So this year we bought a Rec Tec (recteq) grill smoker. There was a thread where I had made mention of getting one and was asked to do a review. So here it goes...

If anyone has questions that I don’t answer below, ask away. I’ll try to answer, and if I don’t have an answer, I may have to try it out on the grill and tell you the outcome.

I chose a recteq because of the temp control and reviews of the smokiness. I also like that the fire pot is in the center and not on one side. Keeps the heat more even throughout the grill so there isn’t a hot side and a cold side. The temp control is great. If you set it to 225, over the course if a 10 hour smoke, it varied by ten degrees two times. Aside of that it was always within ten degrees of the set temp. My old Traeger had around a 100 degree swing. It heated not by temp, but by timer. The dial showed temps, but all the did was speed up or slow down the auger. The recteq has the temperature dialed in.

I bought mine on Black Friday. The grills never go on sale, but sometimes they bundle stuff with the grill. I bought the RT590 and it came with the competition cart for free. It’s a $300 value and it sure is a hell if a lot nicer than the spindly legs that are stock. That’s the one thing that I think is a little lame. A grill this size and cost, should have some beefier legs.

It showed up via UPS freight. Because I live in a black hole, shipping took longer than expected. It was worth the wait. The grill was well palletized, and was in one hell of a nice box. Every part was wrapped in protective foam or bubble wrap. That was a nice plus. Not a scratch on anything.

Build quality is second to none as far as grills go. Everything fits extremely well. Tolerances are tight. As you assemble it all just fits together correctly. Not having to make adjustments or engineer anything differently. It was super easy to assemble and for a grill, that’s saying something. There is high temp RTV on all the seams. It’s pretty impressive. The pellet hopper also holds 30 lbs of pellets, so the whole bag fits in there without a partial bag kicking around. There is also a lot of stainless, which makes it pretty sweet looking. The drip system is pretty great. The drip tray drains into a trough that then exits the grill. The drip bucket is very secure and won’t just fall off. The Traeger had a little shitty tab, and the damn drip bucket fell off more than once. This design, if your drip bucket falls, you were probably doing something stupid around a hot grill.

One downside is that it looks like it’ll be a pain in the ass to switch out pellets.

The wifi setup is a complete pain in the ass. If you have a dual band router, you have to kill the 5ghz side if the router to get it connected. Once connected you can fire up the other band. It’s just a stupid PITA.

It will take a few cooks to get used to the temp. I was so used to my Traeger’s temps (225° being closer to a constant 300°) that when I set the recteq to 225, it’s really 225. I’m used to a hotter smoker, so I’m excited to do some more on this one.

The first thing I cooked was a couple steaks. The drip tray is wrapped in tin foil. I set it to FULL. This is basically continuous feeding of the fire pot. It gets hot. I was impressed that it got to 600° and I believe it went a little hotter, but stopped registering temps at 600°. It was nice to cook a couple steaks at that temp. They came out pretty fantastic.

Now to the brisket. Drip tray is still wrapped in foil from the steaks. I gave it a dry rub and brought it up to around 55° sitting on the countertop. It went on and smoked for almost ten hours. This would have been a seven hour cook on the hotter running Traeger. Here I had to raise the temps from 225 to 265 then to 325 as the wife was wanting to eat before 10 pm. Next time I will start a lot earlier. This was the point of a 16 pound brisket. Probably weighed around 9 pounds.

The built in probe system is great. Reads accurately and has a nice probe hole to slip them through. Probes are nice and long. Wires to probes are plenty long as well.

It was smokey. I was surprised that a clean burning pellet stove would give off so much smoke. It really smokes a lot. Aside of the brisket I smoked some sausages to add to the Texas beans I was making. They made the dish Smokey which is what I was after. The brisket had a nice smoke ring. I have another brisket in the freezer, so I’ll be smoking that this coming weekend.

All in all I am happy I bought this. It is one hell of an upgrade over the Traeger. The build quality is far better, as well as it being a lot of stainless. The temp control is amazing, and as accurate as my oven. The amount I’d smoke produced is astounding.

