Long Post of Disappointing Rants and Dreaming of a LSG Pellet Grill

jrTheSmoker

Knows what a fatty is.
Joined
Apr 8, 2022
Location
FL
Name or Nickame
jrTheSmoker
So long story short, I went from cooking on a gas grill only my whole life, to my game changing cooking over a fire pit, to a Saffire Kamado, to a very small Brinkmann offset, to now a Work Horse 1975t, LSG Large IVS, and 26" Weber Kettle.

My plan was to use the 1975t as much as possible as time allows, then the cabinet when time doesn't or overnight cooks, and the Weber for hot and fast only such as steaks, chicken pieces, and burger.

I've always been mainly meat based, but I like a lot of salads and would put my smoked meat on my salads. Since my motorcycle wreck two years ago yesterday, I've put back on most of the 84 pounds I lost prior to my accident from being bed ridden for 5 months and limited mobility for almost a year and a half. I recently got back on the weight loss journey and started a carnivore type diet a month or so ago. Luckily the local Winn Dixie has had $6.99 ribeye and tbone steaks and BOGO chicken thighs or quarters on sale every weekend or two for a month now that are actually decent and a lot better than the ones at Walmart.

I live in Florida, so the heat index is 103F+ every day for the past month, along with daily showers and thunderstorms, so cooking is difficult with no covered area to cook.

Because of this, I've been using my Weber kettle with and without each of the SNS, GrillGrates, direct, indirect, and everything in between. Thus far I'm rather disappointed in the flavor of the food coming off of the Weber compared to my offset (understandably, no comparison I know), and my old Kamado I sold. I've noticed that even though my Weber is not even a year old I think, it's starting to wobble pretty bad on the legs, and I noticed some rust spots where the leg mounts attach to the kettle bottom. For the money I paid for this unit, that is severely disappointing, as I do not move it but from against the side of the house a few feet and back with each cook.

I still have the gas grill that I rebuilt but don't use anymore, but I would roll it to just outside the back door the morning before I left for work and put tinfoil in most of the openings except for a small amount open at the top opposite of the smoke tube for the exhaust. This way, when it was storming by the time I got home from work, I would crank it on and use it with GrillGrates and a smoke tube or chip box to cook steaks, pork tenderloin, burgers, etc., and even though it was cooked on a gas grill so the outside was somewhat dry as you would expect, it had a smokey flavor the pellets or wood chips put on it and was pretty strong too.

I've tried to do this same thing on the Weber kettle and even added wood chunks a lot to the SNS and the indirect plate as well, but nothing I do makes me go "WOW" like an offset or even when my gas grill with smoke tube surprises me. Thus, I'm disappointed in my after work or rainy weekend cooks on the Weber, combined with the quality issue mentioned above, really has me wanting something else for hot and fast cooks.

I did a lot of research and trial and error prior to buying anything when I decided to replace my kamado. I did a chicken leg cook for work where I cooked almost a hundred chicken legs on an original Traeger pellet grill using Lumberjack and Bear Mountain pellets, kamado, and offset. The kamado and offset were fantastic, but the chicken off of the pellet cooker had a rubber/plastic look to them when cooked at around 225-250 for the first little bit, and I couldn't get past that and very little flavor, but it's the texture that put me so off. Maybe it's because the fan runs constantly on high, but I passed on getting a grill of any type of pellet grill because of this and opted to pursue an offset.

I've always wanted a LSG Pellet grill when they came out due to the fire pot design and hearing how good they were compared to most pellet grills, but opted for the WH 1975t instead since my family really enjoyed the little Brinkmann offset flavor, but it was just too small. Then when I sold my kamado and came back to buy "set and forget" cook, I chose the LSG IVS, since again I needed capacity for the once-a-week or every 2-3 week cooks dur to work schedule, and semi-large cooks I get nominated to do for my work parties 3-4 times per year. Now that I have a year on the Weber, I still want more flavor than what I'm getting and what I've been use to for my quick and fast weeknight meals or family stops by and wants to go eat (I don't like eating out for several years now since I became a professional chef as described by my colleagues and family, and hate paying for something I can do better myself).

Thus, my question to the wise brethren; who has had food off of the LSG pellet grill, Woodwind Pro, and Traeger, and how did each compare, specifically steaks, pork tenderloins, and chicken thighs/legs/quarters?

I went away from the pellet grill before because on my dad's old Traeger rubber/plastic chicken I mentioned above, and a kid from work just cooked this weekend on a new Traeger his grandparents got, and he came back yesterday saying it too had the plastic chicken layer. Does the LSG or Woodwind pro fan run constantly full blast and make chicken come out this same way? I wish there was someone in N FL who I trusted and had one of these I could try before spending the money.

I'm really interested in the LSG Pellet grill now that Chris has a 50/50 pellet wood chip combo, and think this would be great smoky flavor I'm looking for, in an easy and fast week-night cook.
 
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All the Youtube reviews have been favorable, and there is one where a 50/50 mix of pellets and chips was done.
That said, you can take them with a grain of salt as everyone's taste-buds and what they "think" should be the result, are different.
And, I think I've watched every video out there.
The only thing I trust is what I actually see in the videos.

IMO they are an excellent design. so I ordered the LSG 20x42 pellet smoker.
A little over 3 weeks left of my 14 week wait.
 
That said, you can take them with a grain of salt as everyone's taste-buds and what they "think" should be the result, are different.

^^^ This ^^^
My weber is the most inexpensive piece in my back yard and it gets used WAY more than everything else I own. I enjoy the food that come off it.

As for the LSG...No direct experience with the LSG Pellet Smoker. I have watched a lot of videos on it as well and it appears to be a home run. Wouldn't mind having one.
LSG makes nice stuff. I love my 20x36 stick burner.
 
^^^ This ^^^
My weber is the most inexpensive piece in my back yard and it gets used WAY more than everything else I own. I enjoy the food that come off it.

As for the LSG...No direct experience with the LSG Pellet Smoker. I have watched a lot of videos on it as well and it appears to be a home run. Wouldn't mind having one.
LSG makes nice stuff. I love my 20x36 stick burner.

This is why I take everything with a grain of salt these days and try to try it myself prior to big purchases. Consensus of the majority doesn't account for each's own individual taste. Hence the disappointment in the weber kettle. Yea, it's easy to run, does everything most people want smokes, grills, bakes, but at the end of the day the flavor is not there for me.

Maybe one of these days well have an automatic temperature-controlled offset that feeds splits instead of pellets...
 
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