Rectec what's bad about them

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skorepeo

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 11, 2014
72
11
So I am thinking about a pellet grill. Does anyone have any complaints about their purchase of a RecTec?
 
Honestly I can't think of much bad to say about my Rec Tec.  I believe it's hard to beat the quality for the price.  Now, mind you, if I had 3K+ to spend on a grill, there are a few higher end products (Memphis Elite, for example) with some very cool features, but for a thousand bucks, Rec Tec is hard to beat.  Very well made, accurate and consistent temp control, and outstanding customer service.

Red
 
Great product, good size for the price & everything works as advertised. Of course
I'm sure you've heard of their awesome customer support that come with it.
 
So I am thinking about a pellet grill. Does anyone have any complaints about their purchase of a RecTec?
I think you'll be hard pressed to find many complaints.  I searched long and hard for negatives before I bought mine.  There was one negative on Amazon, his bitch was about too little smoke flavor which is subjective and easily remedied if you do want more smoke.  Like Red said, the quality for the price will be hard to beat and the customer service is amazing, before and after the sale.  I mean, seriously, the owners include their cell phone numbers with the shipping documentation.  I've never used their cell numbers, but each time I have called the shop after hours and  left a message, I get a return call within an hour, usually an answer to my question in minutes, plus a lot of patient conversation on tips and tricks.  My family loves ribs and while I usually put out good ribs on my other cookers, the Rec-Tec is soooooooo consistent, my ribs are the best I've ever done and I can consistently do them that way.  Everything else cooks amazingly well, also.  If I had one thing to say and it's not a complaint ........... You can definitely reverse sear a steak on the Rec-Tec, but you have to wait between the preheat of the steak and the heating to sear temp on the Rec-Tec.  So, I preheat my steak on the Rec-Tec at 200 degrees to get smoke, then I move quickly to my pre-heated Weber gasser to finish it off to medium rare.  But, I'm a grill junkie, three different cookers and thinking about adding a Weber One Touch Gold to the arsenal.  I don't think you will be disappointed with a Rec-Tec, especially for the price and the customer service.
 
OK so does anyone have any problems. Like paint chipping peeling rust malfunctioning parts? Pellets cost more than wood Etc.
 
OK so does anyone have any problems. Like paint chipping peeling rust malfunctioning parts? Pellets cost more than wood Etc.
The powder coat is great, done very well.  The cooker is heavy duty, more so than even my Weber Genesis.  I had the cooling fan on my auger rub against the housing and stop the auger, that took about five minutes to troubleshoot and fix.  All solved on Memorial Day afternoon with a quick phone call.  Did we tell you about the customer service?  
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Pellet costs, I can get Cookin'pellets for $20/40#, Lumberjack for $17/40# adn have seen others range as high as $22/20#, so just depends on what you want to buy.
 
I have had mine since labor day, I am not sure what to actually call them, they aren't a smoker as they really don't impart a smokey taste, and mine can't e called a grill as it takes an hour to get it to 450° to do an 8 minute steak. I have a cookshack electric and have been used to it giving me the smoke flavor I wanted, but it is on the small size so I went with one of these.

I have pretty much given up on any high temp usage, about as high as I go is 375° if I am doing poultry.

If you are a low slow cook guy 225 and under it may be what you are looking for, if you are a 250-300 cook guy when you smoke, I like to do briskets at 275 you aren't going to get much of the wood smoke flavor. And adding an Amazin Tube will help but not as much as one would think, as placement for the tube plays a big part in how much smoke gets to the product. Ideally I believe the tube should be under the drip pan but that is a pain to do all the time and if it goes out an even bigger pain to relight.

For the size and a lot of the features it is a great deal, couple that with the ability to finance should you need it.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy mine, but if I had to do it again I would definitely put more time and research into it before buying and probably would have a different brand.

 
 
 
I have had mine since labor day, I am not sure what to actually call them, they aren't a smoker as they really don't impart a smokey taste, and mine can't e called a grill as it takes an hour to get it to 450° to do an 8 minute steak. I have a cookshack electric and have been used to it giving me the smoke flavor I wanted, but it is on the small size so I went with one of these.

I have pretty much given up on any high temp usage, about as high as I go is 375° if I am doing poultry.

If you are a low slow cook guy 225 and under it may be what you are looking for, if you are a 250-300 cook guy when you smoke, I like to do briskets at 275 you aren't going to get much of the wood smoke flavor. And adding an Amazin Tube will help but not as much as one would think, as placement for the tube plays a big part in how much smoke gets to the product. Ideally I believe the tube should be under the drip pan but that is a pain to do all the time and if it goes out an even bigger pain to relight.

