The guy that got me into pellet smokers has a traeger and he is one xxxx of a cook.  My first was a gmg dc and that thing puts out awesome food.  Build quality is considerably better than any traeger I’ve handled but some of that perception may be due to its small size.   

My newest addition is a Yoder.  I know I can get good food off a traeger but honestly they are pretty darned expensive and just don’t feel like quality.  At $800 it needs to not only cook good it needs to look and feel good to use.   I went Yoder and just looking at it makes me smile. 

With the traeger it feels like $50 in stamped tin and a $20 dial controller set on top of a wobbly cart that couldn’t possibly have been made any less sturdy.  The gap in build quality between an $800 traeger and a $1200 Yoder is waaaay more than $400. 

In short the traegers look and feel wildly overpriced.  Wait for gmg to do their Black Friday deals and get a nicer built smoker for a bit more than half the price of the traegers.  Heck if gmg were in Home Depot I’d bet they would outsell traeger 10-1. 


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Traegers, Why do many dislike them?

there are several reasons for this

first is the Traeger Owners.
with Traeger being the most popular pellet grill in existence (xxxx,  they sell them in Costco),  they have the most pellet grill owners (and many of them being new owners).  This means you get the most "Rookie" mistakes/questions being constantly repeated in any social group, and some find this frustrating

another reason,
Build Quality
Traegers used to be built here in the US (Mt Angel, Oregon I believe) they were physically heavier then the current Chinese made ones
as well as with the total number of units they produce,  you will see a lot of complaints (even if they are a small percentage of units)

many people believe that Traeger spent too much time living on their reputation (being the first and only brand of pellet grill widely available) and not staying innovative (this seems to be changing)
since Traeger made a unique product (10-20 years ago),  they didn't have a lot of competition
now that there are many many pellet grill producers around,  there is lots of competition for the consumer's hard earned money.  this is encouraging pellet grill producers to come up with better and more innovative products (factory PID controllers, stainless steel parts,  etc...)

lastly,
Hater's gonna Hate
they hate us because they ain't us

I own three Traegers. The first pellet grill I ever owned, bought new from Costco , a Traeger Junior.   The second, a Traeger Texas ( Chinese made, 2010 vintage ), that I bought used at a reasonable price.  The third is a PTG that I bought used for dirt cheap ( $50).   The Junior has wild temperature swings,  when trying to cook bellow 225F on a summer day, sometimes the fire will go out and then keep feeding pellets into a firepot with no flame ( flameout ).   Even at 225F on up toward 250F, temperature swings are +/- 30F or worse.     The Texas has similar issues, but does maintain 225F more consistently , still +/-25F is not uncommon.   The PTG has auger tube fires on a regular basis, and is more or less too small too cook anything lager than a half a chicken on.

 In short, while my Traeger grills have served me reasonably well, they are NOT very good grills  for temperature control and at worse the flameout issues are darn near a good enough reason to just take them to the scrap yard.   Unless I were to see some major design improvements and see real users clearly stating that the major temperature swings were gone, I will likely not ever buy another Traeger.  I think they sat on the name recognition for far too long, and have been too slow in improving their product line.   Other less expensive grills are available today that work as good or better than many of the outdated Traeger line up.   

So, that's my love/hate relationship with my Traegers in a nutshell.

So, that's my love/hate relationship with my Traegers in a nutshell.

Looks like I responded a few times at the onset of this thread in 2017.  I finally did upgrade.   It wasn't due to performance.  I have similar performance now on the Gator, but I have double the capacity and ... every time I go to Home Depot and Costco I cannot help myself but to go look at the Traeger display, often times with the sales guy there to answer questions.  The metal is so flimsy.  Frankly I believe Traeger performance will be fine (I don't direct sear) but longevity of the Traeger is what finally did me in.  I had replaced just about every part that can be replaced and was about to replace my lid when I realized I'd just about bought myself a new pit $$$.   I still have my Texas and plan to keep it.   Ultimately Traeger was the best purchase of my cooking life, but Traeger doesn't stand for high end or quality or longevity.

There it is a bunch of contradictory love/hate feelings.

DK

Lil Tex was my initial pit.  Worked well, but was a little flimsy in construction.  Agree they started the whole thing but as stated above, they let the industry pass them up.  There are several manufacturers that make similar units for a lot less money as well. I used mine for 2 years, passed it on to my son who used it two more. It never failed, but the temps were erratic because of the controller.  They are in the process of building more advanced units but I feel their prices are not competitive.