jpeisen
Knows what a fatty is.
Alright, so I've had my Assassin Pellet Grill for about a week now, so I'm going to share some initial thoughts about it.
First some background:
I recently moved from Tulsa, OK to Pittsburgh, PA. I did buy a house with a good-sized yard, but there just was no place for my Bell Fab trailer. So downsizing was necessary, and I decided to also go for easier cooks.
I had a hard time researching pellet grills. Every manufacturer has their thing, and their thing is the most important. I eventually read a post which said, essentially, they all are pretty similar - boxes with a firepot inside. So I figured out what was important for me (cook size, total size, build quality, and cost) and put together a spreadsheet. I used that to weed out the 12 contenders. The Assassin was in the final group and, to be honest, coming from a custom offset I just wanted a similar experience, so the final decision was gut feel.
After an long wait (partially imposed by me, as I was coordinating grill delivery with moving my home), what was delivered to me on the 24th was this beauty:
The physical stuff:
The grill measures 47wx24dx59h. The grates are 31.5wx21d (bottom) and 31.5wx16d (top) for 1166 square inches of cook area. (On my list, only the Pitts and Spits Maverick 1250 had more 2-grate cooking area.[1]) 5" between the grates. Both grates slide out.
It weighs in at around 300lb according to their site. I believe it - this thing is solid. The wheels aren't huge, but it moves easily enough on concrete which isn't always level. The stand and the shelves are very solidly constructed. The shelves have a good amount of heft to them.
The standard color is black. I paid a bit extra for the custom blue pearl coat. the color is automotive paint selected on the PPG site, so it can be pretty much anything you'd care to have...
It has a PID controller which steps from 200-500 in 5 degree increments. It seems to hold temps well once it gets there. I'm still learning how to use it, as it tends to overshoot and then drop back to the setting. There's a meat probe and when used it alerts when the meat hits its set point.
Cooking:
I've done 2 cooks on it so far, just to get a feel for it. The first was some steaks my wife had bought the day it arrived. They were good, but it's clear I will need a searing solution. On Memorial Day I smoked a rack of beef back ribs. Started at 200 (after it settled) for ~2h, then 285 until they completed. They weren't as meaty as plate ribs, but were delicious. Pics:
Initial impressions:
So far I love this Assassin Pellet Grill and strongly recommend it. It's beautiful, solidly built, cooks well, and provides a lot of cook area in a relatively small footprint.
There are a couple of things to consider though:
The first is a lack of a manual for the controller. I'm a computer geek and am okay with figuring it out on my own, but others might not be. It is easy to operate to "just cook" but fine-tuning it might be a challenge.
The second is the shipping cost. This is a large item being shipped via a lift-gate freight service. It adds a significant amount to the total bill. It does arrive assembled, by the way - I just had to slot in the removable shelves.
Sorry for the length of this. To think I was worried I had nothing to say.. Anyway, I hope you find it useful.
-John
1 - FWIW both Blaz'n Grillworks and Yoder have multi-shelf options to boost their cook areas. I just evaluated cooking area with 2 shelves.
First some background:
I recently moved from Tulsa, OK to Pittsburgh, PA. I did buy a house with a good-sized yard, but there just was no place for my Bell Fab trailer. So downsizing was necessary, and I decided to also go for easier cooks.
I had a hard time researching pellet grills. Every manufacturer has their thing, and their thing is the most important. I eventually read a post which said, essentially, they all are pretty similar - boxes with a firepot inside. So I figured out what was important for me (cook size, total size, build quality, and cost) and put together a spreadsheet. I used that to weed out the 12 contenders. The Assassin was in the final group and, to be honest, coming from a custom offset I just wanted a similar experience, so the final decision was gut feel.
After an long wait (partially imposed by me, as I was coordinating grill delivery with moving my home), what was delivered to me on the 24th was this beauty:
The physical stuff:
The grill measures 47wx24dx59h. The grates are 31.5wx21d (bottom) and 31.5wx16d (top) for 1166 square inches of cook area. (On my list, only the Pitts and Spits Maverick 1250 had more 2-grate cooking area.[1]) 5" between the grates. Both grates slide out.
It weighs in at around 300lb according to their site. I believe it - this thing is solid. The wheels aren't huge, but it moves easily enough on concrete which isn't always level. The stand and the shelves are very solidly constructed. The shelves have a good amount of heft to them.
The standard color is black. I paid a bit extra for the custom blue pearl coat. the color is automotive paint selected on the PPG site, so it can be pretty much anything you'd care to have...
It has a PID controller which steps from 200-500 in 5 degree increments. It seems to hold temps well once it gets there. I'm still learning how to use it, as it tends to overshoot and then drop back to the setting. There's a meat probe and when used it alerts when the meat hits its set point.
Cooking:
I've done 2 cooks on it so far, just to get a feel for it. The first was some steaks my wife had bought the day it arrived. They were good, but it's clear I will need a searing solution. On Memorial Day I smoked a rack of beef back ribs. Started at 200 (after it settled) for ~2h, then 285 until they completed. They weren't as meaty as plate ribs, but were delicious. Pics:
Initial impressions:
So far I love this Assassin Pellet Grill and strongly recommend it. It's beautiful, solidly built, cooks well, and provides a lot of cook area in a relatively small footprint.
There are a couple of things to consider though:
The first is a lack of a manual for the controller. I'm a computer geek and am okay with figuring it out on my own, but others might not be. It is easy to operate to "just cook" but fine-tuning it might be a challenge.
The second is the shipping cost. This is a large item being shipped via a lift-gate freight service. It adds a significant amount to the total bill. It does arrive assembled, by the way - I just had to slot in the removable shelves.
Sorry for the length of this. To think I was worried I had nothing to say.. Anyway, I hope you find it useful.
-John
1 - FWIW both Blaz'n Grillworks and Yoder have multi-shelf options to boost their cook areas. I just evaluated cooking area with 2 shelves.
