The Best Pellet Smokers Reviews for 2019 – Your Complete Guide

Pellet grills or smokers use an electronically controlled thermostat and feeding system to feed wood pellets into the smoker. This allows the smoker to keep an even, predictable heat by adding wood as needed.

Unlike pellet stoves, the wood pellets made for smokers are food safe and can be had in a variety of wood types and flavors to suit the foods being smoked or grilled.

What We Liked:

• Versatility: The Elite 34 is an all in one grilling machine, able to smoke, bake, roast, braise, barbecue, and (of course) grill to perfection. If you wanted you could use the Elite 34 as your only means of cooking and do just fine, which is what we like to see in a product.
• Electronic Ignition: The Elite 34 ignites pellets with a hot rod deep inside its mechanism, making the usually tedious task of lighting pellets as easy as flipping a switch.
• Precise Temperature Control: Working with the above, the Elite 34 can be adjusted to within 20 degrees Fahrenheit of the heat setting, allowing more precise cooking than other grills. No more guesswork and fiddling endlessly with your smoke holes.
• Huge Capacity: Both the grilling space (a whopping 646 square inches; enough to cook eight whole chickens side by side) and hopper (18 lbs of pellets; about 36 hours of smoking and 7 hours of grilling before needing a refill) are huge, and make large batch grilling a breeze.

What We Didn’t Like:

• No Included Accessories: The Traeger Elite 34 is an advanced, well made grilling machine but lacks any additional pieces that could be considered standard for most grills. The lack of side tables and under cart storage in particular stand out, and make using the grill a slight annoyance without any built in convenient place to put utensils or sauces.
• Primitive Grease Catcher: With how forward thinking and advanced the rest of the grill is, the grease catcher being a simple bucket hanging beside a hole is odd. Plenty of grills have cracked the tech of bottom mounted, screw on or slide in grease catchers that stay out of the way and are easy to remove and clean, without the danger of bumping them and sending hot grease flying everywhere.

Specs

• 46 sq. Inch of cooking space
• Style: Pellet Grill 6-in-1 Versatility
• Color: Brown
• Material: Stainless Steel
• Dimensions: 22 x 54 x 49 inches
• Weight: 150 pounds

Pros

• 6-in-1 grill
• Easy to set-up and Use
• Perfect Size for the At-Home Cook

Cons

• A little bit expensive

What We Liked:

• Small and Portable: The Davy Crocket weighs only 68 lbs, and is designed for tailgating, camping, and similar pursuits. This makes it a unique and interesting pellet grill that can really vary up your mobile grilling experience.
  
  
• Huge Hopper Capacity: The Davy Crocket holds 17 lbs of pellets, an enormous amount for its small size (only 1 lb less than the Traeger grills above, which are four times the size). This makes it easy to fill it once, throw whatever you want to smoke on, and relax to enjoy the game or whatever pursuits your campsite has to offer, freeing you a bit from the role the grill master usually plays where cooking detracts from you having fun with everyone else.
  
  
• Extremely Adjustable: The Davy Crocket has a temperature range of 150 to 550 degrees, and can be adjusted in 5 degree increments, making it an extraordinarily precise smoker.
  
  
• Convenient: This smoker can be controlled via a mobile app that gives you an accurate mobile readout of the internal temperature, and can be controlled via wifi!

What We Didn’t Like:

• Grease Catcher: Much like the Traeger Lil Tex grills above, its grease catcher is a simple bucket attached to a grease chute. This one fares even worse, as it is precariously perched on the clope of the chute and likely to slip once the bucket gets heavy enough.
  
  
• Leg Design: The legs are close together and constructed similarly to a folding beach chair. This raises concerns about the longevity of the grill, as those kinds of legs are prone to being wobbly on anything but completely level ground (like pavement) and bending over time.

