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[rjp123]

Greetings Pellet Fan!  Happy to join the forum.

I have a huge conundrum...  I am ready to buy a new pellet grill/smoker and am trying to decide between two excellent options.

I would like some user opinions to help me decide as I am confused at this point after researching for the last 10 months and capitulating since then and only finally now ready to choose between two premium items.

Background:  I live in Canada.  Memphis and FastEddy are the only two top-line units available in my area (yes, I can get GMG, Louisanna, Traeger - not interested in those).  The PG500 and Memphis Pro (non-wifi) are roughly the same price in my market.  Temperatures here are -10 deg C (winter) to 40 deg C (summer).

For me:  I grill 50% of the time and smoke 40% of the time, and cold smoke 10% of the time (cheese and fish).  I currently have a MES40 electric smoker and a smaller Weber grill - had both for 5+ years.  Happy with both - but want the taste of wood when grilling and want a better unit for smoking.  Looking to consolidate on 1 unit to free up deck space.  Both units cost the same here.  I like smoke taste from the MES (usually using the AMAZN for the smoke source), so I don't want to settle for a unit which is less smokey on the smoke - but I want a unit that gives me wood taste on the grill (without going to charcoal).  I've only ever used one wood-type per cook.

I like the Memphis Pro because of the insulation and large cooking space.  I am anxious about the Memphis Pro's smoking generating capabilities and the flame insert versus a proper charbroil unit. 

I like the PG500 due to the charbroil and the indirect cooking area.  I am anxious about the cooking/smoking area limitation due to the zones, and being in Canada (and wanting to replace my gas'er) the non-insulation makes me anxious, however my Weber has no insulation, so what difference do I know.

I know people are brand loyal, so I'll take everything with a grain of salt.  I feel quality is pretty similar on each.  I am looking to pull the trigger on one unit or the other in the next week or so.

Thoughts, opinions and recommendations are appreciated.   Thank you all in advance.

[Quadman750]

I think either pit is a good choice. I have used my Pro & Elite All winter here in Canada, I cannot speak for the PG 500

[LowSlowJoe]

Having owned the PG500 for about 18 months, I can tell you that I still absolutely love the grill.   However, having never owned a Memphis, I can't really compare it directly to one of those...

 PG500's  direct grilling area is wonderful but I suppose somewhat limited, but then all pellet grills are similar in terms of the size you can 'grill' on, in many ways the size of direct grilling is probably larger then most.  The biggest advantage of the PG500's direct grill area is that it's always there, ready to be used , all you have to do is crank up the temperature let the pellets feed in faster, and it gets hotter and hotter... it's capable of at least 1000F in that direct grilling area.  Of course , having that area dedicated to direct grilling, also means you loose some area for doing other things that aren't direct grilling...  so there is some trade off.    But, IMHO the Fast Eddy pellet grills are second to none when it comes to direct grilling..

  Then of course... because of Fast Eddy's patented design, you get the ability to easily do 100% indirect heat cooking too...   I don't think any other pellet is truly capable of the kind of indirect heat cooking that can easily be done in the PG500. Now this may be just splitting hairs to some degree... but if I want to, I can cook with indirect heat at well up into 500 degrees, or even hotter if I want ( rarely do I want, except for Pizza maybe )...   but you could easily run the PG500 at 400F with a roast, or a turkey, or chicken, or whatever on the indirect side, and there is virtually no chance of a grease fire.  You try that on nearly any other grill, and there will be some risk of grease fire as greases drip off the food and onto a drip tray that's usually significantly hotter then the temperature where the food is at.  Yes, of course there are ways to avoid grease fires on other grills, like maybe having a drip pan, or something to catch grease before it drips on the grill's drip tray... but with PG500, the drip tray never gets above the set temperature...     So, just like with the direct grilling area, this indirect area and how it operates with virtually no radiant heat is not always a 100% positive thing....  but for me it's pros outweigh it's cons...

   So, on a more traditional pellet grill, you can use radiant heat to  your advantage in some situations...  Like , well lets say you had a whole bunch of chicken wings... You could likely set a traditional grill to about 350F, and spread wings out across most of those grills main grate, radiant heat would make the area cook a bit hotter then the 350F set temperature, possibly making the skin a bit crisper... but for sure you would be able to cook a lot more wings on something like the Memphis , then you could on the Fast Eddy...  well sort of...  On the Fast Eddy , to compensate for the lack of radiant heat, you'd probably need to run the grill at 400F or higher to get that skin to really crisp up quickly... and the good news, is you could do that on a Fast Eddy and not have much of any risk of grease fire on the indirect side...

