Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: triplebq on September 22, 2018, 05:38:54 PM
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https://pitboss-grills.com/media/traeger-founder-joins-pit-boss
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I'm a business guy, economist, MBA actually. This makes me sad. A long series of mistakes by Joe Traeger in the business world. I've got to respect the man for starting us all on this journey, but this is an incredible fall.
DK
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I'm just a dumb engineer but I suspect that he sold his business for a large profit and is capitalizing on his name recognition for even more gain. :2cents:
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I suppose you've just reinforced my point. You engineers are infinitely smarter than the business guys. Yet like Joe Traeger, miss the nuances of the business world. Why would he be working for Danson if he cashed out for a large profit? Seems his family still needs an income. (son too.) For the guy that started this whole thing, it's an epic fall from grace.
DK
PS I get your point that he's just name brand cashing in, but please accept mine, he blew it. He missed a huge opportunity due to bad business decisions. The market crushed him.
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I agree DK and he just sat on his pit without making improvements or upgrades because he had the patent and was the only game in town. When the patent ran out, there were all sorts of folks waiting to jump in with much better pits with a lot of improvements. And he still did nothing because he had such a big market share. But it eventually all caught up with him. A strange hire in my book -- if he was so innovative and could bring all these great ideas, then why not do it to his own company?
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It will be interesting to see what develops from this relationship, and why.
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Isn't Pit Boss just a warmed over Traeger? Sounds like a marketing ploy to confuse the masses...... ::)
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I thought he sold off the company in 2007 and then the scullcandy guy took it over somehow a few years ago. Either way the original cooker from my understanding were solid units that didn't have the issues of the brand of today.
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Why would he be working for Danson if he cashed out for a large profit?
Maybe he's bored. Maybe he has new ideas to bring to the market and doesn't feel like starting/running a company to do that? There's plenty of serial entrepreneurs out there that like the creating part, but really don't want to deal with the business part.
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I know way more people that have developed a successful business, sold it to a big corporation and now consult from the South Pacific for a healthy fee that I know life long business owners.
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I thought he sold off the company in 2007 and then the scullcandy guy took it over somehow a few years ago. Either way the original cooker from my understanding were solid units that didn't have the issues of the brand of today.
We had Traegers built before 2007 and I had issues with temps swinging a lot in trying to cook chicken at comps where you have narrow and unforgiving time limits for turn ins.
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This seems rather odd. Yes, the guy opened the market, but what has his company done lately?
Traeger is marketed heavily (no thanks to him), but the market is substantially outpacing the brand.
I very much doubt he has any input other than name recognition. What do I know? ::)
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Isn't Pit Boss just a warmed over Traeger? Sounds like a marketing ploy to confuse the masses...... ::)
You say warmed up, but if it is made for Walmart it is cheapened up.
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FWIW, Joe Traeger has not had an interest in the grill business for a long time. He sold out to a private –equity firm well before Jeremy Andrus joined Traeger in 2014. Andurus acquired the Traeger business in conjunction with private-equity firm Trilantic Capital Partners. The company was completely revamped and moved to Utah. Only a few of the original employees moved with the company. Today Andrus is CEO and Traeger's majority shareholder is private-equity giant AEA Investors, and it also has investment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
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I thought that Fast Eddy told me in about 2005-2006 that it was being sold, but I maybe off by a few years...I think that was about the time the patent was running out. I thought 5-6 years ago the brand would be made obsolete, but they controlled so much of the market then, and if I had to guess, they control more then 50% of the backyard market now!
If you go to the store to buy gelatin, is there another brand besides Jell-o. I know there is Knox gelatin, but it is just that, clear gelatin, no flavor.
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I don't know too much about Joe... Maybe his original idea was a fluke, maybe he was a genius and still is.
Main thing wrong with the low end pellet grills today is that the controllers are darn near the same controller that was on the Traegers like 15 or 10 years ago. I'd be willing to bet you could make a much much better controller for like $20, one with WiFi even... Yet, so many grills are still being made today with that old style controller.
Also... why don't more grills come with better direct searing?
Yeah, Pit Boss does have some direct searing already... so well, they've at least gone down that road. But... well, I wish I was a genius and knew how to make a absolutely wonderful pellet grill at an affordable price. But I'm not , and I don't know how, or maybe I would.
The pellet grill market is saturated. Someone needs to stand out from the crowd. Camp Chef is sort of doing it in their own way, by adding a gas burner for searing. Well, I just don't buy into that particular marketing gimmick, I have no desire to keep buying propane, so for me this isn't the answer.