Specs

• Style: Gas TRU-Infrared
• Color: Black
• Material: Stainless Steel
• Dimensions: 32.1 x 16.5 x 20.9 inches
• Weight: 57.3 pounds

Pros

• Includes Sense-Mate for easy use and monitoring
• Easy to move and portable
• Good design

Cons

• Problem with hot spots if not use properly

What We Liked

• Easy to Use: The Select Elite is a pellet smoker with the ease of use of an electric or electronically started propane grill. Ignition is performed with the simple turn of a knob, saving time and reducing risk of burns. The temperature can be controlled with 20 degrees Fahrenheit of the ideal temperature, ensuring perfect and thoroughly cooked meat every time.
• Versatility: The Select Elite can grill, bake, braise, barbecue, roast, and smoke, making it an entire kitchen in one convenient package.
• Storage and Counter Space: The Select Elite has enough counter space to do all your prep work right by the grill with no other tabletop necessary, and the under grill storage capacity is just enough to tore all of your grilling utensils and materials out of the way and neatly arranged.
• Spacious: 589 square inches is larger than average, and enough to cook meals for multiple families on one grill space. 20 burgers, five whole chickens, six racks of ribs, or any combination of other foods of similar size can be cooked all at once. The 18 lb hopper capacity provides longevity and reduces the need for refilling the hopper with pellets constantly (one of the worst chores involving a pellet smoker).

What We Didn’t Like:

• Price: The Traeger Select Elite charges a premium for the storage cart and table space, prompting a question on whether the reduced hassle is worth the vastly increased price over similar Traeger grills like the Lil Tex series, which are simpler and cheaper.
• Wheels: The wheels are simple caster wheels which lock, and are quite small for the grill’s size and weight. This makes it portable but prone to wiggling when you don’t want it to.

Specs

• 589 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: Original Wood-pellet Grill
• Color: Brown
• Material: Stainless Steel
• Dimensions: 57 x 25 x 46 inches
• Weight: 122 pounds

Pros

• Versatile grill
• Easy to use and move around
• Quality made material

Cons

• Quite heavy

What We Liked

• Large Hopper Capacity: An 18 lb hopper capacity give you freedom to only load this pellet grill once for an entire grilling or smoking day, making it an efficient use of your time and effort.
• Electronic Ignition: Easily ignite and keep aflame the pellets with the electronic heat rod ignition from just one twist of the knob. Other internal components keep the flame hot and pellets cycling through for long term, no hassle smoking and grilling.
• Convenient Side Table: Attached side table give you a place to sit your utensils and sauces without needing another table, though there is not enough space for full prep work to be done just on the grill’s attached table.
• Ash Catcher: Ash catcher is bottom mounted and slides out to easily empty and replace without getting in the way.

What We Didn’t Like

• Poor Smokestack Placement: The position of the smoke stack makes it likely for your lid to bump it when opened, reducing the range that the grill’s top can open. It also makes it more likely that even a slight wind could send your grill top crashing back closed.
• Small Grill Capacity: 429 square inches is not a good size for the price, particularly with all of the other flaws this grill has. It compares unfavorably to the Lil Tex Elite 22 in this regard, which prices the same but is overall higher quality.
• High Temperature Variance: Average temperature variance is between 15 and 30 degrees, making it less accurate than many other pellet smokers on the market. This increases the amount of monitoring you need to do to ensure your food doesn’t over or under cook or get scorched.
• Quality Control: Some users report problems with shipping and the grill arriving damaged or defective in other ways (such as faulty electronic ignition). While the grill is under warranty, it is still a hassle to ship back a product this large and heavy (140 lbs).

Specs

• 570 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: Hopper Pellet Grill
• Color: Bronze
• Material: Steel
• Dimensions: 41.5 x 25.5 x 22.5 inches
• Weight: 127 pounds

Pros

• Quick and easy to use
• Reasonable price
• Perfect for outdoor cooking

Cons

• The ash removal system is quite hard to open

What We Liked:

• Hopper Capacity: While the grill itself is small, the Lil Tex Elite 22 shares the same 18 lb hopper capacity as the Lil Tex Elite 34, giving it the same 7 hour grill capacity and 36 hours of smoking time as its larger brother.
• Electronic Ignition: The twist of a knob heats the electric heating rod inside the grill, safely and quickly igniting the pellets inside. As an added bonus the temperature of the grill interior can be adjusted with the knob to within 20 degrees of the ideal temperature, increasing your control over how the meal is cooked and ensuring it will never be over or under cooked.
• Versatile: Anything the Lil Tex Elite 34 can do the Elite 22 can do as well, perfectly baking, roasting, braising, grilling, smoking, and of course barbecuing anything you throw on it. The only limits are your imagination.

