YOU ARE HERE >> AmazingRibs » Ratings & Reviews » Ratings Reviews And Buying Guides » AmazingRibs.com Gift Guide for BBQ and Grilling » BBQ Gifts $500+ » Grilla Pellet Smoker Review
By: Max Good
The Grilla pellet smoker sure catches your eye. We always liked Grilla, but the original MSRP of $1,600 seemed steep. We felt a premium was being placed on the cool cosmetics. In 2016 Grilla Grills made a substantial price cut and it can now be purchased factory direct for $799 with free shipping. That drew us off the fence and into the jungle.
Form does follow function in some aspects of the design. The unique round shape is meant to create even heat by eliminating corners where hot air from the firepot below can bounce about, disrupting the heat pattern. The swivel lid, which opens from right to left, is said to reduce heat loss that occurs when taking a peek or tending foods. Of course, one expects set temp would be recovered quickly in any decent thermostatically controlled pellet smoker.
The digital thermostatic controller is upgraded from an older style dial design to a touch-pad with an integrated meat probe. Grilla claims a temperature range of 180°F to 500°F that may be set in 5° increments. The large, 20 lb. pellet hopper has an opening on the side that enables you to easily swap one type of wood pellet for another. Dual – one quarter inch thick stainless steel rod cooking grates extend capacity with a half round grate that slides into place above a full round grate.
Stainless steel rod grates are easy to clean and last forever.
A window shaped like a gorilla offers a peak at the firepot and adds a nice touch of ambient light after dark. Two stainless steel side trays with built-in tool hooks come in handy, as do two prongs for wrapping up the electric cord when not in use. Grilla moves easily on two – five inch rubber wheels with a foot operated brake mechanism that sets Grilla in place when the desired location is reached. Instead of a messy grease bucket to catch gunk from the smoke box, Grilla has a hanging frame that holds an empty beer or soup can for easy disposal.
The small 31.5″ x 29.5″ footprint makes it ideal for use where BBQ space is limited, as on a condo patio. It comes fully assembled and carries a four year limited warranty.
Manufacturer:
Grilla Grills makes a unique backyard pellet smoker with a compact footprint. Rather than the the popular horizontal design of most pellet smokers, Grilla has a round, upright shape. Instead of a lid, the cookbox swivels open from right to left. They expanded the line to include a few traditional style cookers. Here’s an interesting Behind The Scenes video about Grilla featuring their Engineering Manager, Mark Graham.
All sales are direct.
Published On: 8/26/2015 Last Modified: 9/23/2021
These are products we have tested, won our top awards, and are highly recommend. Click here to read how we test, about our medals, and what they mean.
A big part of this site is our unbiased equipment and product reviews. We love playing with toys and we have no problem calling them the way we see them. Some companies pay a finder’s fee if a reader clicks a link on AmazingRibs.com and buys a product. It has zero impact on our reviews, zero impact on the price you pay, and the sites never tell us what you bought, but it has a major impact on our ability to keep this site alive! So before you buy, please click our links. Here’s a link that takes you to a page on Amazon that has some of our favorite tools and toys: https://tinyurl.com/amazingribs
Built around SnS Grill’s patented Slow ‘N Sear charcoal kettle accessory, this 22-inch kamado is a premium ceramic grill that brings true 2-zone cooking to a kamado.
Napoleon’s 22″ Pro Cart Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It’s hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the 22″ Pro Cart a viable alternative.
The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers because temperature control is so much easier.
Fireboard Labs Product Photo Shoot. Kansas City Commercial Portrait and Wedding Photographers ©Kevin Ashley Photography
With the ability to monitor up to six temperatures simultaneously with either Bluetooth or Wifi on your mobile phone, tablet, or computer, Fireboard is the best digital thermometer we’ve tested.
Click here to read our detailed review
This is the first propane smoker with a thermostat, making this baby foolproof. Set ThermoTemp’s dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin’.
Green Mountain Grills Trek smoker
Green Mountain’s portable Trek Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it’s also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Trek from your smart phone or laptop.
The Good-One Open Range is dramatically different from a traditional offset smoker. By placing the heat source behind and under the smokebox instead of off to the side, Open Range produces even temperature from left to right, something almost impossible to achieve with a standard barrel shaped offset.
From TBoneJack, the unofficial Poet Laureate of The Pitmaster Club:
AmazingRibs is where you go,
To get the best advice,
You’ll find out how, to smoke a cow,
And it will turn out nice.
Smokers, gadgets, recipes,
Charcoal, gas, or wood?
The how, the why, and what to try,
When things arn’t going good.
Selection, prep, and cook techniques,
Marinades and such,
Rubs and brines and temps and times,
And how to use the Crutch.
Brisket secrets are revealed,
For moist and tender meat,
The point, the flat, the rendered fat,
The proper mix of heat.
I found out how to smoke spare ribs,
Great bark and taste and worth,
I want some more, I’ll have them for,
My last meal on this Earth.
Memphis Dust did suit them well,
I served them without sauce,
Not 3-2-1, not overdone,
No precious flavor loss.
Jambo, Lang, or Meadow Creek,
It’s hard to make the call,
Almost a crime, so little time,
I’d like to try them all.
I’m not ashamed, I’m not alone,
‘Cause many have this lot,
But I’ll admit, here in the Pit,
My wife said Not! Not! Not!
Weber, Brinkman, PBC,
No need for budget breach,
They cook great food, just ask me dude,
‘Cause I have one of each.
Obsessed I am, I know it’s true,
They call it MCS,
I saw the doc, he was in shock,
He too is in this mess.
Myron Mixon, Johnny Trigg,
Cool Smoke’s Tuffy Stone,
Harry Soo, Chris Lilly too,
And Moe who cooks alone.
They’re all good, I like them fine,
I’m sure they cook good Q,
They’ve earned the right, I see the light,
I’ll give them their fair due,
But I have learned, thru many cooks,
This web site is da bomb,
For what to do, browse over to,
AmazingRibs dot com.
Tired of seeing popup ads?
No need to throw a fit,
Don’t you know, just spend some dough,
And join us in the Pit.
And if you travel, don’t despair,
No further should you look,
The answer’s clear, put down your beer,
And order Meathead’s book.
When you make rubs at home we recommend you add salt first them the herbs and spices because salt penetrates deep and the other stuff remains on the surface. So thick cuts need more salt. We put salt in these bottled rubs because all commercial rubs have salt and consumers expect it. You can still use these as a dry brine, just sprinkle the rub on well in advance to give the salt time to penetrate. For very thick cuts of meat, we recommend adding a bit more salt. Salt appears first in the ingredients list because law says the order is by weight, not volume, and salt is a heavy rock.
Sprinkle on one tablespoon per pound of meat two hours or more before cooking if you can. Called “dry brining,” the salt gets wet, ionizes, becomes a brine, and slowly penetrates deep, enhancing flavor and juiciness while building a nice crusty “bark” on the surface. Sprinkle some on at the table too!
Are they hot? No! You can always add hot pepper flakes or Chipotle powder (my fave) in advance or at the table. But we left them mild so you can serve them to kids and Aunt Matilda
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators