Pellet Grills vs Electric/Cabinet Smokers: What to know BEFORE you buy

[@bh6246]

Thank you. I am a newly divorced woman wanting to recreate some of the smoked things my ex-husband does. You explaining this all to me is priceless. I really appreciate it.

[@RoughRidersTV]

You are very welcome. Both are great smokers but they each have their advantages and disadvantages. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions...happy to help.

[@bh6246]

@@RoughRidersTV Wow! Amazing you replied. Thank you. After your review, I'm leaning towards electric. Would you say that, that will be appropriate for a newbie?

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@bh6246 No problem. I try to reply to most comments. I think either would be good options. I know Rec Teq makes a smaller grill that has the same benefits as the 700 and it's close to the same price point of the bradley. However, the Bradley is a great unit as well. It served me well for 6 years without complaint. However, the more I use the RecTeq, the more I like it. For example, being able to watch the temp of the meat on my phone is great. I don't have to stop what I'm doing, go outside and check a thermometer that I plugged in as the RT comes with that option. The cost of fuel is also 1/2 the price of the bradley so it is cheaper to operate. The smaller footprint of the bradley is a nice advantage because it doesn't take up as much space and the fact it comes apart is great for keeping the controller out of the weather. If I were choosing a 1st smoker now, I probably would lean to the RecTec. I've heard good things about Grilla Grills as a cheaper alternative to the RecTeq...similar features. If space is a problem, then the Bradley might be the better option. I will say that in a FB group for the Bradley, I have heard other have problems with getting higher temps out of it...I literally never had that problem but I have heard others mention it so I would be remiss if I didn't bring it up. I've not heard of any problems with the Rec Teq and I haven't had any myself but I've only owned this about 2 months.

[@ruthlessness6168]

Have fun smoking meat!

[@ronnyrice697]

Thanks for the advice. It really helps me to know what I should be looking for.

[@robs5003]

Was about to order the Bradley but was on the fence - i worried the Bradley would delivery a “fake smoker experience” - it seems my fears have been put to rest. Thanks for the great and useful content!

[@RoughRidersTV]

Glad it helped. The Bradley is a great little smoker for sure. The smaller footprint is really nice when you have a small deck or patio. I served me well for years before I got the RecTeq.

[@allentracy5794]

Good video. In my experience the Bradley puts out a lot more smoke flavor than a pellet grill. The pellet grills have a much cleaner smoke and therefore much less smoke flavor. At least when comparing a Traeger to the Bradley. You can also do cold smoking in a Bradley which you can not do in a pellet grill. You can also use the Bradley as an oven so you can smoke for a certain amount of time and then cut the smoke and finish the cook in the same unit. The pellet grill needs to burn wood to create heat. The Bradley has a weak heating element so it has a hard time keeping temps up but you can upgrade the heating element.

[@RoughRidersTV]

Good points. I don't necessarily agree that the Bradley puts out more smoke, they both seem fairly equivalent in my opinion and both do a great job at smoking the meat. However, cold smoking on a pellet is not possible without an attachment where you can do that easily on the Bradley so that is a really good point. I have heard of others having issues with the Bradley heating element, I never did, even in Washington State when it was snowing. But then I never smoked above 225 on that smoker. It was always spot on and held temps nicely.

[@patrickmacleod2415]

Good point on the oven. I'm looking to get an electric smoker mostly for that- to use as an outdoor oven when I get to wrap phase and take the meat off the offset smoker. Sometimes the wife needs her oven and get annoyed when I want to put stuff in there for hours! I usually prefer not to waste wood keeping it on the offset when its wrapped (not to mention my own time and effort).

[@patrickmacleod2415]

Thanks for the review. I’m looking for a backup to my offset smoker and debating electric vs pellet. Although I’m more interested in electric smokers that just use regular wood chips vs. these pucks.

[@RoughRidersTV]

Thanks. I think many of the arguments still apply, though the woodchips are probably cheaper than the pucks so there is some savings there.