I highly recommend one if you’re looking for a pellet grill/smoker.


























These are the steaks from the first cook on the grill at 600°+.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beancooker,

Welcome to the fold, my friend! I've been running a RT-700 for two years now. My experience pretty much mirrors yours. My first pellet pooper was a Traeger Lil' Tex Elite. The RecTeq is everything the Traeger wasn't and I enjoy having access to hotter temps. I even cook breakfast bacon and sausages on mine.

Tony.

I also just got a new Rec Teq, a 380 BullsEye. More of a grill than a smoker, which is good for the foods I cook. I was getting tired of dealing with the charcoal.

Only used it once so far, but worked nice and meal turned out good. Doing some Pork Ribs tomorrow night.

Oh this has me intrigued. I use the shit out of my Traeger but will probably need a replacement in the next year or so.

For those that need more grill area, here's my RT-700 when I unboxed mine...


The RT-700 boasts a 40 pound pellet hopper.

Good for pizza too. Here are two large pizzas from Papa Murphy's. You can fit two family size pizzas in there, and we've done it before. Gives a great taste to the pizza too, since it's real wood-fire.


Brisket...


Burgers...


And anything else your heart desires!

Benny, you are over on BBQ-Brethren also, no? Too coincidental to have 2 people on forums I belong to having a rec tec and papa murphy's pizzas.

Great review!!!

I am in the market for a smoker and you have addressed some of my concerns.

I am torn between the Yoder YS640 and the Recteq 700.

My main concern with the Recteq is that it doesn't get as hot as the Yoder and I would like to be able to sear steaks. It looks like that was not a problem for your unit.

I will stay tuned to this thread since I am leaning Recteq!



.

Excellent review.
This has made up my mind about ordering one. It'll be a while since there's snow everywhere but I'm planning on Spring 2021.
I still love my Weber kettle and I'll use it for smaller smokes but the pellet will be used for brisket and the like.

One thing to note on the recteq and searing, and this is speculation and not confirmed...

I don’t have the stock legs. I have the competition cart. It’s thick steel for what it is, and completely encloses the bottom of the grill. It is open at the bottom, but the metal seems like it would shield the bottom of the grill from the ambient air. I would think that this could allow it to get a little hotter than normal.

As I said, this is pure speculation.

Love my 700. The temp monitoring is awesome along wit the customer service. Changing out pellets is a pain though. I wish they put in a drop chute at the bottom of the hopper to make it easy. I just never really fill mine in case I want to switch. I end up using a small tupperware container to scoop stuff out.

I love doing overnight cooks as you don't have to worry about anything and allows you to pretty much eat things whenever you want. You can set the alarms on your phone to go off if need be.

I love my 700. We use it at least weekly. I wish I would have e gotten the front shelf and the thermal blanket for winter use. I’ll be ordering them soon.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Benny, you are over on BBQ-Brethren also, no? Too coincidental to have 2 people on forums I belong to having a rec tec and papa murphy's pizzas.

Yes, I am! I did see your comments on my "brisket is too meaty" thread.

BBQbrethren is where I go for inspiration. They are true artists over there.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Benny, you are over on BBQ-Brethren also, no? Too coincidental to have 2 people on forums I belong to having a rec tec and papa murphy's pizzas.

Yes, I am! I did see your comments on my "brisket is too meaty" thread.

BBQbrethren is where I go for inspiration. They are true artists over there.

Tony.

Cool. I may have to get a pellet smoker at some point. I love my stick burner but the idea of set it and forget it does have it's advantages.

Like others, I have the RT 700 and love it. I’ve had mine for over 5 years and not a minutes problem. My router was not an issue, I could easily see both bands so setup was simple. I’ve never tried to change pellets, far to much work. I simply buy the competition blend from Amazon and call it done!

Happy smoking!!

Love my RT-700 too. I use the "grill Grates" when I do steaks and fire the 700 up to high. Works great!