Rec Tec Grill vs Traeger Grill

With nearly the same features, the Rec Tec Grills and the Traeger Grills are an even match when you take a first glance, but some differences are worth pointing out.

Smart Grill Technology is rising, and it is almost always better than our regular grills that we are used to when we have a barbecue in our backyards.

This innovation mixes power and ease of use by combining the grill with technology. This means that you have a different way of accessing the grills, and they mostly do the job for you.

Both of these brands claim that they have the best grills in the market. However, there are still doubts about these claims since there is a lot of competition.

Having a grill as an addition to your home is great, so you can host parties and even simple gatherings with your family when you are on a break or during the weekends.

As for the most part, these grills are capable of things that other competitors do not have. See, you will not need to stand by the grills to keep track of your food.

Especially with the Traeger Grills since you can control them from afar. The Rec Tec Grills, on the other hand, have their advantage in the capacity of fuel.

If you are looking for something that will go great for grilling or smoking food, read this review as we tackle each grill’s features, and then you can decide which one is better for you.

We will present to you our judgment by the end of the review, but it is still up to you to decide which grill is better.

Not to worry, we will try to get into details and avoid missing any important feature that you need to know to get a better view of what to expect from the two amazing grills.

 

Setting up the Grills

These are two very heavy grills, so you will need an extra hand in setting them up. The Traeger Grill also requires set up with your WiFi, so it might take longer.

Either way, these two grills need electricity, so unless you have an electric wall socket in your backyard, you will need an extension cord to make the grills function properly.

You should also take note that these grills can go up to high temperatures, so you might want to set them up away from any light material that gets easily burned.

These two grills have a stand that and you can use to move them around easier. The stands are lightweight, so they would not add up to the weight of the grills.

The stands also have wheels to set them up first and place the grill on top to move them easier instead of lifting the heavy grills.

 

Design

When you first take a look at the grills, they are different yet similar in some ways. For example, the main body of the grills is rectangular, and they both have rounded lids.

The main difference in the design is the bulkiness of the Traeger Grills. See, the Traeger Grills’ pellet hopper extends on the side and makes the grill seem unbalanced.

The Rec Tec Grills have their pellet hoppers on the back, so it balances the main body’s weight and the side’s balance with a chimney on one side and a rack on the other.

As for the color, the Traeger Grills are easy on the eyes with an elegant black overall color. The Rec Tec Grills are more aggressive with their iconic black body and orange lids.

 

Smart Grill Technology

Perhaps the most amazing addition to these grills is the Smart Grill Technology. This is where they need the electricity.

See, these grills will not function properly without the help of electricity. Do not get the wrong idea, though; they do not use electricity for reaching their maximum temperatures.

The electricity ignites the grills’ fuel and allows the fuel to continuously heat the entire grill. The electricity helps the Smart features of the grills work.

This is where the grills work with just a click of a button. For the Rec Tec Grills, they have buttons that function when you turn the grill on.

You just need to set the temperature for the food you are cooking and then let the grill do the work. It will heat up to the set temperature and stay at that temperature until you are cooking.

 

WiFi Feature

The Traeger Grills also use electricity for their WiFi feature. This allows the users to control the grill even if they are far from where the grill is.

See, Traeger includes their products with a free mobile app that once you install on your phone, the Traeger Grills will be ready to function.

The Traeger Grills connect to your WiFi automatically. Although at first, you will need to set them up and be patient because sometimes the grill might have a hard time connecting to the source.

However, once you have connected the grill on the first use, it will connect automatically on the WiFi source once you turn it on again without you needing to set it up.

The mobile app contains controls for the temperature, timer, and notification when the grill is ready or when it has finished cooking your food.

 

Temperature Control

The Rec Tec Grills take over on this feature. The grills have their own Smart Grill Technology, and they offer a lot of features; the best one may be the temperature control.

The technology in the Rec-Tec Grills allows them to go up to the maximum temperature with just a click of a button and control them easily.

See, you can turn the temperature up or down with the display on the grill. This feature allows the grills to go up or down with a 5-degree increment.

This also allows the grill to maintain the temperature for longer periods. The technology turns the heat down if it is way too hot or turns it up when it starts to get cold to maintain the right temperature.

As for the Traeger Grills, they do have controls for the temperature on their mobile phone, but they do not have increments as accurate as those on the Rec Tec Grills.