[@nickb8618]

Electric cabinet smokers are great for smoking if ur not gonna be home as my charbroil goes to warm mode once it reaches desired internal temp so if I’m not home to pull it out at that second it’s ready and not over done when I take it out. My traeger is great when I’m home and want to reverse sear stake or just want to grill with smoke flavor incorporated into the food. There’s a time and place for both and having both is nice

[@RoughRidersTV]

Yes, one thing that is nice about the bradley is cold smoking. If you use just the puck burner and not the heating element in the back, you can cold smoke cheese, salmon, etc. which is hard to do with the pellet grill without an attachment.

[@infomercialguy]

nick, can i bother you with a question??? I have 3 grills . 3 webers. 2 are kettles. now i want JUST a smoker. Should i get a vertical cabinet? should i get a traeger? I just want what will smoke food the best. and, secondarily, something that isn't super complicated. money really is not an object becuase this is my passion. what should i get??

[@johnadair6108]

Hi, thanks for the video. I realize that it's over a year old now but I have a very general question. I've owned several gas grills over the years and have found that being out in the elements they really don't last more than three or four years at the most (including Webbers). I live in the NE and believe that I have maintained and taken care of as much as possible. It looks like you may be undercover there which I'm sure contributes to the longevity of whatever you may have out there. Do you have an opinion? Thanks again!

[@RoughRidersTV]

I think it does help quite a bit. One nice thing about the bradley is that you can take the control box inside (which I did) and it worked great for 6 years before I gifted it to my son in law last year. He is still using it now. I do keep my new grill covered when not in use for that very reason though. We get a LOT of snow here in Denver so the cover helps quite a bit.

[@richardstoll1991]

Was never able to figure out why the Bradley didn’t have a smoke ring. The Bradley CEO did a whole segment on why a smoke rig is not necessary.

[@RoughRidersTV]

I think smoke rings are overvalued. Personally, I cannot tell the difference in taste between smoke ring and no smoke ring. The flavor is the same in my opinion. Now having the RT700 for 2 years, I've really grown to like it more than the Bradley. The versatility of it has been great. The one big thing the Bradley does with ease that the RT really can't do is cold smoking. Leaving the heat source off and just using pucks, you can cold smoke cheese, etc. way easier than the RecTeq.

[@luismendozasuns]

Great video very informative 👏

[@EnuffsEnuff318]

Damn good info. Thanks!

[@ganymedes73nmy94]

The Bradley is originaly designed to smoke fish (like sea bas, salmon, makrel) every time the same way (consistant), from cold smoking to 248F with exact 20min smoke puks. Fish, Cheese Beef Jerkey and so on for 1.20 $ an hour (no electricity not counted). Where the Pellet Grill is a grill who can also smoke, and comes as close as it gets to an original off set smoker, where heat and smoke come from the same source. Two totally different 'cuisines'.

[@colby6131]

Thanks for the informative video. I'm in the market for a pellet smoker and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the numerous brands, features, and prices of these smokers. Could you tell me what drew you to the Rec-Tec smoker? And any other advice you could give an old Weber grill guy who's looking to get into the pellet smoker game. Thank you.

[@RoughRidersTV]

No problem. I'm going to do a video on it once I have a bit more cooks on it. But it came down to a few things. 1) Stainless steel construction on the barrel, grill, heat diffuser, drip pan. To get stainless from other vendors was VERY expensive. 2) Research I did showed that this thing held temps EXTREMELY well. Compared to other brands like Traeger, others had some wild temp swings. I've now done cooks in very cold weather (below 20 degrees and snowing outside) and temps were spot on the entire cook. 3) Customer reviews were very strong as was the comments on customer service 4) Cost vs Value. It was a bit more expensive than Traeger but offered significantly more value and quality. 5) Larger hopper. It has a much bigger hopper compared to other grills this size. Means way less filling the hopper on longer cooks. Overall, it just seemed to offer the best performance, value and features for the money. So, I would certainly recommend the RecTeq over most of the other mainstream Pellet grills. If money were not an issue, I might go with a Yoder Stainless but those are way more expensive.

