What grade stainless are the 500 and 1000?

Tony/Bill @ Cookshack would be able to answer your grade question. Let us know what you find out. I have a 3 year old FEC 100 & got a FEPG 1000 last week. The SS for the FEPG drain tray & tube are lighter weight. I never owned a MAK. My reasons for going with Cookshack over other vendors were:
1. Awesome products!
2. Awesome customer service!
3. Awesome Forum/Forum Members! Great info. FREE!
4. With the FEPG you can direct grill over the fire. My first cook was rib eyes. My wife said it was the best steak she EVER had!

Does MAK offer a 30 day refund? Cookshack does and I doubt they get many returns!

Joe M

The grade of stainless and the location of the stainless is something Cookshack doesn't want to share. They have not posted in any of their descriptions of the 500 or 1000. I called and I could sense from the woman answering my question she wasn't happy with divulging the information. She said they are made from a combination of 304 and 402. The thing is if the divulge the info they know it makes it more difficult to sell the 1000 and compete with other brand.

The grade should be listed on each one period. Same goes for their pellet consumption listing. If you notice for a 500 they list 1.2-2lbs per hour @ 400 degrees and a 1000 gets 1.2 @ 400 degrees. This is utter nonsense, of course there would be a fluctuation range or if they averaged do the same for the 500. The truth is I suspect there's negligible difference and that is why they don't make accurate comparisons.

This is what makes me nervous buying from them. I believe they intentionally are withholding information that are factors in making the decision in purchasing.

So what is the pellet consumption rate of your traeger at 400*?

I haven't tested my pellet consumption although I think it's high at that temperature. I'm used to lump charcoal and you really can go a long way. Traeger lists their pellet consumption on the website. I'm not that worried about the consumption, my point is they aren't being accurate with the customers on their website.

Now we're making progress, you are not worried about pellet consumption, so get the PG500. If you don't like it, return within 30 days for a refund.

By the way, I didn't see no consumption rate on the Treager site, oh well, not important.

Ya I just checked website and didn't see the consumption rate either. They probably don't want to list that as well. I believe my salesman is who told me about consumption of traeger. Let's face it Pellet grills have a higher operation cost than say a ceramic cooker. Both have merits I don't want to argue which is better etc... I think they both are good tools.

I'm not out to get Cookshack I'm out to seek knowledge. Quite Frankly I don't see another pellet grill on the market that can sear and smoke as effortlessly as the FE's. My reason for even wanting to purchase another grill is to have a larger cook area and the ability to sear. The FE's are the only ones that you can smoke a steak at low temp and then just crank up the heat and sear without ever moving a hot grate or throwing on the gasser.

The reason I even have a pellet grill is the cleanliness and quickness compared with my kamado. Charcoal takes a while to heat up and cool down in the kamado. Which is a factor when wanting to smoke and sear or sear and smoke. Normally I'll just cook the steak at high heat til finished to avoid time delays.

I personally have had my Super Grill Dome at 850* and I wont do that anymore. First it's extremely dangerous with backdrafts and just the high heat itself is dangerous. I don't see a benefit compared with 550-650.

As a side not my Weber gas grill has a rust hole on the interior cook box and I called them and they are going to send another out. They have a 25 year warranty. It will be a brand new grill after swapping out. I may just buy new burner tubes while I'm rebuilding. I only wish they just replaced the whole grill cuz it would save me quite a bit of time.

I see, now you are making more sense for me to understand what your hoping to accomplish, with that said, here is my take on the difference your looking for. Please keep in mind I don't have a PG1000, but do have a FEC100 which has the double wall and 850* insulation, just like the PG1000.

I truly can see where they are coming from when they say the pellet consumption in the PG500 can vary as much as 1 lb of pellets. The settings that I use to smoke at 275* is the same as when I grill hamburgers at 300*, but in the middle of winter I have a hard time reaching that said set point(300*). I know I could raise the pellet feed rate to achieve this, but it's not a big deal to me. I would guess I'm using 1/3 more pellets in the winter months.

With all that said about the PG500 my FEC100, which is double walled and insulated, appears to me that it doesn't matter if I'm cooking in 20* temps or 90* summer temps. The insulation in these are that good.

I would guess that the pellet rate for 275*, which I use a lot in both, is almost 3 times as much for the grill over my FEC.

I buy pellets by the ton, so it really isn't a big deal, because the PG500 produces awesome food. I have a place in the garage to store them and at a ton I can get them for a little over 30 cents/lb.

I love my PG500, but at times in the winter I sure wish it was insulated. If I lived in a warm region like you do, I have no doubt that I would own the PG500 rather than the PG1000. Just my humble opinion, so take the advice for what you paid for it.

Ask up if you have any more questions and I'll do the best I can in answering them.

One other thing, that can be confusing. There is four cooking zones in these grills and the set point is measured in the coolest zone. I would guess at 300* set point, the temps at the grill grate is around 450*. That might help you make sense of me cooking bugers at 300*.

