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[LowSlowJoe]

Anyone see the Outdoor Gourmet Triton XL Pellet Grill at Academy Sports ?    It looks interesting, possibly having a PID controller , fire pot seems somewhat unique.  Nothing truly earth shattering, but at $500 it might not be a bad place to get started in pellet grilling.  I've seen at least one person claim it's a Roanoke Electronic Controls PID, but I'm not so sure of that, it does have a similar look to it.

   I think it's OK to past a link to a YouTube video on this  ( if not , feel free to take this link down ).     https://youtu.be/789JemATQtg

 Academy Sports also has a vertical pellet smoker that they are selling for $600   , called Masterbuilt 255S XL Pellet Smoker.  I don't know much of anything about it yet, other then it seems to have some basic programability , based on a video they have on the Academy Sports web page.

   I'm always curious when new pellet grills hit the market at decent pricing.  I personally don't have any Academy Sports anywhere near me, so I have no ability to even look at these in person.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Funny how they can take a $100 propane smoker and make it a $600 smoker by adding a pellet hopper, auger, firepot, and controller.

[LowSlowJoe]

Funny how they can take a $100 propane smoker and make it a $600 smoker by adding a pellet hopper, auger, firepot, and controller.

 Yeah, that is quite interesting isn't it...

[triplebq]

I'm all for bringing new pellet units to the market. The only way this segment will grow is with lower costs units like this.

[GrillinGlen]

Cabala's has a Masterbuilt upright, I think its the same

[dk117]

Funny how they can take a $100 propane smoker and make it a $600 smoker by adding a pellet hopper, auger, firepot, and controller.

I understand and agree with the sentiment, but these are SS parts which cost hundreds to replace for a Traeger.

I'm all for bringing new pellet units to the market. The only way this segment will grow is with lower costs units like this.

Economies of scale is the only way we'll grow.  More units produced will bring down costs.

DK

[triplebq]

They seem to be popping up everywhere!  I am looking forward to real world reviews of Gator Pit’s pellet cooker...I would expect it’s a top shelf cooker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

This is one nice setup.

[lamrith]

Funny how they can take a $100 propane smoker and make it a $600 smoker by adding a pellet hopper, auger, firepot, and controller.

Ever priced out hopper assemblies?  Even offshore direct ones are over $300 for a PID one buying in bulk...  So $100+300+ R&D/fab time putting together.......  Not saying I am happy about the pricing on some of these new simple units, but $ wise it is not completely out of line when you add everything up.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Funny how they can take a $100 propane smoker and make it a $600 smoker by adding a pellet hopper, auger, firepot, and controller.

Ever priced out hopper assemblies?  Even offshore direct ones are over $300 for a PID one buying in bulk...  So $100+300+ R&D/fab time putting together.......  Not saying I am happy about the pricing on some of these new simple units, but $ wise it is not completely out of line when you add everything up.

That is the cost of you buying aftermarket parts to make a conversion.  I bet they don't have $100 in all of the components.

[LowSlowJoe]

Over on Facebook, there was further discussion about the controller on the Outdoor Gourmet pellet grill. Someone had thought it was a Roanoke Controller, I was skeptical, long story shorter, there were photos taken of a Roanoke controls circuit board , and then photos taken of the board used in the Outdoor Gourmet, that confirmed they are not the same.    In that same discussion, someone posted a link to a Alibaba page where a Chinese company is willing to sell a controller for $1.79 if you buy 500 of them, in the photos they had on this , one of them had Danson's silk screening on the front of the display... a photo of the circuit board looked very much like the circuit board used in the Outdoor Gourmet pellet grill.   My point?   The cost of a decent controller should not be more than $30 retail, if prices were directly related to the actual cost to make one... heck they could very likely sell them for $20 and still be making good margins.

   One reason I have virtually no desire to make a home built pellet grill, is the retail cost of a hopper assembly...  I would go buy a Camp Chef SE on clearance at Walmart for $200 and use the parts for another grill before I bought a off the shelf hopper assembly at today's typical prices for them.

   My dad always used to say the price of something has almost no relationship to the cost to make it, it's all about what people will pay for it and/or marketing.

   More and more , as I understand things a little better , I also see that the cost to stock something and distribute it is also a huge part of the retail cost of something...   not to mention product support , etc...  but still, if you can buy a Danson's style controller for under $2 from China, surely someone could market those and make a decent profit at selling them for $20 each.  This would probably make a lot of grills with old style P-setting type controllers work a lot better.