Should You Replace Your Gas Grill With a Pellet Grill?

Pellet Grill or Gas Grill?

If you are looking for a grill that is easy to use, the choice may come down to a pellet grill or gas grill. Do you want a grill that is excellent at smoking low and slow and also capable of searing at high temperatures? Or are you more likely to want a grill that performs best at high temperatures that will leave you with great sear marks on your steak?

Pellet Grill or Gas Grill Overview?

Both pellet and gas cookers offer speed and convenience in a very user-friendly package. But how are they different? Some people refer to pellet grills as outdoor ovens that can also grill and smoke. While they both have the word “grill” in the title, they are actually quite different cookers.

A gas grill is perfect if you want to sear meat at high temperatures. Pellet grills can be used to cook and bake pretty much any of your favorite dishes that you cook in your stove at home plus they have an option to smoke low and slow. They impart a subtle smokey flavor to your food by burning wood pellets. They use wood pellets created from green woodchips and there are a lot of flavors to choose from, so lots of room for experimenting with your food flavor.

Probably the best feature of pellet grills is “set and forget”. They do a great job cooking low and slow, and you can set up the temperature on the digital controller and walk away.

Is there a difference between pellet smokers and pellet grills? No, they are simply different ways to refer to the same thing.

Pellet grills could cost more than gas grills, so if speed, cost-effectiveness, and great sear marks on your steak mean more to you, you may want to take a closer look at gas.Gas grills really come into their own when cooking at mid-high range temperatures but don’t perform as well as pellet grills at lower temperatures. The insulation on the gas grill is not designed for the optimal smoking.

Pellet Grill Overview?

Pellet grills are becoming more and more popular and the pool of manufacturers offering these cookers is growing. Among barbecue enthusiasts, RecTec, Yoder, Traeger and ZGrills are all brands that come highly recommended.

Pellet grills use indirect heat to cook food, with the help of a convection fan, somewhat like an oven. To power the fan, and other features of the grill, pellet grills need to be plugged in to your electricity.

Pellet Grills Advantages:

Very convenient – Once you have filled up the hopper with pellets, and set the temperature, all you need to do is kick back, relax and wait for your dinner.

Fuel efficient – cheap to run – Pellet grills have a convection fan, meaning they run very efficiently. This means you can expect to spend less on pellets than you would on charcoal.

Easy to maintain – Unlike charcoal grills, pellet grills don’t make much of a mess. Aside from the cooking surfaces themselves, you may need to clean out the fire pot occasionally, but that is it.

Versatile– Pellet grills allow you to smoke, roast, bake, barbecue and grill (although the sear won’t be as good as you can expect from a charcoal grill) all within the one unit.

Quick –Quick – You can expect your pellet grill to be up to temperature and ready to cook within 15 minutes.

Gas Grills Advantages:

Great for grilling – Gas grills really come into their own when grilling at higher temperatures. While they can be used as smokers, they will not do as well as other types of barbecues when cooking low and slow.

 Cheap– You can find a gas grill that suits just about any budget. While the higher end gas grills will obviously offer more features, there are still quality offerings at the lower end of the price range.

Speed – Gas grills should only take around 10 minutes to reach the desired cooking temperature.

Clean burning– Gas is a clean burning fuel, so you will not be left to clean up the remains of burnt wood or coals. The downside is that gas grills do not add any flavor to your meal. 

Pellet Grills and Gas Grills Go Head-to-Head:

Now that you understand the main differences between these types of cookers, let’s look at how they compare across a few key areas.

Fancy Features:

Both gas and pellet grills offer fancy bells and whistles, especially as the price gets higher.  But at this point pellet grills are more likely to come packed with technology.

Pellet grills are, by design, high-tech units. As such, manufacturers have been quick to include features such as WiFi and Bluetooth capability, integrated meat probes and LCD screens.

Grills like the Louisiana Grills Black Label allow you to control them via an app on your phone. Some can even be programmed to hold meat at a certain temperature once the cooking is done.

Gas grills don’t come with automated temperature control features.  Usually, gas grills come with more traditional features, such as side burners and rotisseries. Some models also offer little luxuries like internal lights and illuminated knobs.

Summary:

Both pellet and gas grills offer a great level of convenience and efficiency. It comes down to personal preference as to which grill is better suited for your needs and style of grilling. Basic difference between them comes down to this – a gas grill is familiar and also produces the good grill marks on the food you grill at high temperatures, while a pellet grill is a relatively new but very popular grill smoker that not only allows you to cook, grill and bake but also has a slow cooking smoking feature that allows you to set up a temperature and walk away from the grill until your food is ready. Perhaps most importantly, to add extra flavor to your food, pellet grills use natural wood pellets that are made from maple and hickory, just to name a few.

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