   Anyway...   I won't or, can't really say anything bad a bout a Memphis grill... and I have no experience in using one, so I can't really say for sure if they would work better for you than a Fast Eddy pellet grill. All I know is I love my PG500 and don't think there's a better grill out there for me... Other then I do fully admit to using my GMG Davy Crockett alot...  for things like chicken wings, brats, even burgers...


   Oh... I treat PG500's indirect side much like a vertical smoker... I'll stack racks of jerky, pork belly bacon, canadian bacon, etc... and smoke at temperatures of right around 170F... this works great... I wish CookShack would make a rack system that fit over there... and made it a little easier... but I really love the indirect cooking area of the PG500 for stuff like this. 90% of my cooking in the PG500 is done on the indirect side.

 I haven't done much of any 'cold' smoking... so I can't really say too much about that aspect of the PG500...  It probably does a bit better at that sort of thing then some grills, but... well, I feel if you really want to cold smoke, it's best done with a smoke source that is not coming from the firepot of a pellet grill .  I consider true cold smoking to be bellow 80F...   Anything between 80F and 150F, I consider warm smoking, and I jut don't do much of that...  This winter I'll likely dabble in some cold smoking, but in the summer, I just find it very impractical... I could warm smoke in a PG500 during winter months very easily...

[Phrett]

After using both these units and seeing others use them I went with the Memphis for several reasons.  I didn't like the "zones" on the PG500, I felt they severly limited cooking space.  I did ;ile the idea one could cook qa varity of thingx at different temps at once, but I uzually use my unit for one thing at a time.  The two different sized doors felt very cumbersome and awkward.  I live in Wisconsin and cook through the winter and it did not seem as well insulated as the Pro.  It ios a very good unit but just didn't fit my needs.

I loved the cooking area on the Pro and its ability to hold rock steady temps.  It appears more "finished" in appearance and will cook up to 650 degrees without the "open flame" insert and with the insert even hotte with OF-1 through OF-3 settings.  I grill burgers and steaks at 600 with no open flame insert and it sears wonderfully.  At temps under about 300 the Pro puts out alot of smoke, different smoke than a wood/charcoal fired unit, but good smoke.  I believe the Pro [and Elite] are the best units available.

A "wood" taste when grilling with a pellet unit is very, very subtle.  Over about 300 degrees the fire burns very efficintly and clean.

[LowSlowJoe]

For the record... I personally love the doors on the PG500. I'd have a hard time going back to a grill that I had to lift up the entire lid.

[Bentley]

A unit I own and a unit I want to own...good luck with that decision...Just rest assured you cant make a bad one in this case!  Cold weather performance (Pellet consumption) goes to the Memphis, but your other factors favor the 500!

A "wood" taste when grilling with a pellet unit is very, very subtle.

Is this a heads up statement...Yeah, go into either purchase with eyes wide open...Char and smoke are vastly different things...

[rjp123]

Thank you all for the very honest and excellent input on this (and keep it coming!)!   I'll report back once the decision is made!  Cheers!

[pmillen]

I am also looking at the FE PG 500.  Has anyone tried a weld blanket on the unit in the winter time?

I use my PG500 all winter long without an insulated blanket.  I might be able to cook using fewer pellets but I wonder how many $ worth of pellets I would save per cook.  That equates to the time it would take to pay for the insulated blanket with pellet savings.

It's just not that important to me.

1.  The insulated blanket would eliminate the hot flat top I use as a warming station. 

2.  Be careful if selecting welding blankets for this purpose.  They often shed fiberglas strands.

[mrtune]

I can not speak about the Memphis but just wanted to say, I went from a Rec-Tec to a PG-500 and the difference blew me away!!! The PG-500 does more of what  I want and the flavor difference was amazing!

[Canadian John]

 I went from a Traeger to a Memphis Pro and the difference blew me away..Now there are two of us blown away.

[AZRaptor]

I'm not sure the specs on the Memphis Pro, but while I like my PG500 a lot, I find the 18x18 zone for smoking to be limiting.