Hi Everyone,
Back to the forum again after a long hiatus... not from smoking though. I'm posting my first post here after coming back because I jumped on the $499 LG800E at Costco. When it first arrived at our local store it was $699, but when they dropped it to $499 I decided to give it a try.
This is with intentions of retiring my 2008 Traeger Lil Tex. Don't get me wrong this has been a very reliable unit for me. That said, since I also have had an FEC100 since mid 2009, its main use since then has been as a grill rather than a smoker. In that role, it functions, but cooking a steak or burgers simply takes longer than I often care to wait. It seems to top out around 320 when it has not been cleaned recently, and a bit hotter for a short while when just cleaned... or if you let it sit for 45min to an hour it will get up to 400+, but I rarely cared to wait that long.
Enter the LG800. Turn it on and the controller reads 375 by default. It will reach that temp, and begin to overshoot within 10 minutes at current OH outdoor temps. And it is crazy hot over the open flame area at that temp. Doesn't seem to have any difficulty with a quick cook of burgers. It does look like at the current controller settings it is not capable of a 180 temp as it wants to hover around 200 or so when set to 180. Likewise it overshoots the high temp and takes a while to settle back down to the set temp... but in practice I'm finding I rarely care because I'm already cooking by that point, and 375 vs 400 is mostly a don't care when I'm grilling. I may check into the various threads around the net about reprogramming to gain more accurate temps, but I think this unit is a keeper, especially for the intended use as mainly a grill.