[@colby6131]

@@RoughRidersTV I really appreciate you taking the time to share some info. Thank you

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@colby6131 No problem. Good luck with your search.

[@Mixwell1983]

Bottom line a vertical electric smoker uses pellets as "wood chips. Smoke source and pellet grills use the pellets as the heat source. Get an electric smoker that takes pellets as the smoker medium vs a pellet grill that uses pellets as the heat source.

[@RoughRidersTV]

You have your right to your opinion, but I have had very good results with the RecTeq for smoking meats. I've never had anyone complain about no smoke flavor, including my buddy that is a Pit Master. You can't beat a stick burner for the most smoke flavor but if you know what you are doing with a good pellet grill, you can get good smoke from it. Try spending more than 300 on a Pit Boss and maybe you will get better results.

[@mikewitham4673]

Great content. Very informative!

[@RoughRidersTV]

Thanks for watching.

[@rickca217]

Good job on the video.

[@codemonkey6173]

8:15 you wouldn't be using pucks all the way through a smoke with the bradley though. I tend to use them for the first hour or two, and maybe the last hour if I toss in some pit beans. Other than that, great video!

[@RoughRidersTV]

Fair point. I would typically max out things at 6 hours on the smoke. Anything over that would not get absorbed by the meat. When I did Brisket, I would burn pucks for 6 hours and then the element do the rest. Ribs, I would do 5 hours all smoke. Never really did anything less than 5 hours. But you are right, costs do drop once you stop burning pucks...I should have accounted for that in the video.

[@codemonkey6173]

@@RoughRidersTV No worries, it's a very informative video. I sent it to a friend asking about pellets vs bradley. I've owned two bradleys I've been very happy with. When doing larger pieces of brisket I'm usually ending up around 12+ hours in the bradley. One of my biggest complaints with the bradley is the low thermal mass. If I add pit beans mid smoke, it takes too long (imo) to bring temps back up.

[@bigdawgracing7858]

When cooking more than an hour do you just take the new pucks and throw them on top of the old ones? Or typically do all your meat cook within that hour like ribs and wings

[@RoughRidersTV]

With the chimney stack on the control box, you can load up about 9 hours of pucks for smoking. The smoke generator has a separate timer than the oven timer so you can run each independently with their own time. One of the Advantages of the Bradley is that you can cold smoke (like fish and cheese) with it easier than you can cold smoke with a pellet grill.

[@lighthouseministries7]

You never mentioned the cost difference between the 2 units. I'm guessing double at least for the bigger grill?

[@RoughRidersTV]

Actually I did. I mentioned it right at the beginning of the video at the 1:30 mark. But yes it's about double the cost.

[@lighthouseministries7]

@@RoughRidersTV ah sorry I missed it and didn't see it in the timestamp!

[@lighthouseministries7]

@@RoughRidersTV I am hoping we made the right choice we went with the Bradley smoker!

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@lighthouseministries7 I really don't think you can go wrong with either. Both are great smokers and I used that Bradley for 6 years without complaint. It always produced great food. Now that I've had more time on the RecTeq, I do like it a little bit more. The more open cook space makes larger cuts of meat easier to smoke and the phone app is great at seeing temps without having to go outside. But at 2x the cost, I would expect more features and capabilities and that's why it's not really a fair comparison between the 2. If you cold smoke (cheese, fish, etc.), the Bradley wins hands down. It is a much better cold smoker than the RT.

[@jpicking]

i do not use bradley i use a masterbuilt electric smoker and a pellet grill. the electric smoker seems to produce more of a smokey flavor in my opinion. no smoke ring on the electric smoker but i do not think that matter. what matter is flavor and i think in that terms electric produces more of a smoke flavor. i pefur charcoal built smokers but electric or pellet is so much easier to use on a work night and you just want to not worry about anything.

