook, not just heat.  So I would say there is no better grilling option on a PELLET GRILL, then those 2.  If a different Manufacture sees this and knows I am wrong, please send me a unit and I will Performance Test it and educate myself!

EDIT:  See https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=307.msg2448#msg2448

I don't own one but I did tour their factory and was very impressed with the quality of construction. Purely hand made of the finest quality material. Only consideration might be is whether the smoking areas and grilling areas are large enough for your needs. As direct area is about 10" x 18" and the smoking area is 18" x 18" (not including the upper shelf) If you add zone #3 that would be another 10" by 18" for smoking. (at higher temp then #4). I was not in the market for a new pit at that time-but still very impressed.

EDIT:  See https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=307.msg2448#msg2448

This is a very comprehensive and well done experiment of the temps within a given zone at specific controller settings.    At first glance I think it can be a bit confusing to someone not familiar with the grill because of using numbers to indicate the test probe locations instead of letters.  I gave this to my brother in law when he got his 500 and it just confused him, he asked me why there were so many zone 1’s, he was getting confused between zones and test probe placements.    After I explained it to him he understood, and loves his 500 which he got for Xmas last year.    It’s a helpful chart, but possibly adds to the “fiddly” misconception.

The current PG series controller is different from mine and from the date of the above chart.  As I recall there are now 3 temperature ranges that you can program the HHt and LHt for; 170-280°F, 285-350F and 355-600F.  The controller will automatically set the HHt and LHt to your saved setting when you set your desired temperature.  You can override the saved settings if necessary (i.e., for different weather or for different smoke production).

Not sure if already mentioned, but another advantage of the PG500/1000 is the way the smoke is routed. It's the only grill I know where the smoke exits below the grate level, forcing all smoke that was generated to pass over the food on the main grate. Most other grill designs have a drip tray blocking most of the smoke generated from below.

Looks and sounds like once you get your grill you should do grate temp measurements at those different preset values to understand temps on different zones of the grill.  From there, I suspect that they wouldn't change much after that so once you know your grill you should be in good shape to cook what you want where you want on the unit.  Thanks for all of the insight.  Now, I need to remember where this is, or ask Bentley to move some of this FEC stuff into a thread in the FEC section about learning that grill.