Saturday, August 11, 2018

How a wood pellet grill works...

Wood pellet grills have wildly gained in popularity over the last few years. Traeger started it all in the mid 80s when they came out with and patented the first wood pellet grills.

When Traeger's patent ran in 2008, there were 6 more manufacturers by the end of that year. Last I have heard there are over 60 manufacturers of wood pellet grills today showing the massive expanse of this industry.

Wood pellet grills all operate the same way. By that I mean they have a hopper mounted to the side of the grill cooking chamber that is filled with pellets. Pellets are nothing more than actual wood that has been turned to a sawdust and then pressed into the form of a pellet. When it comes to pellets, you get what you pay for. We sell the Lumberjack brand as they only use pure virgin wood fiber, they leave the bark on it for added flavor and never add flavor oils or binders.


An auger motor feeds the pellets via an auger into a fire pot. There is an igniter or hot rod that during start up will get red hot and light the pellets. A small fan feeds the fire pot the air it needs to burn.  This concept is basically no different than starting a small fire in a coffee can.

The fan not only feeds the fire pot oxygen, it will create a convention style cooking environment within the grill cooking chamber. This allows the heat and smoke to circulate evenly around your food.  Cooking indirectly a wood pellet grill is really no different than cooking in the oven in your kitchen. 

Once the igniter light's the pellets, the digital thermometer that most wood pellet grills come with monitors the temperature in the grill. As the temp begins to climb, the digital control tells the auger to slow down dumping less pellets into the fire pot. As the pellets burn down, the temp begins to drop which triggers the digital control to tell the auger to speed up dumping more pellets and so on and so on throughout your cook. For this reason, WOOD PELLET GRILLS HAVE AND WILL NEVER HOLD THEIR TEMPERATURE TO THE DEGREE.  That would be like trying to control the temperature of a campfire to the degree. Virtually impossible. Therefore, you will have temperature "swings" during your cook. 


The simple graph above shows the normal temp swings that will occur with a wood pellet grill. As the temp rises on the upswing, you will almost see little to no smoke. As the temp lowers on the downside, the grill will show visible smoke.  When you add wood to a fire it begins to burn more efficiently and of course hotter. As the wood burns down and starts to smolder, you typically see more smoke. This is what is going on in a wood pellet grill. 

The question most ask me is "then why are there digital controllers and PID (proportional–integral–derivative) controllers that are designed to hold temp to the degree?" First off, this is a marketing ploy to play on the digital age we live in. Our culture is shifting to more precise results what with digital use of thermometers and controllers. Again, no digital control can effectively hold the temp in a wood pellet grill to the degree. The PID controllers maybe lessen that temp gap but there will STILL be temp swings. 

My experience has been the food that comes off of any wood pellet grill whether it is a $300 grill or a $5000 grill; is the same. The difference are the "bells and whistles" those grills come with. Some offer pellet dumps to swap out your pellets in the hopper easily. Some offer multi-food probes to track the temperature of your food and now we have wood pellet grills that can be solely operated from your cell phone! 

All of this being said, wood pellet grills still remain the easiest way to "set it and forget it" when it comes to smoking and cooking.  These grills are very simple to use and a extremely versatile. 

Stop in some day to our store and we will show you everything there is to know about wood pellet grills! 

Dan M. 
Colorado BBQ Outfitters