I am thinking about buying our son a Traeger smoker/grill for Christmas and I know nothing about them. All I know is he wants one with Wifi. I would like to stay under $1500

I would appreciate your thoughts

I really hope this helps you.

We were gifted with a ~10 year old Trager Elite BBQ 07e last year and were amazed at the great results. But we quickly realized that we could use something with more capacity so my son and I evaluated the current line up.

We really didn't need or want all the latest bells and whistles like WiFi and quickly found that the 34 Pro was perfect for our needs including entertaining. We've been enjoying it tremendously and haven't looked back.

Since your son WANTS WiFi look at the Model 780 which is the essentially the same as ours but with the additional electronics. The 34 Pro is usually $750 - $799 but currently available everywhere for around $600. Where the 780 will run you around $850 down from $999 for the holidays. Personally I can't see paying all that extra just for the additional electronics. The capacity of these two models is quite similar with the 34Pro having slightly larger grill area!
https://www.meatsmokinghq.com/...r-pro-34-vs-pro-780/

The next step up in the Traeger line up is much much more expensive and unless he wants to smoke enough to feed the entire neighborhood these models I cite should provide plenty capacity for him.

Our 34 Pro pictured here sitting next to the old Elite model which we gifted to friends.

I got a rectec and have been very happy with it.

I’ve had a recteq for a few years and I couldn’t be happier. Mostly all stainless, and all stainless where it counts. Best grill and options I have ever had. Central fire pit makes a more even smoker. Great smoker and grill.
In the summer I have gotten it up to 550° cooking steaks. So it grills pretty well too.

https://www.recteq.com/

The word in the bbq community is that Traeger ain’t what it used to be. I have a Rec Teq 1250 and love it. Great warranty too!

quote:

The word in the bbq community is that Traeger ain’t what it used to be.

I've heard the same.

My buddy has a Green Mountain and is happy with it.

I have a Green Mountain

I bought a Masterbuilt 800 gravity feed charcoal smoker etc last year about this time. It also came with a griddle top which we’ve yet to use but have used the grill smoker numerous times and have been nothing but happy with it. My brother has been a died in the wool pellet grill guy for 10 plus years and he was impressed with it. It’s Wi-Fi capable. I did one turkey the Saturday before thanksgiving and put it on and left for 3 and half hours and monitored it while we were gone and it worked great. Did another Thanksgiving morning and never went back outside after I put it on other than to take it off when it reached desired internal temp. I know everyone has a preferred way they like things but I’ve been nothing but satisfied with it. Had it running for about 13 hours total with both turkeys and went thru 3/4 of a 20 pound bag of charcoal. I do on occasion put fruit wood discs in for a more Smokey flavor but not our whole crew goes for the smoked flavor so we just went with a more traditional cook on these past turkeys. Everyone loved them.

I have a traeger ironwood 650. It’s WiFi enabled. What’s cool is I can adjust temp and keep track of time remotely on my phone. I’ve set a brisket at 7am on Mother’s Day. Gone to church and was able to monitor temp remote. Done pork ribs and a quick burger grill as well. If it had not been an employee gift from my company I wouldn’t have spent $1400 on it or whatever the retail was at the time. Came with all kinds of accessories and a few bags of pellets. You can do quick cooks as well doesn’t have to be all day monster cuts of meat.

But, I still prefer to bbq over briquettes in my Weber kettle. Only because I’ve been using that for over 30 years

Super convenient if you’re doing a 6-12 hour or longer smoke and you absolutely need to keep a steady temp. Which is much more difficult with real wood or briquettes.

There’s a huge community of support and and basically whatever you want to cook, just type that in YouTube + traeger and you will likely get a video on how to do it. It makes doing very long cooks pretty fool proof.

If you do 1-2 briskets a year… man I can just go out and eat at a bbq place. If you do one a month or more frequent and you cook meat multiple times a week then yeah

i would like to know some USA made units

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
i would like to know some USA made units

USA units are far and few. Most of the pellet grills out there are nearly entirely made in the PRC except for maybe the barrels. There are apparently some however if you’re willing to vote with your dollar.

FWIW, I have a Traeger Costco unit I bought a few years ago. Had a complete warranty replacement of, literally, everything but the barrel when the grill died last winter. The electronics, auger, etc replacement unit they sent me was a one piece pre-manufactured set made in China. Traeger couldn’t just send me the specific parts I needed. The service tech I worked with advised me to salvage any still-working original parts as I may need them in the future. And damned if she was right because about six months after my warranty replacement the “new” fan on the replacement unit quit. Fixed it by replacing the then “like-new” Chinese electric fan with the USA made electric fan the grill came with originally.

In the end, the warranty worked out great for me as I snuck in just before it expired but I wouldn’t buy Traeger again.

Here’s a couple of sources I found when I had that question.

https://www.allamericanmade.co...-grills-made-in-usa/

https://grillsmokelove.com/pellet-grills-made-in-usa/

Right, basically all made in china.

Here is a list of USA made.

Blazin Grill works.
Kando gear
Lone star grillz
Mak grills
Myron Mixon Smokers
Pitts and Spitts
Smokin Bros.
Twin Eagles Pellet grills
Yoder Smokers
And to a degree Weber

All will run you in excess of $2k

You get what you pay for.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: old rugged cross,

Bald1 has given you the best run down so far. I have a Traeger that I bought from Costco. It's my first smoker; I'm happy with it. It's the most well-known brand for non-pellet smoker afficionados. But it does have pretty good customer support for technical stuff and recipes. From watching YouTube videos, there's no knock on Traeger but I think you are paying a premium for the brand name.

I agree the wifi is pretty essential. It allows you to monitor and control temps from inside the house or if you're out and about.

Recteq all the way! I have the RT-700 and it works great! It's got the WiFi, two temp probes and the mobile app.

Traegers are made of carbon steel and rust easily. The RT's are made of staniless (mostly) and mine lasting much longer than the Traeger.

I gifted my Traeger many years ago when I upgraded.

Recteq controllers were made in the US while the body was MIC, but I don't know if that's still the case. It was when I bought mine in 2017.

Tony.