Ive had this grill for about 18 months. Cook on it all the time. Also have a Weber gas grill and a smoker (almost never use smoker anymore). This grill is halfway inbetween the other two.
The pros: That said, as a result it is light and easy to move around with great wheels unlike some other grill behemoths that require a crane to move. I love the pellets which are cheap and easy to order online (dont order the traeger brand, it is like 20% the species advertised, and for the same price can get 100% from other sources, and package shows up right to your door). The $20 worth of pellets give about 20 hours grill time for about $1/hour. You can easily see how many pellets are left by lifting up hopper lid, way easier than with propane guesstimates. The best thing about the traeger grills is that they NEVER catch your food on fire. You can cook your roast overnight without checking it once. It will be fine. Think of it as a oven with smoke flavoring that wont stink the house. There doesnt seem to be as many hot spots as with most gas grill I have owned, cooking is relatively uniform.
The cons: It has a maximum temperature of maybe 375 if you never open it, and 325 if you check your food frequently. It just doesnt make enough heat and has thin exterior with no insulation, and not enough mass to maintain temp if you open the cover. Many things you cook will barely have any searing marks, kind of looks baked at low temperature. As a result I sometimes brown the food on gas grill and then switch to the Traeger. It wont get hot enough to self clean. If you do salmon and dont change the aluminum foil and brush the grill (five minutes total) and then make beef jerky it will taste like salmon. (ask me how I know. the dog still loved it though). There is more maintenance in that you have to remove ashes and change the aluminum foil about every 10th use (wear disposable gloves). Some people have reported mechanical breakdowns. I havent had any, but do try to keep it covered (its still been rained on a few times, but mechanically and cosmetically still perfect). The grease bucket catches rain water and fills up (should have been better designed, owner could probably fix this problem with a little creativity but it hasnt bothered me that much).
What it does great: bacon (wow), ribs, chicken, breads, vegetables, jerkey, slow roasting meats already browned on gas grill without fear of catching fire
What it cant do: hamburgers, searing steaks (just cant get hot enough)
What it can do but i prefer to do on gas grill: hot dogs, brats, fish, pork chops (it just kills me to wait 20 min to get traeger up and running for these fast grilling foods)
Update 10/10/11: Am cooking a whole salmon in a 40 mph snowstorm in 25 degrees here in chicago. My Weber Platinum LP grill blew out 4 times in 30 minutes. Switched to the Traeger. It hasn't blown out yet. Sweet! The salmons almost done. It is maintaining 350 (set to 375) but Ive only opened a couple times.
In short I think it makes a great second grill. Too many common things it just cant do and too long a startup time to be primary grill. I wind up using my weber gas grill 50% of the time. What it does do though often just cant be done on a gas grill. Convenience vastly exceeds all other forms of woodburning stoves but some reports of mechanical breakdowns. You can make a complete meal on this grill, I do it all the time (set to 350, throw on some buttered asparagus, biscuits from those cardboard tubes, and meat of choice: BAM done with no dishes).
Update 11/25/12: changed wording above to make the Traeger the preferred grill for chicken, previously was the gas grill but changed my mind. This increased my Traeger use to 50% from 40%. The lack of grease fires and char on the Traeger make a more convenient better chicken.
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Recently purchased from Costco during one of their road shows. I was in the market for a regular propane type grill, however the sales display and salesman caught my eye. I am a skeptic, but decided to try something new since it was from Costco and if I didn't like it I knew they would stand behind the product or take it back. When we got it home and opened the box, the grill grate was bent and there were bare spots where the black porcelain coating had come off. Not a good start since we live 20 miles from Costco and I had to return the whole thing because they wouldn't just replace the grate. Luckily I hadn't assembled anything so this wasn't too much of a problem. When we returned the salesman was very apologetic and we selected another grill/box. Upon opening this box, it was obvious that things had been mismatched, the cooking book apeared used and was falling apart (they immediately gave us a brand new one on the spot). Other than this rocky start, things got much better. I found out that if your grill has welded legs on it then it was made in the U.S. If it has bolt on legs, it was made in China. Ours had bolt on legs, but OK. The assembly instructions were not very clear regarding hardware, the part numbers listed for the bolts/screws were labled with double letters such as AA, BB, CC etc, however the instruction booklet referred to the parts by numbers so what screws/bolts to use for which parts was best guess process. The bolts/screw hardware package was obviously a last minute add in from another grill, the hardware package had been opened with tape on the back closing it up. All of this aside, once assembled I found the grill to be sturdy and fairly well made. We had read previous reviews about substandard construction, however I found this one to be well made.