[@MoritVincent]

Can you give me an advise for cold smoking?! What is the best option to buy? Love to eat cold smoked salmon and stuff like that!

[@RoughRidersTV]

I'm not a cold smoker type user. However, you have an option with either of these. In the bradley, if you just burn the pucks, you can get the temp pretty low for cold smoking. For the RecTeq, you can buy a cold smoke box attachment that is supposed to work great but that is an added cost. Therefore, the Bradley is probably the cheaper way to go.

[@MoritVincent]

@@RoughRidersTV Thank you! Unfortunately I'm living in the Netherlands and that RecTeq model isn't available in my country. Are there any other compatible brands with the RecTeq brand?

[@rickddoc6156]

Thanks rough riders i will try what you told me

[@refaelbhatia3841]

thank you. what to you think is the best to make jerky

[@RoughRidersTV]

I haven't yet tried jerky in the RecTeq so I can't say how well that works. I did make Jerky in the Bradley on a few occasions and it worked great. I will probably try jerky in the RT700 in the near future. I will post a video of it when I do. I am finding that I'm using the RT700 way more because it is always setup and ready to go. I did pizza in it last night and I have ribs in it right now for dinner tonight.

[@jarrydubbelyu2166]

I've heard wood chip smokers are less expensive to run? However, after researching prices, I found that wood chips are $5-6 per pound. Pellets are $1 per pound. So, wouldn't pellet smokers be less expensive to run?

[@jarrod499]

If you used them in equal volume yes. In a pellet smoker the pellets provide the smoke and are the heat source. In an electric smoker a far smaller amount of wood is used to create smoke while an electric element provides the heat. In general I don’t think you can find a less expensive smoker to operate. My electric uses wood chunks and a single box lasts me over a year of smoking cooks since I am only using a few ounces of wood per cook.

[@mikeerickson2412]

I buy my pellets for $.50 a pound but you don’t get as good of a smoke flavor out of a pellet grill as you do out of a vertical smoker if I use a pellet grill I add a tube smoker to enhance the smoke flavor

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@jarrod499 When you look at costs, you also have to factor in costs of electricity. Given that electric smokers use a heating element for the main source instead of just heat from the pellets, you need to add in the cost of electricity in the overall cost of operation. A 300W heating element is not cheap to run and it will drive up your electric bill. I have found that the pellet grill is cheaper to operate overall when all things are considered.

[@alifares7450]

Great job

[@RoughRidersTV]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@tildenmanson7768]

On the Bradley smoker E1 comes on most of the time

[@RoughRidersTV]

I never had that problem for as long as I had it. I'm on to a RecTeq now but the Bradley was a great entry smoker for me.

[@Mixwell1983]

If i knew now what i didn't know then id never get a pellet smoker. All of the pellets in the hopper are for heat, pellet smokers burn pellets VERY efficiently meaning you have nice smoke clouds but get shit for smoke flavor. Get an electric smoker where you have a pan that smolders and produces smoke. I like my pitboss Austin XL but if if i dont use a smoke tube the flavor is non-existent. I used to think the pellet hopper was to add smoke flavor adding "chips" pellets as the smoke source and had a different heating element. If you want smoke flavor DO NOT BUY A PELLET GRILL!! I'm telling y'all the truth. Pellet grills are trash for smoke regardless of PitBoss, Traeger or whatever brand you're looking at. You will be disappointed if you think your pellet grill is gonna be a set it and forget it. Pellet grills are nice for what they are but they are NOT a smoker. This dude isn't doing any justice. DO NOT BUY A PELLET GRILL IF YOU WANT SMOKE FLAVOR. Trust me.. these idiots reviewing this shit are clueless. Sorry to sound like an ass. 😂😂

[@RoughRidersTV]

I disagree. I get really good smoke out of my RecTeq. It's not as good as a stick burner but easily as good as my Bradley Electric...just a tad more convenient and cheaper to operate.

[@sleddogsam]

Bradley is designed specifically not to ever create smoke rings, as they believe that it is toxic.

