Pellet comparison

[Silver]

Not sure this is the right category. But the weber pellets def kick up less ash, seem harder to light. But def burn cleaner than traeger pellets. Traeger pellets light really fast compared to the weber pellets. But much more blowing around.
I personally will stick to the weber pellets going forward.

 

[abmet]

Not sure this is the right category. But the weber pellets def kick up less ash, seem harder to light. But def burn cleaner than traeger pellets. Traeger pellets light really fast compared to the weber pellets. But much more blowing around.
I personally will stick to the weber pellets going forward.

Thanks for sharing your experience between the two. Now I know to skip the Traeger ones. Have you tried Lumberjack? I’ve seen them recommended a lot but haven’t picked any up yet.

 

[Dadhastoomanygrills]

Not sure this is the right category. But the weber pellets def kick up less ash, seem harder to light. But def burn cleaner than traeger pellets. Traeger pellets light really fast compared to the weber pellets. But much more blowing around.
I personally will stick to the weber pellets going forward.

I’ve had a similar experience using Pit Boss pellets, as they are very inconsistent in size and blow tons of ash around in the cooker. Ive watched a lot of video from trendkill bbq. He uses lumberjack I believe and has very little ash built up in the cooker. Going to have to try it.

 

[RSchiers]

I have been using Treager for short hot grill cooks with no problems but yesterday I did a low and slow and the Treager pellets turned to what looked like a coked ash and it encased my ignitor and snuffed my fire pot out at the 7 hr Mark at 250F. I should have taken a picture of it but I was in a hurry to get my cook on again. I have a picture of piece of it after I broke it up. Now I really want to find some Weber pellets. This weekend I am doing a brisket so I am going to try some of the cooking pellets 40PM.

 

[eth555]

I have only used Lumberjack and the Weber brand of pellets, some have said Lumberjack makes the Weber pellets; which is a strong possibility. Lumberjack so far has been easy to get locally and the price is right is the primary reason I have been using them.

Traeger uses oil in their pellets for the "flavoring" instead of using the actual wood and there is a current lawsuit against them over misleading consumers over it, so I tend to stay away from the Traeger pellets.

Lawsuit claims Traeger Grills misleads customers about wood in pellets

Traeger Grills sued by customer claiming its wood pellets consist of more than the wood advertised on the package

www.statesmanjournal.com

 

[RSchiers]

I have only used Lumberjack and the Weber brand of pellets, some have said Lumberjack makes the Weber pellets; which is a strong possibility. Lumberjack so far has been easy to get locally and the price is right is the primary reason I have been using them.

Traeger uses oil in their pellets for the "flavoring" instead of using the actual wood and there is a current lawsuit against them over misleading consumers over it, so I tend to stay away from the Traeger pellets.

Lawsuit claims Traeger Grills misleads customers about wood in pellets

Traeger Grills sued by customer claiming its wood pellets consist of more than the wood advertised on the package

www.statesmanjournal.com

Do you know of an online retailer the sells them? No Weber pellets here locally yet. I found a couple of listings for lumberjack on Amazon but they were through 3rd party and I have not been impressed in the past with not buying from Amazon directly. Being in Utah everything here is Treager or Camp chef.

 

[eth555]

Here is the Lumberjack dealer locator, this might help to find locally.

Lumber Jack Retailers – Locate Lumber Jack Brand Heating & BBQ Pellets

lumberjackretailers.com

 

[RSchiers]

Here is the Lumberjack dealer locator, this might help to find locally.

Lumber Jack Retailers – Locate Lumber Jack Brand Heating & BBQ Pellets

lumberjackretailers.com

Thank you much sir.

 

[Frank Neher]

Thanks for sharing your experience between the two. Now I know to skip the Traeger ones. Have you tried Lumberjack? I’ve seen them recommended a lot but haven’t picked any up yet.

I used the theater apple ones and so far I like them.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

I have a question for those that have owned another pellet grill other than the smoke fire. What is your thoughts on the performance of the different pellets that you have used on your previous cookers? I am not talking about subjective things like flavor, smoke output, oils, wood blends.

Im talking about the actual objective performance of the pellets such as: Did the grill ignite, stay lit, get to temp? Was there noticeable less/more ash production? Did it coat/ruin the glow plug etc?

I ask because I have noticed an increased trend in discussions of particular brands of pellets regarding the performance of our smoke fire grills like I have never noticed before from other grill manufacturers. It is almost becoming a discussion on if Exxon, Chevron or Sunoco have better gas when the reality is they should all perform reasonably similar in our "cars." if that makes sense?

I have ran Traeger, Weber & Pitt Boss pellets through my Smokefire so far. To answer my own questions above: ALL of them ignited, cooked and created the same amount of ash as each other in my opinion. The Pitt Boss pellets from Lowes had TONS of dust but the same from Walmart were as clean as the Weber that came with the grill. The Traeger pellets had the most uniform size and just a little more dust than the Weber. The Weber by FAR was the most inconsistent in size of all of them. The Weber did not coat hardly anything on my glow plug. The PItt Boss had a thin white substance. The Traeger had a greyish blackish film.

If we are having issues between pellets it may be time to question part(s) of the cooker or programing or especially the glow plug/glow plug installation. I only say this because I have limited pellet grill experience but I have had no issues swapping around pellets in my Austin XL and my family has no issues on their Traeger's and Camp Chefs.

