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[glitchy]

I came across a Champ Chef SmokePro STX (PG24) for $259 on eBay, so I picked one up to not be pelletless for the next few months. For such a deal it does not appear to be a terrible little cooker. It keeps temps fairly steady. Assembly was super easy. It's kinda ugly and leaks a fair amount of smoke, but guessing the leaks will improve with some seasoning. I put it together Friday evening in about 30 minutes and did the initial burn in. Then cooked a couple Duroc butts on Saturday. The temp in the center rear is about 25 degrees lower than the RTD sensor, but at 350 and under, it seems fairly even left to right across the center of the grates. I'll attach a few pics shortly.

I'm naming it Foster, because I will likely only be it's temporary home. Once the Weber SmokeFire comes out and some more information is around on the Broil King, I'll probably upgrade to one of the mid-tier pellet grills from one of Weber, BK, RecTec, Grilla, or Traeger. This one will probably up at one of my brother-in-laws houses or donated or sold somewhere next summer.

[glitchy]

Burn in session 350, then 400, then 225. probes set left side and right side right in center of grates, rear in center of grill about inch in from edge of drip pan.

Second photo is the butt cooker with the rear probe in same spot, started on hi smoke for like 30 mins, then 275, then 300 since I only had about 8-9 hours to do 2 9lb butts.

[Canadian John]

 Good to see you were not pelletless for too long.and that foster is behaving well.

[glitchy]

Update on Foster: She leaks a ton of smoke and seems to burn a lot of pellets. However, she keeps decently steady temps and makes some really good food. Did baby backs on her 2 weekends back and did 2 chuck roasts on her this past weekend. The chuck roasts were probably the best I’ve ever made. I’m not giving all that credit to Foster as I’ve been dialing those in for a while now, but she sure didn’t hurt anything. Those suckers ended up taking nine hours because I left the grill at 180 for like 5 hours until I wrapped in butcher paper and realized I didn’t get it raised to 250 after the one hour I planned on.

If you know someone looking for a cheap pellet grill, so far the SmokePro seems worth the going rate.

[pmillen]

That was a great find.  The Camp Chef web site lists them at $440 and out of stock.