Traeger Lil’ Tex Elite Pellet Smoker Review
Traeger’s Lil’Tex Elite is a mid-size pellet smoker featuring digital thermostatic control. Digital, thermostatically controlled pellet smokers are a dream come true. They can be more accurate than your kitchen range and allow you to load up your smoker at 11 pm, set it to 225 F, then go to bed and sleep soundly, knowing you’ll wake up to a BBQ feast of delicious meat that’s been slow cooking for hours at a steady and accurate temperature.
In the old days, Traeger used crumby, three position Low, Medium, High controllers. Three position controllers have no thermostat to monitor actual temperature and can only execute pellet run times for low, medium and high heat. It feeds the same amount of fuel to the firepot whether you’re cooking on a scorching summer day or frozen winter night. The Lil’ Tex digital controller uses a thermostat in the smoke box to insure you’re cooking at the set temperature as long as the hopper has wood pellet fuel.
Traeger pioneered and popularized the pellet smoker and remains the best known brand since it is in wide distribution. In fact about 85% of pellet smokers in the USA are Traeger. The consensus is they are reasonably well built, but some buyers complain that since manufacturing moved to China quality has dropped, especially on entry level models. Of course we hear more complaints as well as praise about Traeger since 8 out 10 pellet smoker owners have one.
All Traegers are black powder coated steel with porcelain enamel steel grates.
- Model:Lil' Tex Elite Pellet Smoker
- Item Price:$ 799.00
- Made in USA:no
- Review Method:Looked Closely At It
We have seen this product up close and we have also gathered info from the manufacturer, owners, and other reliable sources. - Primary Function:Smoker
- Fuel:Wood Pellets
- Main Burners:1
- Primary Capacity:418 square inches
Mid-Size (about 20 burgers)
Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC.
Traeger pioneered and popularized the pellet smoker and remains the best known brand since it is in wide distribution. And they aim to keep it that way even though competition is growing. New owners took over in 2014 and invested heavily in product development and marketing. In 2021 Traeger went public.
They offer a full line of branded extras from Traeger Pellets and rubs to Traeger insulation blankets and cold smoker add-ons.
Manufacturer:
Published On: 1/17/2013 Last Modified: 2/15/2021
Our Favorite Backyard Smoker
The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat-controlled oven. Click here for our review of this superb smoker.
Grilla Proves That Good Things Come In Small Packages
The small 31.5″ x 29.5″ footprint of the Grilla Pellet Smoker makes it ideal for use where BBQ space is limited, including on a condo patio. Click here for our review on this unique smoker.
BBQ And Grilling Gifts For Every Occasion
Looking for the perfect gift for the BBQ and grilling enthusiasts in your life? Here’s our suggestion for platinum and gold medal-winning products at a variety of price points. Click here to see our list of Gold Medal Gifts.
Amp Up Your Outdoor Cooking Game By Joining The Pitmaster Club
Now the largest membership-based BBQ and grilling community in the world, the Pitmaster Club is sure to step up your outdoor cooking game. Experience the countless benefits — from monthly giveaways, to free products, to exclusive content, and more– by signing up for a 30-day free trial below! Get a free 30-day trial here.
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