Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => recteq => Topic started by: Ross77 on July 20, 2018, 12:05:52 AM
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It looks very, very similar.
Home Depot is selling a Lonestar Chef Pellet Grill and it looks just like the Stampede with the old RecTec controller.
Even the instruction manual has recipes from RecTec.
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Not sure that is matters, the 680 was a knock off of the Treager Texas, I used treager front shelf and it bolted right into place. The current Wifi controller is what Treager has been using, just reconfigured a bit, when RT first put the APP out it had Treager recipes and links. It is quite possible that RT used a design the Chinese makes already had.
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I’ve never seen a direct copy of an instruction manual though. Sure some designs are similar. I just thought it was interesting.
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I'm curious just how much Rec Tec knew about this , before it went out for sale... To some degree, I don't think it's that surprising that the grill shape and such is directly duplicated, as I'm not totally sure how much if anything could ever be done about that... but seeing the manual with what are clearly Rec Tec recipes and such ( Ok, lets face it, it would appear to be a direct copy, with 'Rec Tec' replaced with the generic 'grill' )
It really does surprise me they so blatantly copied the manual too.
But who knows... maybe this was all done with full knowledge and cooperation of Rec Tec. Has anyone seen any official comment from Rec Tec on this issue?
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I'm actually surprised there's not a Bullseye type grill out there in brick and mortar stores yet...
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Interestingly there is a Lonestar propane thing that looks a lot like a matador.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
No way. A Chinese manufacturer would never do that. They are known for never copying things and then undercutting their customers. :rotf:
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+1!
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
Instead of tariffs, we should bar these rip offed items from making it to our markets and penalize any store that sells them.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
Instead of tariffs, we should bar these rip offed items from making it to our markets and penalize any store that sells them.
In a very round about way, the tariffs are a punishment for such things but more so related to digital technology.
However, I do see the other side of this. If there is no patent, it is open sourced design then and anyone can replicate it. Same can probably be said if there are no trademarks or copyrights.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
So what happens next, if anything. Do they cut ties and choose a different manufacturer to punish them, or stay the course. Do they offer parts for the knockoffs and cash in. This problem is with many items the US is having built overseas to max out margins or just to stay in business.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
Instead of tariffs, we should bar these rip offed items from making it to our markets and penalize any store that sells them.
In a very round about way, the tariffs are a punishment for such things but more so related to digital technology.
However, I do see the other side of this. If there is no patent, it is open sourced design then and anyone can replicate it. Same can probably be said if there are no trademarks or copyrights.
Except ripping off patents, trademarks and copyrights have never bothered the Chinese. And trying to enforce it in a foreign legal system that is going to ignore you or just let the company go out of business and re-form a day later as a "new" company is impossible.
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The owner of RecTec responded on FB and said the factory he uses has gone “rogueâ€.
Instead of tariffs, we should bar these rip offed items from making it to our markets and penalize any store that sells them.
In a very round about way, the tariffs are a punishment for such things but more so related to digital technology.
However, I do see the other side of this. If there is no patent, it is open sourced design then and anyone can replicate it. Same can probably be said if there are no trademarks or copyrights.
Except ripping off patents, trademarks and copyrights have never bothered the Chinese. And trying to enforce it in a foreign legal system that is going to ignore you or just let the company go out of business and re-form a day later as a "new" company is impossible.
You are correct. Not sure there is a solution to this other than to bring all manufacturing back to the USA and charge higher prices and be lucky to find enough people that want to work to come work for you. What is the saying...the devil you know...
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I don’t think this is patented but the blatant ripoff of the instruction manual is amazing. They kept all names of the recipes and RecTec rubs the same.
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There is also a copy of the smaller RecTec Trailblazer too.
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Now at Home Depot, the Rec Tec brand Bullseye kettle and the Matador are available.
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looks like Amazon is selling them also.
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looks like Amazon is selling them also.
They have been available on Amazon for quite awhile already.
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The Bullseye is $200 more than buying direct from RT.
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Yes, but there are impulse buyers that don't do their homework, or that have more money than they have sense, or are just not frugal shoppers The main deal is the exposure of the Rec Tec name and expanding their business.
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I am talking about the knock-off units.
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There is also a copy of the smaller RecTec Trailblazer too.
Considering the Trailblazer is nearly identical to a Traeger Junior, not sure how much of a issue a 'ripoff' of a Trailblazer is... I guess the folding legs are a bit different then the Traeger... other than that it's just material differences and controller.
Meanwhile, I'm not a lawyer... but I don't think there are patents on any of this stuff. Not sure how copyright gets involved either... other then possible the manual text. Although, I vaguely remember that you can't copyright a recipe...