What We Didn’t Like

• Small Grilling Space: 418 square inches is fine for a lower end grill, but the Elite 22 is decidedly not one of those. The smaller space makes it more limited in its applications, being mostly limited to grilling for a single family’s needs. Which feeds right into…
• Price: The Lil Tex Elite 22 is about half as good as the Elite 34, at decidedly more than half the price. The price difference is small enough that serious consideration should be given to just going up to the Elite 34 if you feel you are ever (even if only rarely) going to be hosting barbecues with a large enough number of guests. The time and hassle saved in those situations with the almost double grill space is well worth the bump in the long term.
• Primitive Grease Bucket: Similarly to the Elite 34, the simple “bucket next to a chute” design is strange and unwelcome. Particularly if your grill is set in some high traffic area, the design could lead to a lot of frustration and unnecessary cleanup.

Specs

• 418 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: 6-in-1 Original Wood Grill
• Color: Bronze
• Material: Stainless Steel
• Dimensions: 42 x 22 x 49 inches
• Weight: 98 pounds

Pros

• Perfect size for small kitchen
• Comes with Insulating Blanket
• Stylish design

Cons

• Old style, might not be for everyone

What We Liked:

• Electronic Ignition: A single button flip is enough to ignite the pellets, and electronic temperature control allows for easily adjustable and accurate interior temperatures for grilling and smoking.
• Large Doors: Doors easily open from the sides at the perfect height to easily view and adjust the meat inside.
• Storage: Side table and under grill drawers provide convenient storage and prep space for utensils and other grill accoutrements.

What We Didn’t Like:

• Overall Design: The Fast Eddy PG500 is bulky, jagged, and ugly. More than appearance it takes up far more space than necessary for what it provides. It is unwieldy to move, difficult to properly store or permanently place (it is too large for most porches and still unsightly for patios). It is also horrendously heavy (330 lbs!), being made entirely of stainless steel. This in itself is an issue as the steel is unfinished, leaving it highly reflective. Cooking in the summer heat and brightness is a nightmare with a grill this shiny, and overall makes using this grill an unpleasant, irritating experience.
• Small Grilling Space: Despite this grill’s insane bulk, it still only boasts a 504 square inch grilling space. It attempts to claim an over 700 inch space, but that deceptively includes the warming racks in the total estimate.
• Chute Fed Pellets: Most modern pellet smokers feed the pellets via an auger and induction fan to properly maintain temperature and speed of pellet use. This grill does not, leaving it less efficient than its competitors.
• Finicky: The proper temperature range for smoking is narrow, and results in small miscalculations in temperature dissipating most of the smoke, leaving your meat less flavorful than it should be.
• Price: This grill has a price as monstrous as its size, despite the myriad flaws plaguing every aspect of the grill’s design. Were it a cheap and simple grill the other flaws could maybe be forgiven, but this is the final nail in the coffin.

