Pellet Grills: All You Need to Know & More

We’re sure you’re familiar with gas and charcoal grills, but today we are going to look at a third member of the family: the pellet grill. There are opinions on both sides of the pellet grill debate...

Some grilling purists may turn up their noses at the ease and simplicity offered by a pellet grill. There’s no more babysitting a smoker, and there’s not really any barrier to entry for the pellet grill. Whether you put this in the ‘pros’ or ‘cons’ category, well...sound off in the comments!

Now, onto the good stuff... 

A pellet grill or pellet smoker operates very differently than standard gas or charcoal grills. The pellet grill plugs into a typical wall outlet and uses electricity to burn small, compressed ‘pellets’ of sawdust. Inside of the pellet grill, there are digital sensors that work to maintain a consistent temperature on the grill by feeding more pellets to the heating component.

The mechanisms by which a pellet grill works can be a little sophisticated, but are ultimately straightforward.

First, you set your desired temperature on a digital control board. The grill’s internal computer will then prompt an automatic auger to feed pellets to a ‘burn cup’ at the bottom of the grill. A heating unit can be found in this burn cup, which gently smolders the pellets. Directly on top of the burn cup is a diffusing plate, which works to spread the heat across the grill evenly. Lastly, a fan inside the grill works to spread smoke evenly across your food -- similar to a typical convection oven. Nothing too crazy, all in all.

As you can probably tell, pellet grills are incredibly convenient. They are about as ‘set it and forget it’ as you could get from a grill or smoker. While standard charcoal or gas grills require a good bit of practice to consistently achieve a  perfect smokey flavor; with a pellet grill, you can basically do this without ever having used a grill in your life.

There are a few considerations when working with a pellet grill, though. For instance, you need electricity for a pellet grill to function. You can’t simply toss it in your car and go camping with a pellet grill. Without an outlet (or generator), a pellet grill is all-but-useless. On top of that, pellet grills have rather high-tech internal components. If one of them fails, you may just need to buy a new grill altogether. Some could (rightfully) argue that with more technology, there’s more opportunity for things to break. With the simplicity of a charcoal grill, there does come a strong sense of reliability.

All in all, we think pellet grills are a great option for those who aren’t interested in becoming die-hard Grillaholics as they lower the barrier to entry and help get you grilling or smoking without worrying about major flare-ups or having to control the heat manually.

We hate to use the term ‘casuals’, but pellet grills are perfect for just that. They make grilling extraordinarily easy, and who knows -- maybe a pellet grill can be someone’s gateway drug to the Grillaholic lifestyle!