Anyway, I assume that if there is anything that can be done, Rec Tec is doing it... Although in my mind, ( other then maybe the bull horns ), there's not really a trademark issue at all... Copyright might apply for the manual.
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More than anything it’s the copying of the instruction manual right down to the recipes. I’ve never seen it that blatant before.
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It isn't like it was Rec Tec's design, after all they copied their first unit and apparently the second. They went to the China folks and said we want something to fill in the gap in size between the 2 models we have, they were probably told/shown the octagon and said we have this and RT said that will work make the body in cheap SS, because people are whining about the paint peeling and rust. Now they will com-plain about discoloring.
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There were three things I saw with the Rec Tec that were different from anything before.
1. the horn handles
2. The hopper in the back (before only on very expensive pellet grills)
3 the controller was significantly different that what was on the lower end grills. Especially when it was installed on the shelf.
What I see now is copying #3 and possibly #2
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There were three things I saw with the Rec Tec that were different from anything before.
1. the horn handles
2. The hopper in the back (before only on very expensive pellet grills)
3 the controller was significantly different that what was on the lower end grills. Especially when it was installed on the shelf.
What I see now is copying #3 and possibly #2
Has this Chinese company copied the 'Bull', the one with the hopper in the back?
As for the controller... It's unclear to me, who developed that... or who was developed the firmware... PID is a fairly generic set of code these days, it's been around and used in a wide variety of applications.
FYI - Some have speculated that the new controller on the Rec Tec, was actually at least possibly developed by the same people as who did the controller on the Traeger Timberline. Some people have said that in early versions of the app used, it actually had Traeger's name somewhere in it... ( although I can't offer any proof of that being the case ).
Not sure if there is any aspect of all that that is copyrighted , or patented in any way.
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The bull is just a SS version of the 680, there is or was a German version of the 680.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2oHjL5c5Rw
A few cosmetic changes.
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As previously stated it’s the fact they photocopied the instruction manual from RecTec and swapped out RecTec with “grillâ€. I don’t know of many octagon shaped smokers except for Blaz’N and the Stampede.
I don’t think anything is patented.
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On the Home Depot website someone asked where these were made and this was the response from Lonestar Chef:
The Grills are manufactured in Jinhua City, ZHEJIANG Province in China by JINHUA XINAN ELECT.CO LTD. They are a long time manufacturer of Wood Pellet Stoves, Pellet Grills, Griddles, Kamado Grills, Infrared Heaters, Infrared Fireplace, Cooling Fans and Standing Desks. They have been an OEM Manufacturer for many years and are now introducing their own brands including LoneStar Chef, LIFESMART, WORK UP and Sonicool into the USA, Canada and Mexico.
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FYI - Some have speculated that the new controller on the Rec Tec, was actually at least possibly developed by the same people as who did the controller on the Traeger Timberline. Some people have said that in early versions of the app used, it actually had Traeger's name somewhere in it... ( although I can't offer any proof of that being the case ).
Not sure if there is any aspect of all that that is copyrighted , or patented in any way.
I don't know about Traeger, but I downloaded the App very early on to check it out (even though I didn't have the new wifi) and when you went to update the app, it would error out showing some Chinese text and information. I didn't pay much attention to it.
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FYI - Some have speculated that the new controller on the Rec Tec, was actually at least possibly developed by the same people as who did the controller on the Traeger Timberline. Some people have said that in early versions of the app used, it actually had Traeger's name somewhere in it... ( although I can't offer any proof of that being the case ).
Not sure if there is any aspect of all that that is copyrighted , or patented in any way.
I don't know about Traeger, but I downloaded the App very early on to check it out (even though I didn't have the new wifi) and when you went to update the app, it would error out showing some Chinese text and information. I didn't pay much attention to it.
Yes, well my point is... we don't really know who is exactly responsible for developing the code, or who owns the rights to the code... So, just because another grill uses a controller that looks identical, it's very hard for any of us to say who actually 'owns' the rights to use or sell it... It may , or may not be Traeger... and for that mater it may or may not be Rec Tec either.
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I always thought the RecTec controller was from Roanoke? Also used by Blaz’N. The new one I’m unsure of.
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Lifesmart was the company that had the bullseye on selling it back when it came out. Think they also had the disc cooker whatever they called it.
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I always thought the RecTec controller was from Roanoke? Also used by Blaz’N. The new one I’m unsure of.
They switched away to their own knockoff of the Roanoke controller a few years ago. The new controller is definitely not a Roanoke controller