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The Select and Select PRO are Traeger’s only models on carts. They look like a gas grill with a double door enclosure, side shelves and black powder coated hood and body with stainless steel trim. Although it has a digital controller, it uses an older dial control like those made by Ortech. Not bad, but once you get into this price range some competitors feature more advanced touchpad controls that work better and include additional features beyond ignition and set points. Then again, most pellet smokers don’t have an enclosed cart.
Even the older digital dial controllers provide the set it and forget it ease of use that is the main attraction of pellet smoking. They are often 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 feast of delicious meat that’s been slow cooking for hours at a steady and accurate temperature.
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 have porcelain enamel steel grates.
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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. Recently they introduced a gas burning griddle called Flatrock.
Published On: 1/18/2013
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