Pellet Grills

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sonyxperiageek

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#171421 17-Apr-2015 13:02

Anybody else have a pellet grill? E.g http://bbqgrills.co.nz/products/ How do you find them compared to charcoal and/or gas?

They seem to use pellets and electricity and so they use two sources instead of one. I'm a bit worried about the electricity bill after a couple of uses. If you do have one, how do you find the electricity usage?

Also, anybody know of some good places to buy pellets? What are your favourite pellet flavours?

Sony

Dynamic

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#1286278 17-Apr-2015 13:41

I've seen pellet wood burners for homes before but never a BBQ. Electricity provides an ignition point and drives the supply of pellets into the burning chamber. It might combine the flavour you get from a charcoal BBQ with the convenience of the predictable heat you get from a gas BBQ.

Electricity bill should not be an issue - it's only on for a relatively short time and I expect there is one hotspot to ignite the pellets, not a huge element wasting electric heat.

IIRC the pellets are just compressed sawdust, so no undesirable chemicals.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

benokobi

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#1286298 17-Apr-2015 14:04

My family owns a sawmill and the pellets are just compressed sawdust. We have a pellet fire in one of our houses and it goes great and beats up a large room with ease, so I don't see why it wouldn't be similarly great in a bbq.

sonyxperiageek

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#1286308 17-Apr-2015 14:14

Dynamic: I've seen pellet wood burners for homes before but never a BBQ. Electricity provides an ignition point and drives the supply of pellets into the burning chamber. It might combine the flavour you get from a charcoal BBQ with the convenience of the predictable heat you get from a gas BBQ.

Electricity bill should not be an issue - it's only on for a relatively short time and I expect there is one hotspot to ignite the pellets, not a huge element wasting electric heat.

IIRC the pellets are just compressed sawdust, so no undesirable chemicals.

Yep, I was reading about pellets being compressed sawdust. I guess that's pretty healthy too. And not a lot of ash at the end of a bbq.

Sony

wellygary

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#1286452 17-Apr-2015 16:52

Just be aware that the weight of the pellets you will need will be more than an equivlent LPG BBQ,

LPG in NZ is around 120 kWh per 9 kg cylinder, while wood pellets have a specific energy of around 50kWh/10 kg

bazzer

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#1292186 27-Apr-2015 12:12

Sounds pretty cool. Can you just use regular pellets (like this) or do you have to get fancy (i.e. expensive) BBQ pellets (hickory, apple, etc.)

sonyxperiageek

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#1292224 27-Apr-2015 13:18

Yep, you probably can! It didn't say anywhere you couldn't use different brands of pellets! :)

Was going to use it tonight, but the weather in Auckland may prevent me from doing that! :(

Sony

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Dynamic

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#1292227 27-Apr-2015 13:20

wellygary: Just be aware that the weight of the pellets you will need will be more than an equivalent LPG BBQ, LPG in NZ is around 120 kWh per 9 kg cylinder, while wood pellets have a specific energy of around 50kWh/10 kg

Thank you for mentioning this. I was unaware of the energy difference.

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bazzer

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#1292331 27-Apr-2015 16:54

sonyxperiageek: Yep, you probably can! It didn't say anywhere you couldn't use different brands of pellets! :)

Was going to use it tonight, but the weather in Auckland may prevent me from doing that! :(

Oh, I didn't pick up on the fact that you have one! How do you find it?

MikeAqua

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#1293065 28-Apr-2015 16:54

Just be aware that different types of wood impart different flavours to meat that is cooked above them.

You should get an idea from what sort of wood chips are used to smoke food - generally not pine.

If I'm interpretating correctly that is a 'smoker grill' - more convection cooking than radiant grilling. You can do amazing things with them like slow cooking spare ribs for 4 hours. But I don't think you can slap a steak on and cook it in three minutes per side.

Mike

sonyxperiageek

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#1293211 28-Apr-2015 23:20

I've only just cooked on it once, last weekend. And yeah, I didn't put the temperature all the way to the max and cooked steak on it. Almost ended up steaming the steak lol!

Was going to use it on Anzac Day, but it started raining in Auckland! :-( Will have to find another day now..

Sony