# Pellet Brand Recommendations?



## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

I am switching and just bought a RecTec 700 pellet smoker.
What does everyone recommend for brand of pellet?

Thanks!


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## BigW. (Dec 28, 2020)

What are you switching from?  I use Lumber Jack.


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## SmokingUPnorth (Dec 28, 2020)

Before I ditched my Traeger I ran only Traeger brand pellets. Which I got hardly any flavor form. Which was the reason I put it up for sale. The. After taking advice from other forum members. I tried Lumberjack 100% hickory I believe it was. And it almost made me keep my Traeger but it had already been replaced. Tons of flavor couldn’t have been happier except the fact that the Traeger was already replaced and it had to go haha.


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## sandyut (Dec 28, 2020)

the most recommended I have seen here is LumberJack.  I am switching over soon as i run out of rec Tec pellets - which I have enjoyed quite a bit, but LJs are a far better buy.



 SmokingUPnorth
 what did you replace your Trager with?



 shawnmaloney01
 what kind of grill are you using?


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## sandyut (Dec 28, 2020)

oh yes, and welcome to SMF from Utah


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

BigW. said:


> What are you switching from?  I use Lumber Jack.


I was using a masterbuilt vertical smoker


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

SmokingUPnorth said:


> Before I ditched my Traeger I ran only Traeger brand pellets. Which I got hardly any flavor form. Which was the reason I put it up for sale. The. After taking advice from other forum members. I tried Lumberjack 100% hickory I believe it was. And it almost made me keep my Traeger but it had already been replaced. Tons of flavor couldn’t have been happier except the fact that the Traeger was already replaced and it had to go haha.


Thank you, will check out Lumberjack


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

sandyut said:


> the most recommended I have seen here is LumberJack.  I am switching over soon as i run out of rec Tec pellets - which I have enjoyed quite a bit, but LJs are a far better buy.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I just bought at RecTec 700


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## sandyut (Dec 28, 2020)

shawnmaloney01 said:


> I just bought at RecTec 700


Nice!  Thats my rig as well.  LOVE it.  Congrats!!


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

sandyut said:


> Nice!  Thats my rig as well.  LOVE it.  Congrats!!


Can't wait to get it  and fire it up.


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## JCAP (Dec 28, 2020)

I haven't used LJ pellets but I do really like the Bear Mountain pellets. They've also been doing a BOGO through their site lately.


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

JCAP said:


> I haven't used LJ pellets but I do really like the Bear Mountain pellets. They've also been doing a BOGO through their site lately.


Thanks, I heard of them as well and was wondering if any good, saw mixed reviews


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

SmokingUPnorth said:


> Before I ditched my Traeger I ran only Traeger brand pellets. Which I got hardly any flavor form. Which was the reason I put it up for sale. The. After taking advice from other forum members. I tried Lumberjack 100% hickory I believe it was. And it almost made me keep my Traeger but it had already been replaced. Tons of flavor couldn’t have been happier except the fact that the Traeger was already replaced and it had to go haha.



I found three different pellets called lumber jack and the packaging looks different, they look like different companies. Which is the real one haha, the recommended one?
Pics attached


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

I found three different pellets called lumber jack and the packaging looks different, they look like different companies. Which is the real one haha, the recommended one?
Pics attached


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## bill1 (Dec 28, 2020)

Looks like they tried to gentrify their logo a bit.  1st and third pic are the new logo; the middle one is the one most are familiar with.  All the same company and product.  
I've had good luck with Pit Boss straight from Walmart.  Tend to use the 40pound Comp brand in my pellet hopper and use hickory or mesquite for standalone pans and tubes.   I've had several bags of Traegers and have always been disappointed with them.  
I've never tried Lumberjack although they're sure getting rave reviews here...gonna' hafta' give 'em a try.


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## Winterrider (Dec 28, 2020)

That's the real McCoy


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## shawnmaloney01 (Dec 28, 2020)

Thanks


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## SmokinGame (Dec 28, 2020)

So far I like the Bear Mountain pellets a little bit more than LJ. But I would use either. I am always running an A-MAZE-N tube.


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## SmokinEdge (Dec 28, 2020)

Lumber Jack, Bear Mountain, Pellet Head, and Green Mountain Gold. These are all pure flavor wood and give great flavor.


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## mike243 (Dec 28, 2020)

I tried a bag of the Kingsford hickory and was impressed with the amount of smoke they produced, caught them at a decent price , bought 10 bags last year discounted and the smoke was way less, not sure what changed  but they were much better


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## 1MoreFord (Dec 28, 2020)

So far I'm liking LumberJack 100% Hickory.  Good pellets at a great price in my area.


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## bill1 (Dec 29, 2020)

mike243 said:


> I tried a bag of the Kingsford hickory and was impressed with the amount of smoke they produced, caught them at a decent price , bought 10 bags last year discounted and *the smoke was way less,* not sure what changed  but they were much better


What changed was time.  The raw materials of wood stocks are variable products.  The fence boards I bought last year are different than the ones I buy now.  
Do any of these upscale products (LJ, BM, etc)  include a stock/date code on the bag so I can at least know that any two bags will be the same?  
Anyone want to comment on the consistency of their fave products?  I gave up on Traeger because each bag seemed to get consistently worse.  Maybe there's an annual cycle and I just need to know WHEN to buy them?    
FWIW, I've found PitBoss to be fairly consistent...I've been buying them pretty steady for the past 3-4 years.


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## bill1 (Dec 29, 2020)

Turns out there's a Lumber Jack of Wisconsin that makes heating (not cooking) pellets:






Lumber Jack of *Louisiana *is what you want for cooking.


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## 1MoreFord (Dec 29, 2020)

Nope, LumberJack heating and BBQ  pellets are made by the same company in Wisconsin.






						Products | GLRE
					






					glrepellets.com


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## SmokingUPnorth (Dec 30, 2020)

Like smokingame said. The a-maz-n tray is a great addition to pellet smokers


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## bill1 (Dec 30, 2020)

1MoreFord said:


> Nope, LumberJack heating and BBQ  pellets are made by the same company in Wisconsin.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


My mistake, sorry. The Louisiana outfit may just be a local distributor of the Great Lakes home company.  And there's been packaging changes to both heating and cooking lines.    

But it does raise the question as to whether a vendor's products might be more locally sourced although under the parent company's QC, however lax or stringent that may be. So to be sure you're reproducing someone else's pellet experience, you probably need to pay to have them shipped from the same location that that person used.  

FWIW, my prior comments applied to products bought in-store at No. CA locations of Costco, Lowe's, Walmart, and the now defunct OSH.  If you're shopping for the same product at other locations, well, your mileage may vary. 

Here's the LA link:


			https://m.facebook.com/LumberJackofLouisiana/


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## 1MoreFord (Dec 30, 2020)

bill1,  I don't facebook so I would never have seen LJ of LA w/o you bringing it up.  I think you're right and they are a sales outlet.

I buy my LJ pellets from Atwoods Ranch and Home.  They are from GLRE and look like all the other LJ cooking pellet bags I've ever seen.


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## dons2346 (Dec 30, 2020)

I started with Bear Mountain but after reading about LumberJack here, I gave them a try. Problem is that I can't get any hickory


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## bill1 (Dec 31, 2020)

dons2346 said:


> ...I can't get any hickory...


LJ markets an awful lot of _blends_.  Almost wish they'd stock just pure woods and just _suggest_ to us the end user what makes a good blend.


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## NoCoPK360 (Dec 31, 2020)

I use a lot of Lumberjack and have also used Bear Mountain both are great and reasonably priced. Another option if you can catch them on sale at Lowes are the Weber Smokefire pellets. I think they are just rebranded Lumberjack, but Lowes clears them out in the winter for around 8 bucks a bag which is a great price.


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## Fishonshawn (Jan 1, 2021)

JCAP said:


> I haven't used LJ pellets but I do really like the Bear Mountain pellets. They've also been doing a BOGO through their site lately.


To expensive through their site though. I buy bear mtn pellets at coastal farm.  Not only are they almost half the cost but add the sales they do every 2 or so months on them and you can't beat it. Just got a dozen bags the other day. Buy 2 get 1 free. Sometimes its buy 1 get 1 half off...either way they are usually at or under $10 a bag regular price at coastal farm but $18 plus whatever shipping is off their site...


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## bill1 (Jan 1, 2021)

NoCoPK360 said:


> I use a lot of Lumberjack and have also used Bear Mountain both are great and reasonably priced. Another option if you can catch them on sale at Lowes are the Weber Smokefire pellets. I think they are just rebranded Lumberjack, but Lowes clears them out in the winter for around 8 bucks a bag which is a great price.


Lo, and behold, my local Lowe's had the Webers on sale for just this weekend, $17 marked down to $10 so I got a couple bags and will give them a try.  They only had 20# bags of equal mixes of maple, hickory, and cherry.  Seemed like a bit of a weird blend to me but I say the same about a lot of cocktails.  

I do kinda' miss they don't have a zip-lock top like the cheap PitBoss 20-pounders.  I find that a surprisingly useful feature.  So I probably won't open these until I free up a few more coffee cans.


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