gamblin_man's Full Review: Traeger Industries BBQ070 All-in-One Grill / Smoke...
We have been cooking outdoors for a long time. This has varied from campfires during outings to long, slow smoking of meats for that special flavor. We have gone through gas and charcoal grills, electric and charcoal water smokers, and our latest Bradley Smoker with a small Coleman gas grill beside it. This spring we have moved to a single device to both smoke and grill food. It cooks with wood, actually wood pellets. It does use electricity but not for heat.
Traeger Industries BBQ070 All-in-One Grill / Smoker We were at a regional outdoors store, Joe's, which is going out of business. They had a grill at a ten percent discount. We decided to go home and do some research first before plunking down around $700.00. We found a store about thirty minutes south of us that claimed to be the highest volume Traeger dealer in the country. They had a Smok'n into Spring special on these grills. In addition to the grill they were throwing in a digital controller ($189.00 at Joe's), a cover ($69.00 at Joe's), and three twenty pound bags of wood pellets, the fuel for this grill/smoker. This all came for $699.00, the retail cost of the grill alone at Joe's. There is no sales tax in Oregon and they would even ship the whole package for $79.00 anywhere in the US. The company's name is changing from Traeger Grill Outlet to Pellet Grill Outlet. We ordered a package over the phone and took a nice easy drive the next day. The back of our crossover came home loaded. We can attest to high volume sales as we watched a Roadway truck, a UPS truck, and a FedEx truck filled with shipments while we got ours.
It took maybe a couple of hours to put this well designed and built grill together, The four heavy tubular steel legs have to be inserted into equally heavy receptacles in the bottom of the barrel section of the grill and fastened with a couple of bolts each. The chimney and its cap have to be installed on the side of the barrel. They even include a gasket. The pellet hopper, burner pot, and auger assembly that transports the pellets to the firepot slides in the other side with a gasket and is bolted on. Changing out the three position switch for the digital controller and installing the temperature measuring rod took almost half of the time.
Our first impression was of a very sturdy grill. The black powder coated steel of the barrel and legs is heavy and well constructed. The assembled grill weighs 135 pounds. Luckily there are two wheels on the legs and handle on the pellet hopper to move it. Everything fit together easily. There were even extra bolts and nuts to replace the one we lost in the grass. Not counting the accessories that came with this special package, the grill itself comes with the main barrel body, about 20" in diameter, with a welded skirt at the bottom; the pellet hopper assembly that has the heat control, the motor for the augur, the augur enclosed in a square assembly with the firepot and hot rod on the other end, a couple of fans that help combustion and serve to circulate the heat in the barrel, and the wiring; a flame diffuser that goes over the firepot; a grease tray that goes under the 22" long by 19" deep porcelain coated grill, a bucket to hang on the grease drip spout on the right, and a nice cookbook along with assembly and use instructions.
How it works
This grill/smoker works much like a pellet stove. In fact the inventor and patent holder of the pellet stove also invented the pellet grill, John Traeger, Jr. The pellets, instead of being made of softwood or corn husks as they are for pellet heating stoves, are made from sawdust of various hardwoods. These are compressed under high pressure and heat until the lignin in the wood glues the sawdust together in the form of a small pellet. The hopper at the side of the Li'l Tex grill/smoker will hold about fifteen pounds of these pellets. At the other end of an augur that turns slowly to deliver pellets to it is a firepot. In this firepot is what Traeger calls a hot rod. It is a heating element that gets red hot to ignite the wood pellets then turns off after about four minutes. From this point on the fire and the grill temperature is controlled by how often more pellets are fed through the augur into the firepot. The direct flame is prevented from reaching the food by a large, heavy metal heat shield. The heat is further spread by a grease drip tray and is circulated by the action of the continuously running fan in the hopper box. The chimney at the top right side allows air to escape. It is covered with a cap that allows cooking in the rain. Temperature is controlled by alternately turning the augur on and off to feed more pellets. On high the augur runs continuously, on medium half time, and on smoke one minute out of four. The grill surface is reached through a large hinged door which is actually part of the barrel shape. It gives full access - and dumps lots of heat while open. The bright metal handle stays cool even with the grill at its hottest temperature.
The first time the grill is started or after it has run out of pellets, you have to prime the augur by allowing the grill to run five minutes on high until the pellets begin dropping into the firepot. After that priming, you turn the control to off to reset the circuitry then turn it to smoke for five minutes with the lid up to allow the hot rod to start the burning process. Afterwards you close the lid and set the heat where you want it. The only other fire maintenance is to make sure there are pellets in the hopper. Depending on how hot you cook you can get eight to sixteen hours on a hopper full of pellets.
Cleanup is pretty easy. Traeger recommends covering the drip tray with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. We do too. The porcelain coated grill can be brushed with a long handled grill brush while still hot to get it ready for the next cooking treat. It washes pretty easily as well. The drip tray just needs the foil pulled off and new foil added. About every ten sessions it makes sense to use some soapy hot water and a stiff brush to clean the grease from the grease channel and spout at the right side. If you use foil lined bags in the bucket they need to be replaced when the bucket is about half full, otherwise you can clean the bucket when you clean the grease channel. We saw a suggestion to put bird seed in the foil bag and when it is covered with grease use it to feed the birds. When the pellet hopper is empty it is a good idea to use a shop vacuum to clean out the dust from the last load of pellets and to sweep the small amount of ash from the firepot. The exterior cleans easily with a soft rag and some detergent.