For the size and a lot of the features it is a great deal, couple that with the ability to finance should you need it.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy mine, but if I had to do it again I would definitely put more time and research into it before buying and probably would have a different brand.

 
You might want to call Ron about that hour to 450.  It was in the low 60s here last weekend when I started it up to clean the grates before a cook.  I set it to 500 and checked the clock, 30 minutes later I went out to see if it was hot enough to brush the grates, it was 490.
 
 
I have had mine since labor day, I am not sure what to actually call them, they aren't a smoker as they really don't impart a smokey taste, and mine can't e called a grill as it takes an hour to get it to 450° to do an 8 minute steak. I have a cookshack electric and have been used to it giving me the smoke flavor I wanted, but it is on the small size so I went with one of these.

I have pretty much given up on any high temp usage, about as high as I go is 375° if I am doing poultry.
 
You might want to call Ron about that hour to 450.  It was in the low 60s here last weekend when I started it up to clean the grates before a cook.  I set it to 500 and checked the clock, 30 minutes later I went out to see if it was hot enough to brush the grates, it was 490.
The times to get up to high temps in your rigs are concerning...Agree with Frog about calling Rec Tec for some help.  It has never taken longer than 20 minutes to get mine to 500*, even with the drip pan left in place.  Most of the time when I'm direct grilling, my setup includes removing the drip pan, putting some foil in the bottom of the barrel to catch grease, then putting my Grill Grates across the right side.  With this setup, my Rec Tec is usually at 500* in 10 minutes or less....and with those Grill Grates, its a grilling, searing machine!  And shtrdave, I'm sorry to hear you're not getting enough smoke from yours...I've been very happy with the smoke production from mine, especially at cooking temps below 250*

Red
 
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The times to get up to high temps in your rigs are concerning...Agree with Frog about calling Rec Tec for some help.  It has never taken longer than 20 minutes to get mine to 500*, even with the drip pan left in place.  Most of the time when I'm direct grilling, my setup includes removing the drip pan, putting some foil in the bottom of the barrel to catch grease, then putting my Grill Grates across the right side.  With this setup, my Rec Tec is usually at 500* in 10 minutes or less....and with those Grill Grates, its a grilling, searing machine!  And shtrdave, I'm sorry to hear you're not getting enough smoke from yours...I've been very happy with the smoke production from mine, especially at cooking temps below 250*

Red
Yeah, I'll bet with the drip pan out and grill grates in she should heat up plenty fast.  I only go hot to burn off the grates, I still have a Weber gasser for those high sears.  I, too, am surprised about the smoke.  I worried about that when I bought it, coming from a Smoke Vault, and used a smoke tube a couple times.  That gave me too much smoke for the most part, on a butt not bad because you pull and mix, but on ribs, just too overpowering.  I get good smoke at 275, better at 250 and about all a person would want at 225.





 
I have spoke to Ron a couple of times, he sent me a new auger motor saying he didn't think that would fix it. I put it in and I could tell it run differently, but still no good, I called back and he told me that I should set it at 350 and then let it stabilize for 20 minutes before setting to 500, so 35 minutes or so to get to 350 and then another 20 and it still didn't hit 500 this was with the white bag pellets they send with them. I have switched to another pellet, swapped out the auger motor to one of the faster ones and it still took close to an hour and would not come close to 500 460ish was best it would do. I am going to try another pellet. But I feel I am just spinning my wheels here.

I can say that I wish I had saved up some more cash and went for the FEC100 but they are a lot more coin new have seen used ones for decent deals though.

For the OP here, as you can see there are some out there that have issues, mine is not the only one like this, but I believe you will have that with just about any brand you buy unless you are willing to drop the big dollar on one of the Maks or Memphis unit. 
 
After last night's 15 hour marathon pork butt babysitting the chargriller I am looking forward to getting my new RecTec! Now how long does it take to arrive?
 
Ordered mine on a Thursday @ 4:30pm & had it the following Tuesday in central Illinois. Of course this was in February,
demand wasn't that high probly @ that time of year tho.
 
After last night's 15 hour marathon pork butt babysitting the chargriller I am looking forward to getting my new RecTec! Now how long does it take to arrive?
I think most times it's about a week. I also had a pork butt marathon yesterday, on my Rec Tec.  Of course, I didn't baby sit it, I put the butts on, all 24# of them.  Then I took a trailer of yard waste to the dump, loaded a grill and door on the trailer and delivered it about 45 minutes away.  Stopped at Lowes on the way home for some yard stuff, then at a little Italian deli for some lunch.  Got home, checked the butts, they were about 145 so I mowed the lawn before I wrapped them in foil.  Then I went in, made some beans and watched a little TV (BBQ Pitmasters recorded) until I pulled them off and put them in  cooler to hold. Pulled them right before bed last night about 11:00.