Fast Eddy's Patent is one solution... but he's got the patent, so unless you want to pay him to license it, it's only used by Cookshack ( and Englander ). Patents are great... as is the PG500 and other grills that use Fast Eddy's idea... But, I tell you what, I look forward to the day when Fast Eddy's patent runs out. I'd love to see who can take that idea to the next level...
Anyway, I wish Joe Traeger and the folks at Dansons much luck... I would LOVE to see them do something innovative and affordable. I don't know if they will, but I do think there's at least a chance they could.
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Yet, so many grills are still being made today with that old style controller.
Old style as L/M/H or old style as in non-PID?
After my recent experience with the PG1000 this weekend (which has a LHT/HHT controller) I'm not sure that PID controllers are all that fantastic. First problem is that PID tuning is not easy, there are all sorts of books written on the subject and it's apparent that the manufacturers don't really understand it all that well. My GMGs are reasonably decent, but they tend to trend upwards over time when the weather is warm, and no amount of tweaking the "climate" settings seems to fix that.
On the other hand, the LHT/HHT settings on the PG1000 will give you a constant swing, but is pretty easily tuned. Mine was running ±7°, which is pretty impressive. I've never seen the GMG hold that close before, AND it didn't try to creep up over time. Granted this is a single long cook, but I'm reasonably sure it'll work well at other temps too.
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I'm just a dumb engineer but I suspect that he sold his business for a large profit and is capitalizing on his name recognition for even more gain. :2cents:
Not sure but I think he sold Traeger company a long time ago. Maybe just wants to get back into the bus.
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Louisiana/Danson's have really done an great job in introducing the Pit Boss line up & marketing them, & a fine job in getting a the Louisiana lineup more publicity as well. In reading the article I don't know what Joe can bring to the table here. Yes he is the founder of this industry. Yet until recently, his pits have remained the same while others passed them by. Even the new timberlines are overpriced for a mediocre pit.
Plus Louisiana has done well enough on their own, They don't need need to hang on to anyone's shirttails.
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Louisiana/Danson's have really done an great job in introducing the Pit Boss line up & marketing them, & a fine job in getting a the Louisiana lineup more publicity as well. In reading the article I don't know what Joe can bring to the table here. Yes he is the founder of this industry. Yet until recently, his pits have remained the same while others passed them by. Even the new timberlines are overpriced for a mediocre pit.
Plus Louisiana has done well enough on their own, They don't need need to hang on to anyone's shirttails.
After looking over the LG 700 and 900, I am convinced that they are very well constructed, with heavier gauge metal and better bracing than many in their price range. Not sure how their functional design compares to their peers. Also, I note that they have not incorporated the ceramic starters-at least in 2017 designs. Keep an eye out for them at Costco, where they are at least $300 cheaper than at other vendors. This is not an ad. :2cents:
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Yet, so many grills are still being made today with that old style controller.
Old style as L/M/H or old style as in non-PID?
After my recent experience with the PG1000 this weekend (which has a LHT/HHT controller) I'm not sure that PID controllers are all that fantastic. First problem is that PID tuning is not easy, there are all sorts of books written on the subject and it's apparent that the manufacturers don't really understand it all that well. My GMGs are reasonably decent, but they tend to trend upwards over time when the weather is warm, and no amount of tweaking the "climate" settings seems to fix that.
On the other hand, the LHT/HHT settings on the PG1000 will give you a constant swing, but is pretty easily tuned. Mine was running ±7°, which is pretty impressive. I've never seen the GMG hold that close before, AND it didn't try to creep up over time. Granted this is a single long cook, but I'm reasonably sure it'll work well at other temps too.
yeah, the controller on the Fast Edddy PG grills is a prime example of a very basic controller , that actually works amazingly well. Near as I know, there are no patents on the controller, virtually anyone could replicate the basic idea. If someone put a little thought into a better interface, it could be made more user friendly ( it's a pain in the butt to have to push two buttons down and hold them for long time to get it to go into the user adjustable part ). But that controller, could be VERY easy to make better... add a bit of WiFi, a little App, you could do it all on your phone.
I have no love of PID controllers. I think a PID could be made to work very well, but I'm certainly not one of those who think that PID is the be all , end all of pellet grill controll.
Either way, there's a lot of ways that minor little changes could be made to pellet grills to make them better then the ones that have the old P-setting style controllers.