Jaloppy -

I have had my PG500 for 1 year now. I have had zero issues with mine. I have a salt water pool and have seen no corrosion on my grill. The CI grate has no rust as others have had. I do cook bacon on zone 4 on the CI grate alternating each side to use the bacon grease to season the grate. I also hit the grate after a high heat cook with Pam to keep it seasoned. I don't do my steaks at 600 deg anymore because I didn't like how the outside turned out (overcooked from my standpoint).

I came to the PG500 from the Traeger Lil Tex Elite. I liked the additional space in the Traeger but other than that I like everything else on the PG500 better (multi temp zones, no part replacements, better temp control, less maintenance, easier cleanup with the ash drawer, ability to get quickly to grill temps since cooking direct instead of indirect).

I hope that this helps you with your decision.

Cal It did seem like a low temp to me.

Cerveza when you say you miss the room of the lil tex how so? I thought with the second rack of the pg500 it would be just as big? Is the reason due to the different temp zones it's hard to cook multiple items that are the same? For instance lets say you had 4 ribs and you wanted to cook at 225* it would be virtually impossible to cook all at same temp. It's a limitation you have to swallow if you want the ability to sear as well. I think the next grill developed should be one with a larger indirect.

By the way is it possible to keep temp swings within 5-10 degrees? My traeger I can keep within 10 degrees. Is that possible with the FE?

Basically, with the size of the second rack you can fit a 1/2 pan in each zone(zone 2,3).

I really doubt that you can keep the swings within 10*, but personally I have found that the swings are needed for extra smoke. Smoking ribs at 275* with settings of 65/15, I get swings of about 260*-280* and a lot of smoke, works for me. In fact, I had a few championships in ribs last year.

You can cook multiple things at a time with the zones like this, but if you want more than 3 racks of ribs you'll need to get a rib rack for zone 4.

Jaloppy -

My concern with space was that I used to be able to fit an entire steam pan in the Traeger. I can only use a 1/2 pan in the PG 500 zones. As far as the temp settings there are adjustments that can be done to keep the temp swings close but they do sacrifice smoke. If I am doing a long cook I might make those adjustments as the meat is going to get exposed to smoke for a long period so I don't need to flood it with smoke. For items like ribs that are not exposed as long I might open up the settings to allow for more smoke as they aren't exposed for as long of a time. It is really up to you and you would need to experiment to suit your tastes. One thing to keep in mind with the PG500 is that you don't get get the same type of radiant heat over time like the Traeger has. In the Traeger the drip pan was over the flame and so it would heat up and then also radiate heat. In the PG500 the drip pan is away from the flame so that is not the case. The heat hits the meat in zone 4 from the top down.

One last thing is that after 12 months I have not had to swap out a single part on the PG 500. I had my Traeger for about that long and had swapped out 2 barrels, a leg, an RTD, chimney cap, and hot rod (all under warranty of course but it is still a hassle to be doing grill repairs).

Cerveza my first pellet grill was the Lil Tex Elite. Upon arrival the control was malfunctioning and couldn't maintain temp. I had 20-120* degree swings. I was reluctant buying traeger in the first place because of the product issues I read about. My buddy owns a Traeger store so he convinced me to buy. Once I returned it I decided to stick with ceramic and buy a Primo. Well some time went buy and talking with my buddy he swore my experience was an abnormally. So I decided to buy the smallest a Traeger to give it a try again. I'll be honest I have very pleased with it. I can't believe the temp range it can hold. I'm always within 10* for most part.

Now what I haven't considered was the smoke production during swings. I'm so used to a ceramic and the mentality on that side is it's all about maintaining a steady temp. So coming to this Pellet world and people embrace swings due to smoke production is contrary to what I am used to.

I ordered a pg500 last night however the store I purchased just contacted me and asked for my code on back of credit card so now I gotta them.

Would you guys suggest the front shelf?

quote:

Originally posed by Jaloppy:
Would you guys suggest the front shelf?

I didn't get the shelf on mine, so I really can't say yes or no. It appears to me that the way the doors swing outward, you couldn't set anything on it that was taller than 5-6"s, but I could be wrong on that. Hopefully someone with the shelf will help you out on this answer.

I didn't get the shelf with mine yet either it is a nice feature seems it would be handy. I will make that decision when its done being built. I think I will get the cover that accommodates the front shelf just to leave my options open later on.

I ended up buying the shelf for it. I usually like to wait until I've had the grill for a bit before buying a ton of accessories. I know in the past I've jumped the gun and now have an accessory graveyard. I didn't buy cover I think they are too overpriced. I'm going to look for a large weber cover at Lowes.

I purchased this one from Amazon since Cookshack did not have a cover at the time I ordered my grill.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With the front shelf you might need the XL.

Thanks for the link! I will buy that one.