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[jdmessner]

I have never purchased a new grill. My son just graduated from college and it looks like he will be settling down in one place for the foreseeable future. I thought a pellet grill would make for a nice graduation or Christmas gift.

Now that Labor Day is here, would this be the time to watch for clearance sales? Or, do prices typically drop significantly lower at other times of the year (such as Black Friday)? I will admit that when I start to shop for something it almost turns into a game for me to see if I can get the biggest bang for the buck, so I don't mind waiting a while if need be.   

At this point I am not locked into any particular grill, but I am leaning toward the GMG DC. I think he would like the portability the grill offers and he would enjoy playing around with the wifi options on his phone. I have never cooked on one or seen one in action. However, from what I have read on this forum and other places they seem like an all around good, well-made grill.  Right now it looks like I can find one for $319, which isn’t too bad, but it seems like they did drop drastically in price two or three years ago around Christmas time. I don’t know if they do that on a regular basis or if it was a onetime thing. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!

[W6YJ]

Although not a direct answer to your question, I would suggest going to the big A and look for the GMC DC, then go to CCC.com (camel x 3) and paste the big A webpage address at the top of thier page. It will show you the price over the past year (if that period is available).

The lowest I saw was $266 last January.

You can set up a notification alert if the price drops to your desired threshold.

[jdmessner]

Still looking. I see I can get a Davey Crockett right now for $280 and am leaning toward that direction. The ironic part is, it is on the revamped pelletheads web site!

However, that being said, I just had an ad pop up that was quite intriguing. It is for a Z grill. I had a friend that swore by them, so I started looking into them a little while ago (hence the barrage of pop up ads). From what I can tell, they seem like a good grill for the price.

For the Halloween deal you can get a mystery box grill for $309. The catch is you don't know which grill you get until it arrives. It would be one of five grills they have listed. The grills range in value from $399 for the ZPG-550a to the ZPG-7002b which goes for around $600. Even if I ended up with the smallest grill it would be bigger than the GMG DC. I would loose the wifi and portability, but I am not sire how big a deal that would be for my son. I am not much of a gambler, but it might be fun to try!

Just curious, does anyone have any thoughts or experience on Z grills?

   

[pmillen]

Free Mr Tony has some experience with one—https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=5231.msg59531#msg59531

[jdmessner]

Pulled the trigger on a grill today. It certainly wasn't what I expected. An ad on FB Marketplace popped up for a Louisiana 1100 with a cold smoker attachment for $50. It is probably about 5 years old. There was a fire in the pellet hopper so there will be a little bit of clean up involved, but overall it is in good shape. The controller may need to be replaced, but it did turn on and the auger worked. It should be a fun project.

I really enjoyed talking with the seller. He just purchased a Traeger Timberline 850 with wifi. With any luck hopefully there will be a new member on the forum from Traverse City!

[BigDave83]

Great deal for a 50 spot, even if you need to buy a controller, there are so many to choose from, you just may need to adapt a little. But you can get some nice ones. I would like to have one of the Alpha controllers from Grilla, I think the ability to be able to switch between PID and the more Analog control would be great. You could start your food in the analog to get more smoke on it and then switch to the PID to finish it.

Hope you make a post about your new toy and its progression.

[jdmessner]

Great deal for a 50 spot, even if you need to buy a controller, there are so many to choose from, you just may need to adapt a little. But you can get some nice ones. I would like to have one of the Alpha controllers from Grilla, I think the ability to be able to switch between PID and the more Analog control would be great. You could start your food in the analog to get more smoke on it and then switch to the PID to finish it.

Hope you make a post about your new toy and its progression.

I will post some pictures in a few days. I finally broke down and got a new phone, but it looks like it has the wrong SIM card, so I need to wait for a new one to arrive before I can get the data to work and post photos.

The Grilla controller sure looks interesting and would be worth a try if it comes to that. However, I think the main thing that is wrong with the controller is the faceplate has a piece missing. It may have cracked off or melted from the pellet box fire. This makes it difficult to turn it on and off, but it does turn on. That makes me think it may still work OK, I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet. If it does work, I can get a new faceplate for $14.95. That would be a nice grill for $64.95!!

[Bentley]

You really cant go wrong at that price!

[jdmessner]

Here are a couple of pictures of the grill. The hopper is a mess, but I am hoping it will clean up okay. With any luck I will get a chance to work on it this weekend.

Any ideas on what would cause a hopper fire like that? Is it something that I should worry about reoccurring? He did grill a lot of steaks and burgers on it, so there is a lot of grease to be cleaned up. My guess is that may have contributed to the problem.

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[Bar-B-Lew]

My guess is a grease fire that spread back thru the auger tube into the pellet hopper.

[urnmor]

I am not sure what would have caused that hopper fire other then grease, however, I do strongly recommend that you reposition your grill to the edge of the cement next to the grass.  this will help ensure that if the grill gets to hot it will not damage your home.  Just a suggestion based on your photo and the fact it had a hopper fire

[jdmessner]

I am not sure what would have caused that hopper fire other then grease, however, I do strongly recommend that you reposition your grill to the edge of the cement next to the grass.  this will help ensure that if the grill gets to hot it will not damage your home.  Just a suggestion based on your photo and the fact it had a hopper fire

Thanks for the heads up  That is just where I have it now to work on, not sure where the best operating location will be. I have been keeping my smaller Pit Boss there, but it pulls out away from the house quite easily. With the cold smoker on this one probably will not be quite as portable.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I'm curious to see pics of the interior of that cold smoker and exterior pics of where the smoke exhausts from it.

[02ebz06]

I was plagued by auger fires in the Blazin' GridIron I had.
Mainly when I cooked at high temp for steaks, burgers and such.
It would happen during shutdown period.
With the auger tube only a couple inches above the burn pot, auger doesn't turn very often so pellets in the auger could catch fire.

I hope the controller in yours didn't get fried.

[MP09]

The Blazin did and upgrade on the program. No more problems even if i shutdown at 500.