I had always loved barbecue, ever since I was a kid, but could never understand why I couldn't replicate at home on a Weber the results I tasted in the restaurants. I just resigned myself to a life of eating out, or doing "fauxbecue" by saucing ribs in the oven.
Then, in 2016, we were visiting my M-I-L at her retirement community, and while she and my wife were doing something else, I was flipping through her cable channels when I ran across the now-ubiquitous Traeger infomercial. I had no idea this technology even existed.
It was all I could do to not order one there and then, but I decided to do some research first. That led me to Pelletheads, where I learned of all the other brands. I read every single comment or post I could find, looked at mfr websites, checked prices, you name it. I decided I couldn't justify the cost of the big boys, and was about to order a RecTec Mini when I saw a post on the forum for a gently used one, and it was right on my route to visit family in MI. I reached an agreement on price with the owner, met her and her husband in the parking lot of their local Walmart, and spent the rest of the weekend driving it around MI in my car, before I could get it home. Now, about 16 months later, I'm just super happy.