After cooking on a very basic pellet smoker/grill for a year, I found that I really like using it, but the limits of the controls and other shortcomings (imo) convinced me to upgrade to something of higher quality and sophistication. I did a lot of reading and research and the Traeger Ironwood series offered every functional upgrade I wanted. I wrangled over getting the Ironwood or the Ironwood XL since I only cook for two people 90% of the time. Since I never see professional pitmasters overcrowding their pits, I figure bigger is mostly better. Happy I went bigger. The difference in cost was only $200, $1799 vs $1999. What I don't like about my Z Grill is that it is difficult to clean and will not operate reliably unless the firepot is pretty clean and the thermometer inside the drum is pretty clean. Cleaning it is a messy hassle as any of you who use a pellet grill regularly surely know. I also did not like the temperature control. It only has like 8 temperature settings. It covered the common temps used for low and slow cooking, roasting, etc., but that is a little crude for my liking. The highest maintainable temp I ever managed was *450.
The Ironwood XL is a double walled, fully insulated cooker, which was a must for me. The fan and state of the art controller are the real deal. This is a giant convection oven that generates a ton of smoke at all temps I have cooked at. The Traeger app is pretty nice. I was able to get it connected to my home wifi and my phone in about 5 minutes. Very easy to set up. This thing is built like a tank. It weighs nearly 250lbs. I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the construction at this price point. It is much less work to keep it clean so far and there is far less fly ash in the drum after a cook, which means less on my food. The Z Grill is bad for that.
I have had it up to *500+ just to see if it would make it and hold it, which it did. Extremely easy to use with the touchscreen on the unit or with my phone. Plenty of other features that I won't bore you with, but the super smoke feature is nice. I employed it when I roasted a whole chicken for my first cook, which is fairly short by smoking standards. I did a rack and a half of St. Louis cut ribs and some fresh asparagus from the garden today. It does seem to cook a little faster than I'm used to, and the temperature swings are small when it is up to temp and the door stays closed probably because it is fully insulated and has better convection action than lesser pellet smokers, but that is purely speculation on my part at this point. Very happy with performance so far, and it just looks really good. Time is the last test for me, but so far, this is an awesome pellet smoker.
The Ironwood XL is a double walled, fully insulated cooker, which was a must for me. The fan and state of the art controller are the real deal. This is a giant convection oven that generates a ton of smoke at all temps I have cooked at. The Traeger app is pretty nice. I was able to get it connected to my home wifi and my phone in about 5 minutes. Very easy to set up. This thing is built like a tank. It weighs nearly 250lbs. I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the construction at this price point. It is much less work to keep it clean so far and there is far less fly ash in the drum after a cook, which means less on my food. The Z Grill is bad for that.
I have had it up to *500+ just to see if it would make it and hold it, which it did. Extremely easy to use with the touchscreen on the unit or with my phone. Plenty of other features that I won't bore you with, but the super smoke feature is nice. I employed it when I roasted a whole chicken for my first cook, which is fairly short by smoking standards. I did a rack and a half of St. Louis cut ribs and some fresh asparagus from the garden today. It does seem to cook a little faster than I'm used to, and the temperature swings are small when it is up to temp and the door stays closed probably because it is fully insulated and has better convection action than lesser pellet smokers, but that is purely speculation on my part at this point. Very happy with performance so far, and it just looks really good. Time is the last test for me, but so far, this is an awesome pellet smoker.
