Pit Boss Vs Traeger: Comparing The Smokers
Once in a while, you might find that your recipe calls for smoking the meat before searing it. Or you might find the idea of smoking your sausages is a much better idea for a party out on the deck than just throwing them on the barbecue to grill them up. If the idea of smoking and cooking meats sounds perfect to you, then chances are that you’re looking into buying a pellet grill. The only issue is that you’re stuck between two brands - Pit Boss vs Traeger.
Like most pellet grills, the two products burn wood pellets - which also give specific flavours depending on the type of wood - as a source fuel for grilling and smoking vegetables and meats. These pellets are fed through a hopper system to where they’re burned at a specific temperature before new pellets replace them. As a result, pellet grills are great for smoking and those barbecue enthusiasts who love grilling over real wood flames.
Both brands offer benefits that may be perfect for you. To help you decide between the Traeger smoker vs Pit Boss, we’ve gathered some of the most important advantages that each brand has.
Traeger brand history
Originally created in Oregon, Traeger began with selling wood pellet heating stoves. As with most products and companies, the brand began to grow as people saw new ways the product and its concepts could be used. With the steady development and growth, Traeger created and began selling the first ever pellet grill in 1988.
As pellet grills and smokers became more popular as time went on, Traeger continued to sell much of the same high quality products that made them popular. However, in order to keep up with its competition as more brands expanded and formed, Traeger grills and smokers have begun to include the latest technology to further the quality of life that their products give, now offering more than 25 different grills.
Pit Boss Brand history
Initially created and founded in 1999, Pit Boss began with creating an alternate option to Traeger’s own pellet grills. Having started in Alberta, Pit Boss was also considered to be the first and main competitor to Traeger until today, where a number of pellet grill and smoker brands have grown.
Pit Boss, today, no longer only creates and sells pellet grills. Their product range now includes more than 20 pellet grills as well as other products. The brand also sells other grills, including charcoal, gas and even kamado style grills.
Hopper size
Most pellet grills have a maximum pound capacity for the amount of pellets you can fill the hopper with. Most Traeger smokers can hold between 18 pounds to 24 pounds of pellets on average. Pit Boss smokers, on the other hand, have a wider range, with the maximum reaching about 55 pounds. The brand also has a small portable grill that holds five pounds of pellets.
Comparing Pit Boss vs Traeger should factor in how long you plan to smoke foods for and whether or not you plan to grill the same food after. With an average bag of pellets being roughly about 20 pounds, Pit Boss can be considered a better choice due to the fact that you won’t have an odd amount of pellets left over.
Temperature control
For some recipes or meats, you need to be able to control the overall temperature to the perfect degree, or else the recipe becomes too soft or too hard. So when it comes to smoking or grilling, you need to have the same level of control over the internal temperature to give the ideal flavours.
Pit Boss pellet grills have temperature dials with increments of 25 degrees fahrenheit between each level. As simple as it sounds at first, the temperature seems to skip at some levels. While it does go from 200 to 475 and also features a Smoke setting, the grills don’t allow cooking at 275, 375 or 425 degrees.
In the comparison between Traeger vs Pit Boss, Traeger grills have smaller intervals, with 5 degrees between each heat level. This allows much better and precise control over the grill’s heat while it’s running. Additionally, the Smoke setting isn’t Pit Boss specific and can also be found on most Traeger pellet grills as well.
Smoker build and durability
Another key factor you need to consider between Pit Boss smokers vs Traeger is how durable the smokers are. How the grills are made and what they’re made from greatly influences how long they last and how much time people can use it for. Better or stronger materials means long lasting grills and happier owners, after all.
Traeger uses a combination of stainless steel along with powder coated steel to build most of their smokers and pellet grills. Additionally, the higher quality grills are entirely formed from double sided walls, effectively increasing the heat retention needed to properly cook meat thoroughly. Even their mid level grills have double sided walls along the sides for this purpose.
Pit Boss grills seem to have less consistent materials in their overall structure. Some use 14 gauge steel, with some models being stainless and others not. While it is good quality steel, other features vary between models, with cooking surface area and hopper capacity being different between each.
Additional features
Both Traeger and Pit Boss offer a range of different accessories for their respective grills. One one hand, Pit Boss grills and smokers come with a built-in lower shelf that Traeger models don’t. However, newer Traeger models have much better features and the brand has more innovative accessories. As mentioned earlier, you can now control the Traeger smoker with your phone, giving you the ability to finely tune it from anywhere in the house.
Takeaway
When dealing with choosing Pit Boss vs Traeger, each brand’s features should be taken into careful consideration. While Pit Boss does have its benefits, like a pellet capacity that doesn’t leave awkward amounts behind, Traeger comes out on top for better and more reliable construction and innovative accessories and features that make grilling and smoking easier.