Specs

• 784 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: Style: 4-Zone cooking
• Color: Silver
• Material: Steel

Pros

• Perfect for smoking a massive quantity of meat
• Electronically controlled temperatures
• Highly built and easy to clean up

Cons

• The top shelf is quite small

What We Liked:

• Unmatched Capacity: The Whole Hog boasts an unparalleled 1750 square inches of grilling space, enough to live up to its name. It also has two hoppers, necessary for the two independent grilling spaces (separated by a removable partition).
• Versatility: Due to the design, you can use the Whole Hog as either two separate grills, only using one, the other, or both as needed, or as one enormous grill with the partition removed. This makes it excellent for both huge crowds of people or simply grilling for your family.
• Grease Catchers: The grease catchers are under mounted and out of the way of easily being bumped.
• Wheels: The wheels are large and lock easily, perfect for the size and weight of this grill.
• Electronic Ignition: In addition to electronic starting, this grill can independently control the temperature of both sides, so you could cook two entirely different meals at different temperatures with the partition up.
• Sleek for the Size: The Whole Hog is huge, but handles its weight well. While taking up the expected amount of horizontal space, it still manages to make itself easy to fit along any standard wall, fence, or railing and isn’t too tall to use either. It’s well designed to take up exactly as much space as it needs to and no more.

What We Didn’t Like

• Price: The Whole Hog is fairly priced for what it is; it’s the size of three grills and cost three times as much as a normal grill. This is fair enough, but may make most balk at the cost considering the vast majority of people have no use for quite this much grilling space, and would be better off with a cheaper option.
• Simplistic Pellet Feed: No augers or induction fans here; just a simple chute and pellets sitting in the bottom of the smoker. This can make it cook more unevenly without careful tending, so you’re less able to light it up and then forget about it for hours on end.

Specs

• 1700 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: Whole Hog Smoker
• Color: Black
• Material: Steel
• Dimensions: 84 x 21.5 x 44 inches
• Weight: 437 pounds

Pros

• Great for smoking large cut meats
• Affordable price
• True to its name

Cons

• Quite heavy
• Better smoker than it is a grill

What We Liked:

• Convenient Storage Cart: The Memphis Grills Elite has a lot of under grill storage space and can easily store your utensils, pellets, and other accoutrements when not in use. The added tables are sizable and convenient as well, adding a lot of utility to the grill.
• High Temperature Range: This grills burns up to 700 degrees, higher than many of its competitors, and burns as low as the standard 180 degrees. This high temperature range make sit excellent for any kind of grilling, being able to go low enough for perfectly slow smoked meats and high enough for even the most aggressive searing necessary. This temperature range is hard to match, much less beat.
• Wifi Enabled: This grill can have its temperature controlled via phone app, and can be adjusted quite accurately within it, with electronic ignition to boot.
• Huge Hopper Capacity: A 24 lb hopper capacity puts other grills to shame, and offers up to 62 hours of smoking on a single load, or over 9 and a half hours of grilling.
• Good Grill Capacity: 658 square inches of grilling space make this grill more sizable than most, and makes it perfect for larger than average crowds.

What We Didn’t Like

• Price: While everything looks good on paper, for the asking price (6 times the price of our top choice, the Traeger Grills Lil Tex Elite 34) it is actually quite basic and unimpressive. Most of its features are shared by other, cheaper grills, and its raw stats both in capacity and storage space don’t justify such a baffling price, with the grilling space being far smaller than one that costs nearly half (and only a bit bigger than one which cost 6 times less) and the storage cart being good but nothing special. This grill is costed at roughly 3-4 times what it’s actually worth, which is a shame because otherwise it is a very high quality grill…just not for what Memphis Grills is asking you to pay for it.

Specs

• 844 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Style: Freestanding wood pellet smoker grill
• Material: Stainless steel
• Dimensions: 47 x 29 x 69 inches
• Weight: 283 pounds

Pros

• Can be controlled via Wi-Fi controller
• Highly constructed
• Versatile and easy to assemble

Cons

• A little bit expensive

What We Liked

Automatic Pellet Feeding: The Smoke Pro STX’s augur system ensures a steady feed of pellets for a more hands off grilling and smoking experience. No need to constantly tend to the pellets and make sure enough are moving in to keep the fire burning.

Electronic Temperature Control: Just a twist of the knob starts the fire and sets the temperature, making finding the right temperature easier. Combined with the automatic pellet feeding, your meat practically smokes itself!

Attached Meat Probe: A meat probe comes with the smoker and plugs right into the temperature console. This ensures safe and properly cooked meat every time, so long as you abide by the internal temperature guidelines for meat.

