Char-Griller Akorn Jr. Kamado Style vs Traeger Ranger Pellet Grill

This is really good to see because it's very well packed and when you order something you do want it arriving at your house you know in a perfect cond...

These are ovens with a fan (convection) that can give you pretty good smoke flavors using pellets that need to be about 70% oak and 30% flavored wood (soaked in flavored oils I guess) so that the burn is cleaner with little ash left on your food. You are told to use Traeger for this reason, and I will. They claim other cheaper brands may have bark or not enough oak (for clean burn) and I don't see a big enough difference in price to argue about it. You want the thin blue smoke, not white puffs, so burn what they tell you to burn is my thought

After that the temp slowly started climbing. When it got to 280 deg, I did my first vent adjustment. Fair warning, a little goes a long way in terms of adjustment. Over shooting both to the up and down side is easy to do

The probe seems clumsy and is designed for a larger payload, and temperatures vary when setting absolute temperatures, it all leaves you wanting wireless options which could have been added easily and are conspicuously absent. I am new to both pellet smokers and to Traegers , but consistently overcook meats in this thing to the point of doubting either the thermostat, prove or the recipes I’ve chosen. Most recipes, even for traegers involve much larger pieces of meat and only mention per pound equivalents as an afterthought, but their may be some advice that will give me a generality of some kind for smoking in this unit that will even out results. I will continue to reinvent the wheel until I get Ranger specific recipes and hopefully more consistent results

I already have one of those big 300lb beasts of a kamado cooker and wanted something easier to fire up and clean for a quick 2 person dinner or a few burgers and this seems to fit the bill. There are similar all ceramic mini-eggs out there, but they are pricey with smaller cooking surfaces and super heavy. This hits the sweet spot of affordability, larger cooking area and easy to move around without pulling something. POSITIVES One of the best features of this unit is the removeable ashpan

I find that it's extremely simple to use this grill. You could not engineer a more simple electronic grilling device. It is easy to clean, the pellets burn at a reasonably slow rate, and the flavors are just epic. I highly recommend pairing this grill with the traeger brand seasonings