Most pellet grills are designed similar to a traditional offset smoker. They include one maybe two racks of cooking space with a lid that lifts up. We also didn’t love the touch-sensitive buttons on the digital control panel. They were difficult to push, so we used the Bluetooth-enabled app to adjust the grill whenever possible. Finally, the pellets ran down the auger unevenly, causing us to get a low-pellet alert when the hopper was more than half full. Most notably, the open design is ripe to start grease fires after smoking fatty meats like brisket or pulled pork one day and cranking it up to 500°F to sear the next.
I had some issues with the pellet sensor going off when I still had pellets…but I have a beta model. If you still have problems, you can disable that feature. I love that the 12″ control panel has bright, cuisinart griddler elite bold numbers. When I’m not using the app, I can view the readings from across the backyard, which gives me peace of mind. The pellet hopper holds 40 pounds of pellets and includes an interior light.
They are 17″ tall and 15.25″ wide with 13.5″ x 10″ windows and long sturdy handles. After a few cooks, there will also be cuisinart soup maker some ash residue inside the bottom interior of the grill. This is because the internal fan blows the light stuff around.
Another company is licensed to make the grill for Cuisinart. Now, I bought this grill for a few reasons but an important factor was that I trusted Cusinart as a brand that makes solid, reliable, affordable products. What I learned is that I am not buying a Cusinart at all but Grill made by another company that slaps a Cuisinart name on it.
On a regular charcoal or stick smoker, you can simply add wood chips… An analysis of user reviews of the individual brands also confirms that these pellet grills perform above average on all cuisinart griddler elite fronts. The Silverbac Alpha seems the most popular because it had the highest number of positive reviews. All five pellet grills had more 5-star and 4-star reviews than 1-3 star reviews.