Ash Catcher: The bottom mounted, screw on ash catcher is unobtrusive and easy to clean.

What We Didn’t Like

Relatively Small Grilling Area: The Camp Chef Smoke Pro STX only has 429 square inches of grilling space. Even the pictures on Camp Chef’s website shows meat (in this case, three racks of ribs) needing to be packed very tightly into this small space to cook properly, making arranging the meat a pain to deal with and will cause constant fiddling, particularly if meat ever needs to be flipped.

Primitive Grease Catcher:  Grease catcher is a simple bucket on the side of the grill. Worse, it is perched precariously on a smaller notch than usual, making it likely to slip as the weight of the bucket increases over long cooking times.

No Included Attachments: The Smoke Pro STX has no cooling rack or side table included, making it less convenient to use. Attachments are available separately but are generally not priced well for the overall quality.

Poor Leg Design: Legs are simplistic and relatively flimsy for the purpose. It is constructed like a camp grill, but too large and reliant on a steady supply of electricity to effectively serve that purpose. This puts the longevity of the smoker in question, as it’s likely to fall apart within a year or two.

Specs

• 429 sq. Inch total of cooking space
• Material: Stainless steel
• Dimensions: 40.5 x 22 x 25.2 inches
• Weight: 113 pounds

Pros

• Perfect for Precision Cooking
• Easy to set up and clean-up
• Meat probe included

Cons

• Can’t keep temperature when place outdoor

There are many makers out there.

Some make great grills. And some not so much.

Here are some of the top brands in the marketplace.

Traeger has been putting together pellet fueled smokers for over 30 years. That’s longer than any other maker of this models

Which makes a lot of sense when you consider that Traeger Grills pioneered the use of wood in smoker and grills.

At the top of their lineup sits the Traeger Grills Texas Elite 34 Wood. From smoking to grilling and roasting, the Texas Elite can do just about everything a backyard barbeque might need with over 600 square inches of cooking space.

With Traeger’s familiar electronically controlled ignition and thermostat, it is easily maintains consistent temperatures from 180 to 500 degrees.

Another major player in the market is Green Mountain Grills. Green Mountain makes a range of grills at reasonable prices.

One of their most popular models is the Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett. And with good reason.

The Davy Crockett is a super portable model. With legs that fold up and compact form factor, this grill can go just about anywhere. On top of that, you can run this little model on both 110 and 12 volt power.

At nearly 70 pounds, it’s not exactly light, but can be managed by two people.

Pit Boss Grills makes a number of different grills. From electric to propane and charcoal, they make just about everything.

One of their most innovative models is the Pit Boss Grills 77350 Digital. It takes advantage of the vertical, electric smoker design, but gets the smoking done with wood pellets.

Pellets feed in behind and electronic controls can be found on the front of the unit. For easy food management, the front door is made of insulated glass.

Temperatures can be adjusted from 150 to 450 degrees. Four porcelain grilling grates provide users with over 900 square inches of cooking space.

Camp Chef has been making grills and outdoor cookware for over 20 years. These grills are just one of the many products produced by this company.

The Camp Chef Woodwind is one of their top grills, offering outdoor cooks over 500 square inches of cook space and the ability to cook at temperatures from 160 to 500 degrees. To really get things done right, the Woodwind includes a sear box that can reach temperatures up to 900 degrees, allowing you to really lock in the flavors.

The Woodwind operates with an electric starter and thermostat. An included meat thermometer can be used to more closely monitor cooking progress.  

If bold is your style, Rec Tec Grills are for you. From chrome bull horn handles to bold colors, these grills really grab your attention.

That bold style is part of what makes the Rec Tec Grills Bull RT-700 one of their great choice.

Whereas most smokers only allow temperatures to be set at 50 or 100 degree intervals–The Bull has very flexible temperature controls, allowing users to cook at virtually any temperature between 200 and 500 degrees. Cooks can also use the integrated meat thermometers to track and monitor progress.

