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[Chris__M]

Yes, heating pellets are also cheaper here - the company who used to import Lil Devils is actually a heating pellet company (amongst other things).

I'm aware of the arguments for and against but haven't wanted to try it, as (a) it is completely outside my area of knowledge (b) as you say, the UK heating pellet market may not be the same as the US.

(Addendum: A quick check of what the company I know produce tells me it is a mixture of spruce and pine. So definitely not suitable. But other pellets may vary.)

As it happens, a friend is having my old Traeger as a rebuild project - it is missing its controller. After a couple of attempts to write PID code, I fashioned a usable timer controller that has worked well for a couple of years, but Dave will probably go the way of a Raspberry Pi. This happens to be his area of expertise, and - by coincidence - his home heating system uses pellets. So I am fairly sure he will be looking into exactly what his heating pellets are, and whether they would be suitable.

[Bentley]

Nice to have you back in the mix!

Begs the question, is there a Hardwood lumber industry in Britain?  Is all furniture imported or is there still some lumber related industries?

Sadly, pellet costs have not got any cheaper - in fact, the average cost has gone up, as the supply of super-cheap "Lil Devils" appear to have dried up here. Very sad at that, as I'd quite got to like them - in fact, I was cooking with one of my last bags on Saturday.

[Chris__M]

There certainly used to be, because my late dad worked in the furniture industry!

Probably the more popular "named" woods for furniture generally in the UK are Pine and Oak. Certainly used to be British Oak, but not sure these days - I think the higher end furniture uses domestic wood, but there is a lot imported too.

But other popular woods - mahogany, teak and sapele - are more tropical and would have definitely been imported.

Note that the majority of wood pellets are imported from the States. I know, it sounds ridiculous. There used to be a small company turning out bags of nothing but oak pellets, but they disappeared after a couple of years.

[Chris__M]

Speaking of pellets (and I will start posting in the proper place soon, I promise...) anyone use CookinPellets? Specifically their "Perfect Mix"?

Amazon are currently doing them at £33.52 ($47) for a 40lb bag, with free Prime delivery. Which doesn't sound bad at all.

[pmillen]

Speaking of pellets (and I will start posting in the proper place soon, I promise...) anyone use CookinPellets? Specifically their "Perfect Mix"?

I think they're appropriately named, "Perfect".

[Chris__M]

Speaking of pellets (and I will start posting in the proper place soon, I promise...) anyone use CookinPellets? Specifically their "Perfect Mix"?

I think they're appropriately named, "Perfect".

Right. I may get a bag, then, to try. Although I won't be doing any cooking in the next week or so.

Getting this grill has been a challenge with dealing with a company (who shall remain nameless) with staff shortages due to illness. That is not their fault, and I had sympathy at first. But they repeatedly gave delivery promises that they then missed, over 3 weeks, with me doing all the calling.

Then the day before my deadine "my grill or my money back", they actually opened my grill - a Premier 1200 - to assemble it - despite having told me twice before that they had already done so. They found that it was damaged, which is why I ended up with the Legacy 1200 instead.

I live alone, and am now in my early 60s, which is why I went for the "assemble before delivery" option. I did the first cook with the grill by my kitchen door, and was very happy. Yesterday, I went to move it down to the bottom of my garden where the BBQ kit lives (paved all the way).

A wheel fell off - bolts were found along the path, apparently not tightened enough.

So now it is pushed against a garden bench, to stop it tumbling over, and - having paid for assembly - I now need to wait a week or two for a friend to come over and help me tip it up to fix the wheel. (The same friend who is having the Traeger.)

It could easily suck the joy out of a new bit of kit, but I'm trying not to let it get me down. I know I have a bargain with this thing, so I am just looking forward to being able to cook on it again.

At least I got that first cook in.

[Bentley]

Always good to have a Grateful attitude!  You would be very pleased with The Prefect Mix!

[Brushpopper]

I've only been able to get one bag of Hickory CookinPellets and Slaga was kind enough to give it to me at the price he paid for it.  I like the B&B and Pit Boss I can easily get around here but the CookinPellets were far superior in my opinion at least.    I just wish they had mesquite but it's very hard on equipment according to their representative on here. 

[Chris__M]

I've ordered a bag of them to try, because the price is relatively good.

I've also discovered a UK pellet manufacturer (Exstream) selling on Amazon, with prices comparable to the general UK market. Have ordered a couple of bags from them, as they had Chestnut - a wood I've never tried before. So I picked up a bag of that and a bag of Cherry.

I like the idea of UK manufactured pellets, simply because they are travelling less miles. Of course, that is as long as the quality is good!

[Chris__M]

The weather here has been terribly unreliable - some news sources have reported it is the wettest May that the UK have had on record.

But this morning was bright sunshine, so I managed to get some work on the Traeger I am giving away - a thorough deep clean. Having done that, I turned it on, and the auger wasn't working. 

So I scooped out the pellets, got the shopvac out, and tried to see what was jamming the auger.

After an hour of scratching my head, I realised that the problem was simply that my external controller was not plugged in (the original controller broke years ago). The external timer controls a relay on the power line to the auger motor. I thought I had it wired to be on when there was no control current to the relay (i.e. it worked on full power if nothing was plugged in), but it seems I had it connected conventionally, which means the controller needed to be powered (which it is, normally - I had unplugged it to pack it up). So when I plugged that in, everything works. What a relief!

As a result, it is possible - weather permitting - that my friend may come across on Friday, when we can both take time off work. He will pick up the old Traeger, but also help me tip the new grill so we can sort the wheel problem.

I think I can see what the problem was. Here are a couple of bolts that dropped out, exactly as they were found. The bolts are not secured by nuts, but just screw into the metal. In which case that locking washer is in the wrong position and is doing exactly nothing to stop the bolt from coming out. So we will have to check all the bolts.

(Note: This is not a problem with Louisiana Grills, but with the company I paid to assemble the grill before delivery. Needless to say, they will not be getting any more business from me. Fortunately there is now more than one company in the UK doing Louisiana grills and accessories.)

[Brushpopper]

Might ought to check every bolt and screw.  My Traeger was put together by Traeger "technicians" and nothing was tight on it.  I still think that is why I had such crazy temp swings with it.  The RTD probe was loose but I had already bought the Ortech and changed it out anyway.