If you haven't already, check out the "Pit Boss at Menards" thread. It spans several years and gives a lot of good info on the ins and outs of Pellet Grills over the years. I have a Pit Boss 820 myself. I have been smoking and grilling for over 40 years now so from a 1950's grill to a wedding gift Webber Kettle to a Brinkman Smok'n Pit Pro to a Char-Griller Duo with offset firebox (a mistake I will never make again!), numerous pop-up hog pits complete with home made welded re-bar grates, to campfires and fire pits all over, to my Pit Boss 820 pellet grill I have used a lot of devices. I have a friend that bought an older Traeger that did a great job smoking but it even it had some issues and it seems even Traeger has slid toward lower quality in recent years though their price doesn't seem to reflect it. As a former smoking purist, never using anything but real hardwoods for smoking and being ever vigilant and present for every minute of smoke, I would rather have skewered my own eyeball than changed to a pellet grill (sorry for the graphic example). That being said: If my Pit Boss ever gives up the ghost, I will seek out another pellet grill in a heartbeat! I love the Pit Boss 820 and find that with pellets of many different species as well as competition blends becoming increasingly easier to find and less and less expensive it has opened a whole new life of smoking. My first few smokes (ribs and shoulders) found me constantly at the side of the new pellet grill expecting to make adjustments and correction but actually it ended up just a waste of my time to do so, it not actually needing my help. With low expectations I sampled the first ribs and, fully expecting to be disappointed with the competition blend and lack of hands-on babysitting, was told by my family they were some of the best ribs they'd ever had. Even with bruised feelings I saw the light: I could actually do two things at once now! And my wife said that could never happen! My experiences with the pellet grill, like every other new piece of equipment, have improved and with a better understanding of how to manipulate the smoke for more intensity, among other perks, and my flawed reality thinking it necessary for me being there every second have led me to only one conclusion: I should have bought a pellet grill 40 years ago! Shop and read a lot, do your homework. Not having a great deal of money for a new smoker / grill, the Pit Boss was a great fit. If it didn't work out, I only had a few hundred into it.
