With more and more entering the market, my thought is they are getting worse.
They all do the same thing, so they have to be cheaper than the competitors if they want to sell their product.
That means, make them as cheap as you can.
I have a CampChef PGXL-Pro vertical smoker.
There is not one continuous weld bead in the entire smoker. The entire unit is just tack welded to hold it together.
Even upper end units are going down hill.
My Memphis Elite built-in was made in China and all have been since late 2019.
Quality isn't anywhere near as good as the Elite-built-in I had that was USA made.
Had I known they moved production to China before I ordered, I would have had to think long and hard before buying it.
Especially knowing it would be inferior and costing same price as the USA made one did.
Arrived DOA - Bad RTD.
The EMI filter in the control panel was installed backwards.
Controller is flakey at times. This is 2nd one, still flakey. Old design (pre-wifi) was rock solid.
Only plus for the new controller is wi-fi, which I could take it or leave it. Use it because I have it, but wouldn't miss it...
Pellet ramp design was changed.
Now when pellets slide down, they have an air gap to jump to get to the other part of the ramp attached to the burn pot. Save metal I guess.
This lets many pellets fall into the ash tray. 1/2 cup or more for a 10-12 hr cook.
That's a lot of wasted pellets per bag, and per year unless you want to dig them out of the ash tray.
Also, there are slots in the ramp by the burn pot.
Have no idea why they are there. They just lets ash fall through and build up.
You have to partially disassemble ash pot to remove them.
A lot of the metal in the unit is lighter gauge.
I imaging the life expectancy won't be near the USA made one.