With over 700 square inches of cooking space, it has ample room for the largest of gatherings. The Bull doesn’t come cheap though, with a price tag of nearly $2000, you must truly want the top choice if you want this grill.

While Louisiana Grills makes more than just pellet grills, they make some very high quality pellet fueled units. From huge 1700 square inch grills, to smaller, household size units, they make it all.

The Louisiana Grills 60800 Stainless Steel Wood is one of their top grills for the average user. With over 800 square inches of cooking space, this grill is large enough for a crowd.

The stainless steel construction ensures that it will last for years to come. And flexible, digital controls make temperature adjustment simple.

At the end of the day, price is often the most important part of every buying decision. Unfortunately, pellet grills are not the most affordable grills on the market.

There are not many under $500, but they can be found. Here are a few that can be had for less than four figures.

For under $1000, the Traeger Grills Texas Elite 34 is tough to beat.

Made by the original pellet smoker maker, this grill packs a lot of features into a package that’s great for both a family meal or a large weekend gathering.

If you want to keep the price below $500, the Camp Chef Smokepro STX is a great pellet grill that doesn’t sacrifice on quality.

With this grill you get over 400 square inches of coking space and an easy to use digital temperature control. With heats ranging from 160 to 500 degrees, there’s plenty of room for both smoking and grilling.

There aren’t a lot of budget options out there in the market. But, if you want to save a few dollars, the Traeger Grills Junior Elite is a great buy that won’t break the bank.

With this pellet powered grill, users still get Traeger quality in a compact, affordable package.

If you’ve made it to this page and you’re still wondering what a pellet smoker is, you’re not alone. Pellet grills and smokers are not quite as ubiquitous as their traditionally powered cousins.

After all, they haven’t been around nearly as long. While pellet stoves and heating have been around for a while, Traeger Grills did not introduce the first pellet smokers until the mid 1980s

Rather than relying on charcoal, propane, or other fuel sources, pellet smokers burn wood pellets. The pellets are made of compressed saw dust and tend to burn longer than regular firewood.

Pellet burning smokers look pretty similar to other smokers and grills, the design and size are very similar. Unless you know what you’re looking for, you’d have a hard time telling the difference if you put a propane grill next to a pellet grill.

The biggest benefit of using a pellet smoker is the ease of use. Rather than trying to get charcoal up to a certain temperature and keep it there for hours, a using pellets gives you an even consistent heat that lasts for many hours.

While the same can be done with a traditional smoker, it takes a fair amount of skill and practice to keep the temperature and conditions consistent.

These model come in a few different shapes and sizes. But they all work—essentially–the same way. But, quality and features do vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

What to Look For—the Thermostat

Models that use wood pellets have a little more going on than your average grill. Since they use athermostat and a mechanism to fee pellets into the fire, you’ve got a bit more to consider than size and BTUs.

The first thing you’ll want to consider is the thermostat. Many model fueled grills don’t reach very high heats—with around 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit being the max for many. That’s something you’ll want to consider if you plan to do any searing while cooking.

Don’t Forget About the Pellets

Another big consideration is how the pellets are fed into the grill and what type of pellets can be used.

Many brands, like Traeger, recommend using only products made by them in their grills. While others may work, performance may not be the same.

Other Features

A lot of models also include other features, like a separate searing compartments or integrated meat thermometers. Other units have fold up legs, perfect for tailgating or camping.

Traditional models have a problem.

It’s not that they don’t make great food—you’ve probably had many a great brisket or side of ribs expertly smoked by a barbeque pro.

It’s the skill and time involved in making great smoked meats and other food with traditional wood fired or charcoal models. Unless you’ve invested some serious practice time or learned from a seasoned barbeque cook, getting the temperature and timing right in your smoker is tough.

Thankfully, if you want to make great food in a smoker, you’ve got options.

While electric models are one way to take the guess work out of smoking, another—perhaps better—solution is this, but you can also check out other top choices on the market.

Looking for something to cook in your backyard? Check out our recipes page!