 

Ignition and Fuel Feeder

The Traeger Grills and the Rec Tec Grills use an auger mechanism to feed the wood pellets into the grills to keep the fire burning inside.

The temperature control unit controls the auger mechanism on the Rec Tec Grills to either slow the drill down or make it faster to maintain the temperature.

There are models from the Traeger Grills that also use automatic fuel feeding. This means that you can just fill up the pellet hoppers and leave the rest to the grills.

As for the ignition, the Traeger Grills use a metal rod heated up by the electricity. Once you turn the grill on, the rod will go red hot to burn the wood pellets and create fire.

Before ignition, the wood pellets take about 5 minutes of priming. Priming is the process of filling up the grill with the hoppers to fully ignite and heat the grills.

The Rec Tec Grills use ceramic ignites that sit right after the end of the auger screw. It continuously burns the pellets that pass through it to make heat.

 

Pellet Hopper Capacity

The Traeger Grills have a pellet hopper capacity of over 20 pounds. This is enough for a whole day of cooking and smoking a rack of ribs.

The Rec Tec Grills have a lot of room for wood pellets. These grills have a double pellet hopper that allows them to handle 40 pounds of wood pellets.

You can refill it easily with a bag of wood pellets. Some Traeger Grills models can also notify you on your phone when the pellet hoppers need more fuel to cook your food.

As for the Rec Tec Grills, you will need to look at the pellet hoppers and see whether they still have enough wood pellets. Although the pellet hoppers have a lot of capacity, you will not need to do this regularly.

 

Cooking in the Grills

When it comes to cooking with the grills, both of them cook meat to perfection. You can get some soft, juicy, and tender meat with both the grills, and if I had to choose one, then the Rec-Tec would be my preference.

However, it depends on how you prefer to cook your meat, but I can say that I would go for the Rec Tec grill any day when it comes to the taste.

The largest Rec Tec Grill has a cooking area of around 700 square inches. This is large enough to cook at least six chickens or 20 burgers at once.

The Rec Tec Grills look larger than the Traeger Grills because they use a single grilling grate for the entire cooking area.

However, the Traeger Grills’ largest grill beats the Rec Tec Grill with a cooking area of over 800 square inches which is enough for at least 30 burgers or eight chickens at once.

The Traeger might seem smaller than the Rec-Tec Grills, but the key they use here is the multi-tiered racks inside the grill.

This means that each rack has a different temperature, so you can cook different recipes simultaneously.

 

 

Smoke Enhancer

Traeger Grills such as the Ironwood 650 contain Traeger’s own D2 Drive. This is an innovative fan that controls how much smoky flavor gets in your food.

You can alter the fan speed. You can rotate the fan from 0 to 100 rounds per minute, enhancing the smoke inside the grill.

The slower the fan, the more smoke you get to your food. This fan hardly affects the grill’s temperature so; you do not have to worry about turning up the fan for smoking.

 

Smart Grease Management System

If you are cooking something with a lot of grease or oil in it, you might want to get rid of that so that it does not leave marks on your grill.

The Rec Tec Grills offer a great grease management system that collects all the grease that drips on the grill and puts it straight out of the grill.

This is one of the many accessories included with the Rec-Tec Grills. It has a small bucket that hangs perfectly on the grease management system to catch all the grease from the grill.

 

Conclusion

The Traeger Grills are amazing since you can take your time, enjoy talking, or have a cold beverage away from the heat while the grill gets cooking.

The WiFi feature of the Traeger Grills is very handy since you can control them wherever you are as long as both the grill and your mobile phone connect to the same WiFi source.

The Rec Tec Grills have the advantage in terms of accessories. They include a lot of features that are useful in both smoking and grilling food.

The Traeger Grill wins as the best overall grill in our verdict because it can be easily controlled and cooks AMAZING. The grills have the same power, so you cannot judge them on that.

However, the Rec Tec Grill wins in terms of versatility. Because of its five-degree increment in temperature, it gives you many possibilities on which food you can cook.

If you want a more consistent heat on your food for a longer time, you can purchase the Rec Tec Grills, and if you want a hassle-free grill, then the Traeger Grills fit your standard.

So, it is difficult to just pick one! You tell us which one you would pick for your backyard, the Traeger or the Rec Tec grill!

Either way, these grills are both amazing, so investing in them will not let you down.

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