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[02ebz06]

The biggest concern I would have is buying a defective unit and not getting good customer service.

That is one big thing I can say about Memphis.
Even though products went downhill, Greg still provides top level service.

[dk117]

I would say that since many Chinese companies are getting into the pellet smoker business. In order to be competitive, they have to cut a lot of corners, so I would say a new Pit Boss may not be built as well as my PB820 from almost six years ago. Having said that, there would be no way I would have gotten into pellet grilling if it wasn't for the cheap brands being available. I do think cheap pellet grills today are getting to be like the gassers of 10 years ago(and still the same today), where you could flex the lid with your hands!

great comparison.   and yes I wouldn't use take any of the gassers I see at Home Depot, not even for free.  It would just end up in the next trip to the dump (transfer station).

The dozen or so people I've converted to pellets, the latest was indeed a toe dipping pit boss as it was dirt cheap at Lowes.   We both agreed this would be a two season experiment and then he could get serious about the hobby if he used it.  So far so good. 

[glitchy]

It's probably worth mentioning that there aren't that many Chinese companies making pellet grills. Yes there are a couple, but for the most part it's American companies outsourcing the manufacturing to China. They provide the specs to the Chinese factories to build. This would include the quality and thickness of the steel, QA standards, etc. There are a lot of quality products that come out of China. I'm not saying that I don't believe that the American made pits are usually higher quality, but for the most part it's profit driven choices and specs that make it that way. I was saddened when I heard that Memphis outsourced their manufacturing to China (and likely lessened quality specs of some components). My Pro was one of the sturdiest and most finely crafted items I ever owned even though it didn't fit the bill of what I needed in a cooker.

[MP09]

Blazin grill works is made in the USA. Yoder is still made in the USA at last check.

[Bentley]

Is the Chinese made no name the same as the $150 gasser of 30 years ago?

[glitchy]

Is the Chinese made no name the same as the $150 gasser of 30 years ago?

Probably. My guess is the people buying them over a better grill will either use it a 3-4 times a year or completely wear it out in a year or two and be on to better things.

Edit: A couple more thought came to mind on this. One is that most people aren't trying to run these full blast all the time like they were with the cheap gassers, so they have the potential to last longer. As well, many of the parts on several of the grills seem pretty interchangeable, so the chance of the quality being better than the cheap gassers of 30 years ago is much higher.

I've noticed that all of the 'cheap' gassers have gone more to stealing Weber's design and have the deflectors over the burners, etc. 30 years ago, you'd find ceramic briquettes, open burners, all different kinds of setups. Now so many of them all look the same.

[glitchy]

Blazin grill works is made in the USA. Yoder is still made in the USA at last check.

So are Cookshack, Smokin' Bros, Pitts & Spitts, MAK, and several others. I would say all of these are far from 'base' pits at $1500 and up.

The Weber SmokeFire is assembled in the USA from US and foreign parts. I doubt it qualifies either. My neighbor bought a Z Grill. From a distance it seems just fine. He hasn't complained about it at all and I see him use it once every week or two. I heard that they used to be the Traeger factory in China and Traeger moved to another factory.

[BigDave83]

I think they have more features today just because of technology progressing. The Wally World and big box store mentality also lead to a lot of designs I think. As they will tell a company I want a grill that does A,B, and C but I need a price point around $XXX.  I have never seen a Yoder, Mak, Cookshack or any of the other US built units so I don't know how well they are built. I know I am still impressed with my little 18year old Cookshack Smokette every time i use it. Never had an issue other than the plating on the original cooking racks had worn away. But then there really is no moving parts just a thermostat and burner.

 I looked at a Pit Boss not sure what model it was one day at lowes, I was impressed that it seemed to be built as heavy or close to what my rec tec was from 7 years ago. I know the materials may not be on the same level quality wise and their controller seem iffy at best. It does seem that one could buy a cheap unit and upgrade a few things and have something that would work well for not a lot of coin, compared to the US built units. I have been looking for one of the weber units to have a look at as I really think I would like one of them from seeing a few people on youtube using them, and the versatility of the cooker.

I started with a rec tec, then bought a gmg DC and then a pit boss vertical CH7 sold off the rec tec as it didn't get used any more. I was not as impressed as other with the rec tec or even the pit boss. I love the little gmg though, even though I had issues right out of the box. The rec tec folks are marketing masters, they took what should be a $600ish  cooker and sell it for $1200 because that is the mid line between entry level $500 ones and US built $1600+ units. I think most peoples thoughts when looking for a pellet cooker are I don't want to drop $1600 and I am not sure about the quality of the $500 unit so they look for that middle ground and rec tec went for it and said if we sell it at $1000 to $1200 we have $350 in it, we can offer a long warranty and ship replacement parts out to the people and still be putting money on our pockets. That shows the support of their product. GMG folks were great at getting me fixed up and I never needed CS for pit boss but i read where some have great results and other not so great.

I know I have a list of cookers in my mind I would like to try if I had the funds to do it, I have always thought I needed an FEC 100 or 120, and i remember back in the PH days reading about a company in MD I believe, Dream Werks I think was the name, and I really thought I should have one of them but way out of my budget. Reality is I usually only cook for 2 of us, and on occasion maybe 10 to 15 people so what I have is more than sufficient.

Not really sure there is much more than can be done from a technology point, PID and WIFI, what could be the next big thing. So the only things that I could see changing in the future is the quality of the cookers build. With that there is a cooker to fit almost everyone's price point from the $200 Masterbuilts that Sams was selling to the $7000 Twin Eagles.

[rdsbucks]

Thanks, everyone for your great thoughts. I have been out of touch at a pheasant hunt in SD so I am just now getting back. Two things got me started down this path. First, I saw the new Oklahoma Joes Pellet Smoker at Home Depot. It was cheap ($500-600), looked cool, and had a nice searing option. And though pellet smokers are a lot different from stick burners, their stick burners seem well built. But the reviews of their new pit were pretty dismal. Secondly, someone mentioned that the base golf clubs at Walmart were probably better today than some of the nicer clubs you could buy 10-15 years ago. So that made me wonder about base pits now. And I would call base pits $400-600.