[@RoughRidersTV]

I'm not sure I buy the idea that a smoke ring is toxic. It's just a chemical reaction between smoke and myoglobin. I also don't think it adds any flavor or means that it's a better smoke but I also don't think it is toxic. People that make a big deal out of the smoke ring are just buying into a myth. I think the flavor of smoked meat from the Bradley is on par with the flavor of the meat smoked on the RecTeq. Both produce great food, I have just found that the RT is cheaper to operate and a bit more flexible than my Bradley. Still like both though quite a bit.

[@scottmichael3745]

@@RoughRidersTV agreed! Smoke is smoke and those thinking "rings" make a difference are just blowing smoke! Enjoyed the video btw. Thanks.

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@scottmichael3745 Thanks for watching. Glad you liked it.

[@fredyfender6139]

Can you share a link for the 120 pucks for $50. please, I can't fine them for that price. The cheapest in Amazon is $99

[@RoughRidersTV]

It appears prices have risen dramatically over the past 9 months. Those were the prices back in Feb. when I made the video. It's odd because the bigger the volume, the cheaper it should be but lower count pucks work out quite a bit cheaper right now. When I made the video, pucks were going for about .42 cents per puck, now it appears they are going for nearly double that price. At hose prices, it may be cheaper to just make your own pucks. I saw a couple of good videos on how to do it online. I've found myself using the Recteq more than the Bradley at this point so I've not bought pucks in a while. I still have a couple of boxes from purchases made over a year ago. Hopefully the prices will come back down over time.

[@beatpirate8]

oh pizza grill too. also electricity cost a lot in california

[@cbpuzzle]

Just get an electric off Craigslist and build or buy a pellet smoke generator out of an old thermos, copper fittings, and a fish tank bubbler.

[@mcaeal]

Hi, Great video.

[@RoughRidersTV]

Thanks for watching.

[@infomercialguy]

Great video. really good. so, "taste" wise ONLY you would prefer pellet over electric? is that what i'm hearing? i don't care about money. I want the "best" taste.

[@RoughRidersTV]

I don't know....it's a tough call because both give excellent taste. I've been using the RecTeq pretty much the past year exclusively because of the convenience. I just did a tri tip over the weekend and great smoke flavor, more than I remember getting out of the Bradley. However, ribs both taste about the same. If I had to say 1 was better than the other, I think the RecTeq has the slight edge on smoke flavor.

[@infomercialguy]

@@RoughRidersTV THANKS. again, nice nice nice job with the education. you should be a teacher. maybe you are one! ha. i'm going pellet. i wonder if there is a way to add some wood chips to the pellet to add a touch more smoke if needed? do you think pellet is "smoky" enough?

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@infomercialguy Thanks. I'm not a teacher but I do a lot of customer facing training as part of my job bridging the gap between Engineers and End Customers. LOL. As for adding wood chips, I would not mix it with the pellets because it could jam up the auger that feeds the fire pot. However, you can get smoke tubes if you want more smoke flavor. I use a smoke tube on longer smokes and larger hunks of meat (like brisket) to get more smoke in the chamber. I have friends that use a tool called the "smoke daddy" that adds more smoke flavor and that uses wood chips. So there are options if you are not getting enough smoke flavor from pellets alone.

[@infomercialguy]

@@RoughRidersTV thanks bunches. i will try that smoke daddy! i wasn't going to put smoke chips "in" with the pellets - I was going to put them in a box like the smoke daddy. or, just a darn tin tray and have them get hot in there. thanks again for such a great video!!! Wonderful job.

[@RoughRidersTV]

@@infomercialguy Thanks for watching. More stuff coming that I need to add. Got a pizza oven accessory for the RT700 that works pretty good. Going to do a review on that soon.

[@ryanbrand3946]

I have never paid over 20 cents a puck.

[@RoughRidersTV]

In the 6 years I had it, I never found them that cheap anywhere online or in retail stores. Where are you finding them that cheap?

[@snakebitevenom5381]

I call bullshit