The Pellet uniformity issue to me is a no brainer non problem. Im not an expert but common sense tells me that regardless of most normal pellet length, the payloads dropped in the pot should have pretty much the same mass regardless of pellet size due to the function of the auger (if it fits in the auger properly does it matter if they are long as stick or as small as a tic tac? Wouldn't the total mass in the auger be the same?) Furthermore, the Webers are the MOST inconsistent in length of all of them and any pellets I have seen so I just do not get the pellet size being a problem. Yes I know there will be an argument between heat output and burn time between pellet sizes/surface area and its a totally legit argument but then again....The Weber pellets are the most inconsistent in size.

So that brings me to the glow plug system. Either the temperature output, duration of cycling on and off, etc. Never seen a glow plug change color too much dependent upon pellet type.

Just my .02. Sorry for the long post but would love some feedback.

 

[RSchiers]

I have a question for those that have owned another pellet grill other than the smoke fire. What is your thoughts on the performance of the different pellets that you have used on your previous cookers? I am not talking about subjective things like flavor, smoke output, oils, wood blends.

Im talking about the actual objective performance of the pellets such as: Did the grill ignite, stay lit, get to temp? Was there noticeable less/more ash production? Did it coat/ruin the glow plug etc?

I ask because I have noticed an increased trend in discussions of particular brands of pellets regarding the performance of our smoke fire grills like I have never noticed before from other grill manufacturers. It is almost becoming a discussion on if Exxon, Chevron or Sunoco have better gas when the reality is they should all perform reasonably similar in our "cars." if that makes sense?

I have ran Traeger, Weber & Pitt Boss pellets through my Smokefire so far. To answer my own questions above: ALL of them ignited, cooked and created the same amount of ash as each other in my opinion. The Pitt Boss pellets from Lowes had TONS of dust but the same from Walmart were as clean as the Weber that came with the grill. The Traeger pellets had the most uniform size and just a little more dust than the Weber. The Weber by FAR was the most inconsistent in size of all of them. The Weber did not coat hardly anything on my glow plug. The PItt Boss had a thin white substance. The Traeger had a greyish blackish film.

If we are having issues between pellets it may be time to question part(s) of the cooker or programing or especially the glow plug/glow plug installation. I only say this because I have limited pellet grill experience but I have had no issues swapping around pellets in my Austin XL and my family has no issues on their Traeger's and Camp Chefs.

The Pellet uniformity issue to me is a no brainer non problem. Im not an expert but common sense tells me that regardless of most normal pellet length, the payloads dropped in the pot should have pretty much the same mass regardless of pellet size due to the function of the auger (if it fits in the auger properly does it matter if they are long as stick or as small as a tic tac? Wouldn't the total mass in the auger be the same?) Furthermore, the Webers are the MOST inconsistent in length of all of them and any pellets I have seen so I just do not get the pellet size being a problem. Yes I know there will be an argument between heat output and burn time between pellet sizes/surface area and its a totally legit argument but then again....The Weber pellets are the most inconsistent in size.

So that brings me to the glow plug system. Either the temperature output, duration of cycling on and off, etc. Never seen a glow plug change color too much dependent upon pellet type.

Just my .02. Sorry for the long post but would love some feedback.

I have always thought Weber asking if you were using their pellets was silly. I imagine there are not to many different processes for extruding wood chips. Might only be a few plants making them and throwing them in different brand bags like most power tools. But when I had the crusted up crap build all over the ignitor I decided not to make assumptions. I am now dying to get my hands on Weber pellets to see if the same thing happens. My Treager renegade that I used hard for 2 years made just as much ash. The fire pot would get the same crusty build up just not as much. My camp chef DX Pro made way less ash and the ash clean out pot was awesome, but you still had to clean up the barrel regularly. Both units I had grease fires in multiple times. If you did not clean every few cooks you would be reminded to by melting paint.

 

[AHoneyman]

I have heard several comments about pellet size and whether that would affect SmokeFire startup. So I got out my calipers.

Weber Comp. - 0.216 to 0.220 inches
Cabelas Comp. - 0.22 inches
Lumberjack Hickory - tight at 0.222 inches

Pit Boss Comp - 0.255 to 0.260 inches
Smokehouse Mix - 0.270 inches
Scheel's Pork Comp. - 0.260 to 0.270
B&B Comp. - 0.253 to 0.256
Bear Mountain - 0.270

Meathead at AmazingRibs found a difference using Weber for startup. I would not argue with that. It may be due to size only. I would bet that Lumberjack pellets work fine also in the SmokeFire based upon their size alone. The Pit Boss is an ~20% increase in diameter (and volume). This may cause problems for pellet flow into the firebox and burnt ash falling out of the firebox in some cases.

I have tried all of these and I just keep getting better performance with the smaller diameter pellets.

 

[Bruno]

Do you know of an online retailer the sells them? No Weber pellets here locally yet. I found a couple of listings for lumberjack on Amazon but they were through 3rd party and I have not been impressed in the past with not buying from Amazon directly. Being in Utah everything here is Treager or Camp chef.

Weber, FREE shipping after $50 3 bags will get you there but I usually order 4 because they send em 2 in a box.
Got 4 bags of grill master blend coming today. I have all the other woods but I love this grill master blend.
Going to go hickory on a pork shoulder this weekend.

 

[RSchiers]

Weber, FREE shipping after $50 3 bags will get you there but I usually order 4 because they send em 2 in a box.
Got 4 bags of grill master blend coming today. I have all the other woods but I love this grill master blend.
Going to go hickory on a pork shoulder this weekend.

Sweet thanks for the heads up. I found a Lowe's a few city's away from me that has the grillmaster and the hickory. The Weber pellets burn way cleaner and coke the ignitor way less than they Treager pellets were. I feel they have a more genuine smoke flavor that is more close to stick burning.

 

[abmet]

If you have Westlake/Ace Hardware mine delivers for free if over $50 as well. Not sure if that started before COVID-19.