 
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The RecTec arrived last night. I got it together and didn't have any spare parts left. Got it broke in and seasoned. So a couple of things that I don't like is that the light is always on, the lid doesn't have a seal and the temperature read about 15 degrees higher than my maverick.

This morning I put a 10 pound butt on and set it to forget it for about 8 hours then I will check it.

Not gonna be easy since I am used to putting a stick of wood on every hour or so.
 
The RecTec arrived last night. I got it together and didn't have any spare parts left. Got it broke in and seasoned. So a couple of things that I don't like is that the light is always on, the lid doesn't have a seal and the temperature read about 15 degrees higher than my maverick.

This morning I put a 10 pound butt on and set it to forget it for about 8 hours then I will check it.

Not gonna be easy since I am used to putting a stick of wood on every hour or so.
Ok, so the light is an issue ........ you should call them on that one for sure, it should go on and off just fine with the light switch.  The lid does not have a seal but that is easy enough to mod if you really find that necessary, which I doubt.  As far as the temp, it depends on where you measure, what you have inside the grill, etc.  15 degrees is really irrelevant, swings on most grills are probably higher than that.  Check out a high end kitchen oven with your Maverick, see how that pans out.  My point is it's not going to be spot on every day. I spent a lot of time with Rec Tec on the phone asking questions about all kinds of things before I bought my grill, the best advice they gave me was to use the grill for a few weeks once I got it, cook the food trusting the displayed temperature and then let them know if there were any issues.  I've only called them once since I got it, Memorial Day afternoon, I thought I had an auger problem.  They answered the phone on the holiday, asked me a few questions, we figured out the fan on the auger motor was hitting the shroud, minor adjustment, problem solved.  I don't even use my Maverick anymore, I just set the temp I want, put the food on and  check it when I think I need to with a Thermapen.  I have three cookers and it would drive me crazy trying to get temps spot on in any of them.  I see guys on here obsessing over it all the time.  Temps are going to swing, typically no two measurement devices side by side are going to be spot on.  There was a time before digital thermometers that people put out some really great Q, concentrate on cooking the food, not all the peripherals. You'll have great food and a lot less stress.  That's what this is supposed to be about, low stress and enjoying what you produce.
 
There is a switch for the light to the right of the controller. The temp differential is something you will get used to and it will vary depending on where you put your maverick probe. The RT guys say the RT sensor is calibrated to read the temp in the center of the grill, so if doing a temp test put the probe directly in the middle. I usually put mine close to where I am cooking close the meat and if there is a big difference then I adjust the set temp to get the maverick to read what I want. Your temps will change through out the temp spectrum, or at least mine does it may start off lower than the RT but as temps go up it ends up the maverick ends up reading higher. 20° isn't so bad if you know about it and can make an adjustment to compensate.

for the lid if you want to seal it up this is where I got mine. I got the self adhesive 1/2x1/8x15 foot I believe and had enough to to do the lid and then some. a tip here is look at the ends of the lid where it closes against the barrel. notice the ends of barrel is raised you may want to try to keep the seal i a bit or something to compensate for the difference. I didn't and mine still leaks some but not so bad. mostly from the top and bottom of the lid. I picked up a Qt of acetone at work or you could get it at a paint store maybe even lowes to clean the lid of the smoke and grease before I put the seal on.

Look here for something that you would like to use.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/islandoutdo..._DefaultDomain_0&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

It is a good piece of machinery, but with anything there are little things that will bug you, but then it is only a $1000.00 dollar thing and not a 3 or 4 thousand dollar Memphis, Mak or Cookshack.

Have fun make some great food and enjoy it, an Amazin Smoke tube from Todd is a great addition, and when ordering get some of the Qmatz from him I use them all the time.
 
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Where do you put the amazn tube?

Wait did you say there's a light switch! Boy do I feel stupid.
 
You can lay the tube on the rack, I usually put mine in the left rear of the cooker the air coming up helps to keep it burning. If you are happy with the smoke flavor you may not want one, I was after a bit more of the smokey taste, even with the tube I am not where I wanted to be flavor wise but the GF is happy so that means so am I. I liked the flavors out of my electric better when it came to smoke. But the Qmatz are great if you are doing small stuff like shrimp or eggs, cheese some veggies.

We won't talk about the light switch.

Please try to give us some shots of the cook and I am really going to be interested in what you think about the flavors, coming from a stick burner to this.
 
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