In Use
Let's start with the downsides of this combination smoking and grilling device before we go on to why we are happy with our purchase. We are coming from a Bradley Smoker. It imparts a strong, deep smoke flavor to anything cooked in it. With the fan running constantly in the Traeger the smoke doesn't hang inside and permeate like in a dedicated smoker. The smoke ring isn't as deep and the smoke flavor less intense. On the other end of the grilling spectrum, a dedicated grill can usually achieve temperatures at the grilling surface of over 500 degrees to get a quick sear and those wonderful grill marks on a steak or other grilled meat. With a maximum temperature of about 425, the Traeger falls a little short in this area. Compared to charcoal, just electricity, or maybe even propane, the $16.00/bag price of Traeger pellets makes it a bit more expensive to operate in either grilling or smoking operations.
But the Traeger can do things neither of the other options can do, at least do well. You can bake in the Traeger. You can make bread or cook a "take and bake pizza" or even a frozen one, for instance. You can bake a casserole just like you would in your indoor oven. You can smoke a tough cut of meat like brisket and then bring the temperature up to break down the cartilage, making it much easier to cut and chew. The three year warranty and easy parts availability gives us confidence. We had some infant parts failures with the Bradley Smoker and found warranty service not to be a problem if we could handle a little mechanical work. We looked at the Traeger and think parts replacement will be just as easy on it if needed. All the parts look rugged and so far none have given us any trouble.
Let's make pastrami
One of the things that always made a hit on the Bradley Smoker was our pastrami. We tried it on the Traeger. We used time on the Bradley to cook the pastrami, but we used a remote meat thermometer with a remote smoker temperature probe by Maverick to get the making of it done on the Traeger Li'l Tex. We started with a commercial corned beef and, after trimming the excess fat and tenderizing it with a multi-pronged meat tenderizer, rubbed a beer mustard marinade all over it and then covered that with a patted In layer of freshly ground coriander, black pepper, and powdered garlic. It went in the fridge the night before to marinate for 12 hours. We used mixed hickory and pecan pellets in the Traeger hopper. Turning the Li'l Tex to smoke we waited the five minutes for the fire to start. We left it on smoke and closed the lid until the smoker temperature indicated 180 degrees. Then the brisket went in fat side up with the meat probe inserted. We left it to smoke until the internal meat temperature reached 120 degrees, about three hours, then wrapped it in foil and turned the Traeger control to 275, the equivalent of medium on the switched control. It took another four hours for the internal temperature of the meat to reach 185 degrees. We turned the control back to smoke for another hour to make sure the meat would be evenly heated and tender. We wrapped the foil covered pastrami in a towel and let it cool for nearly an hour to reabsorb the moisture. It was just as good as the ones from our Bradley and lasted just about as long. We recommend it sliced thin and placed on a couple of slices of extra sour rye with baby Swiss, a dill pickle slice, and deli mustard.
We brought an 18" pizza home from Costco. We preheated the grill to 425 degrees and slid it in for about twelve minutes. It came out bubbly with a crisp crust and that wood fired smoke flavor underlying it. Shrimp took about fifteen minutes and one turn at top temperature to come out deliciously grilled. Kielbasa was smoked slowly to full doneness and then placed in a pan on the grill with sauerkraut and heated through for wonderful franks and kraut. T-bone steaks were fork tender and done perfectly. We used the meat thermometer here and it took about thirty minutes and one turning at the top temperature. Ribs were tender and smoky enough, although not as smoke filled as on the Bradley. A turkey breast marinated in Italian Dressing was wonderful and just smoky enough to enjoy.
Overall Impressions
It is nice to have a single, relatively compact (40" wide, 20" deep, and 49" high) outdoor cooking tool to smoke, grill, or bake with. In the hot summer months it saves heating the house with stove and oven. In the spring and fall it is a great reason to get outdoors. Even in the winter or when the rains come it is there to do your cooking. It has enough capacity for an average family or for a couple of friends. With the accessory smoking rack you can cook brisket or ribs or wings for the whole neighborhood. Compared to the hassle of charcoal or even propane or a water electric smoker, use and cleanup is just easy. The operation cost is minimal even with having to buy bags of pellets. This might be a good time to mention not to use the cheaper heating pellets if you want to eat the food you cook. Smoking cost is close to that of the Bradley and grilling cost is actually less than that of our Road Trip grill. With the three year warranty, the optional thermostatically controlled controller, the cover to protect it and the ease of use, we see it for a long time in our future.
Fantastic prices with ease & c...(Stock status: N/A)
All natural wood pellets are poured into the hopper. When you push the On switch, the hot rod activates for about 4 minutes, igniting the pellets in t...More at Amazon Marketplace
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