Pros Easy to assemble, just bolt on the legs and plug it in. Starts and works very well, food cooks well and is everything they advertise regarding flavor and set/leave ease of cooking procedure until done. I was quite impressed. The salesman was correct, we probably won't go back to a propane grill having tasted this, it is phenomenal. No more burning food or flare ups, start up procedure and cooking is very simple, it is very easy to clean using a shop vac to clean out the fire pot and pellet ash etc. Lining the drip pan with aluminum foil as recommended is a must and makes cleaning that very easy. No more propane refills etc. The cover that came with the grill is of good quality and I recommend a cover to keep the rain and elements away from the hopper and inside of the grill and electrical components although the salesman said it would be fine outside without one. It has a built in thermometer and digital display setting for temperature control which is nice.
Cons Most people accostomed to propane grills are used to a completely self contained unit, turn on the gas and start the grill. This grill requires an electrical outlet to operate. There is no under grill storage area for gloves or cleaning tools. Other than the hopper, there is no place to store additional pellets (although I suppose this is the same as having to store an additonal propane tank). There is ash that must be cleaned from the grill with a shop vac every few uses which means you have to remove the grate, grease pan and heat shield for cleaning, however this process is very simple. Used as a smoker forget it, this grill will not truly smoke any of your food. While it smokes at start up for a few minutes, once it gets started even on smoke setting) the smoke goes away. We have not been able to get this to actually smoke our food. There are more moving parts to go wrong. There is an auger, a fan, a heating rod, dgital temperature control etc. If the igniter fails on a propane grill it is easy to start by turning on the gas and applying a flame. This unit requires many more steps. If the heating rod fails you must remove the grate, drip pan and heat shield then apply a starter gel to the pellets in the burn pot, light the pellets manually and then replace everything. We have not had to do this as ours works as advertised, but if there was ever a failure of the components there will be more steps to be able to cook until replacement parts arrive. You also have to have a pellet dealer near you, it's not like you can just go to any propane source to refill the tank.
Buying this grill was quite a change in philosophy for us since we have always had propane grills. Most of the cons are easily overcome. Having said all of the above, I really like this grill and will not return to a propane grill. The taste of the food is just incredible and the pros, ease of starting, ease of cleaning and taste of the food outweigh the cons to me.
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WE have an older unit, owned it for over 4 years and we have used it probably 10 times a month at least, so it's well used. We had a ton of issues with our unit that first year, it just seemed we had parts giving out constantly that first year. We stuck with Treager as the customer support was great, and they new exactly what was wrong and sent new parts out in quick fashion. I'm a mechanic so swapping out things wasn't an issue for me and it is a easy unit to work on if you need to do so. I think Treager knew they had some issues and fixed them with better manufactured parts. That first year I replaced 3 hot rods, a fan, an auger motor and a thermostat which when you look at the unit, that about sums up the working parts! But everything has worked great since, nothing has broken in 3 years + and it's eaten literally a ton of pellets or more..
One thing to note on Treagers, they do act like a convection oven as well, there is a fan that blows air over the pellet pot to help keep the pellets burning and so there is a good deal of air circulating in the unit so just know it isn't a slow smoking unit like others, but it does a great job, adds a ton of flavor but if your looking for something to smoke your salmon, I'm not sure this is the unit, I tried just that, and it really created more of a jerky salmon! I've tried various angles to get it to make that terrific pacific smoked salmon I get while in Alaska and it just can't pull it off... Also the Treager cook book that comes with it, not the greatest, the recipes aren't tested, and they leave you guessing what to do and a lot of them can cause you to over cook things in quick order.....
Pellet costs can be high, we shop around and buy from stores like Cabelas and have them delivered to the store so there aren't any shipping costs....
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I love my this smoker! This is my very first smoker and it could not be easier to use. You simply turn it on and it will do the rest. I have done salmon, ribs, and chicken the taste was excellent. I have no problems reaching temps over 400 degrees.
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the most amazing machine we have ever used. simply the best and simplest to use. the smell is to die for. husband was thrilled at the birthday gift, son says he cant leave home with out one.....and yes, he is definitely old enough to leave....
