Traeger, Kamado Joe, and Weber are some of the biggest names in smart grilling. These companies have created numerous products that allow you to control and monitor your grills, usually pellet-burning setups, from the comfort of your living room or while running an errand. Headquartered outside of Augusta, Georgia, Good It is another company that is doing the same thing. If you’re not familiar with their products, now is a good time to introduce them, as their new line has two novel versions of the pellet grill that offer something larger competitors don’t.
Flat top griddles are all the rage at backyard barbecues right now. The popularity of burger smashes and the ability to cook everything from breakfast to fajitas to fried rice make them a versatile piece of any grill setup. So far, most of them are gas-powered, and some companies offer grills to equip a charcoal, gas, or pellet grill you may already have with a large, flat cooking surface. Recteq has taken a different approach and chosen to stick to its pellet grill roots with what it says is the first wood-fired griddle.
“We’ve had our eye on straighteners for a while,” Recteq vice president of product development Ben Lesshafft told Engadget. “We didn’t want to just go with a gas grill, we’re not a gas grill company. “We believe in wood-fired food and we believe in wood-fired flavor.” Lesshafft said the company knew there had to be a way to do something different by introducing the smoky flavor of pellets into a category where almost all grills perform the same way.
To design this wood-burning grill, which Recteq calls smoke stone 600 ($999), the company took advantage of its experience in construction Bullseye Direct Fire Grill. That model looks like a combination of a pellet grill and a charcoal kettle, allowing you to cook at high heat and smoke at low heat, but it was primarily designed for the former with temperatures exceeding 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Another challenge was ensuring that a pellet-fueled griddle offered even heat distribution.
“That took us a long time,” Lesshafft said. “I spent more time with thermometers in a couple of months than I did in my entire life combined.”
Of course, there has to be a method of making the smoke from the pellets roll over the surface of the grill to impart that woody flavor. To achieve this, Recteq designed a 360-degree ventilation system around the iron. The SmokeStone has a fan like any other pellet grill that regulates the temperature and intensity of the fire, but also pushes the smoke into the upper cooking chamber. The company includes a raised lip on the surface of the griddle to help corral small pieces of food, but also made sure the smoke vents were high enough to clear them. This design means that the smoke rolls over the food whether the lid is open or closed.
“The smoke ends up going through the surface of the grill, because it’s expelled at such a speed that it has to shoot out before it finally relaxes,” he said. “What we discovered is that the good thing is that you can cook with the lid up or down. You’re going to get some smoke no matter what, because you’re always burning wood.”
And in addition to imparting some wood-fired flavor to grilled foods that wouldn’t normally get it, the SmokeStone is still a smart grill. There’s Wi-Fi on board to control and monitor grill and food temperatures from your phone, plus an algorithm to ensure the controller keeps things consistent and even throughout cooking. A temperature range of 300 to 600 degrees also gives you room to adjust depending on what you’re cooking.
However, a pellet griddle isn’t the only unique entry in Recteq’s new line. The company also introduced a dual-chamber pellet grill that allows you to cook at two different temperatures at the same time. With the DualFire 1200 ($1,799), Recteq sought to improve another popular grill configuration. If you’ve taken a stroll down the grill aisle at your local hardware store over the past decade, you’ve likely seen grills that offer one side for charcoal and one side for gas. You may have come across one more recently that is pellet and gas powered. While Recteq understood the usefulness of both sections, Lesshafft and his colleagues decided that pellet burning offered something that didn’t yet exist.
“We didn’t invent the dual-chamber grill, they’ve been around forever,” he said. “One of the reasons these dual-chamber grills are sold is that people love the fact that you can go slow and slow on one side and hot and fast on the other. And that was kind of the evolution of our philosophy.”
Lesshafft further explained that he never understood the 50-50 barrel split of dual-chamber cookers, so Recteq opted for a 65-35 split. He said this allows for larger cuts, such as brisket, on the larger, more traditional side of the pellet grill, while the smaller chamber is designed for direct heat searing. You can simmer on both sides, but the left side is closer to the heat source and lacks the convection of a typical pellet grill.
Recteq also updated its flagship pellet grills, giving them an updated leg design, better wheels, and an improved controller. The company also changed the shape of the RT-590, now called the deck boss 590, to be consistent with the rest of their lineup. It previously had an octagon-shaped barrel, but now it is round like the others. Recteq also saw an opportunity to offer customers a mid-range option between the Deck Boss and its new, larger grill. the flagship 1100 (replacing the RT-700). That is where the backyard beast 1000 comes in.
“The intentional difference between grills is really a matter of size,” Lesshafft said. “You have more capacity, you have more free space and that eliminates the confusion for the buyer of changing shapes as well.” The numbers correspond to square inches of grill space, where the Backyard Beast does not have a second shelf within the cooking chamber. She also doesn’t have as much pellet hopper capacity as the Flagship. A third option also allows the company to close the price gap between its new, more affordable grill and its larger “traditional” pellet model. The Boss Deck costs $899, the Backyard Beast costs $1,099, and the Flagship costs $1,299. Of course, getting rid of the old alphanumeric product names eliminates customer confusion, and Lesshafft admitted that there were even some issues with the names among employees (please take note, Sony).
All five new grills are equipped with the updated controller, although it works differently on models like the SmokeStone and DualFire due to their direct heat settings. And of course, the DualFire needs special firmware to be able to run two grills. A new display is easier to use and read thanks to a better knob and larger letters and numbers. Recteq also ditched the large external antenna for an internal one that offers similar Wi-Fi range without flashy looks. Lesshafft explained that nothing was off the table in terms of redesigned controls. However, the company really wanted to focus more on the app rather than putting a touchscreen on its grills like Traeger did.
“If people are going to (browse recipes), they’re probably going to do it on their phone or tablet,” he said. “We kept the physical interface similar, we just wanted to improve it, but we didn’t really want to give it a complete facelift.”
Another key element of the new controller is dual-band connectivity. Recteq has introduced this to their grills over the last few years, and as someone who has had a hard time connecting a 2.4G grill in a mostly 5G world, this makes the setup process much easier. Lesshafft also joked that this reduced Wi-Fi-related customer service calls. And overall, the company has continually tried to improve the quality of its app. It’s, of course, where you monitor temperatures and control the grill, but it’s also where you can look up recipes, take notes, and review temperature charts. In other words, it must be reliable and deliver as promised. Lesshafft admitted that wasn’t always the case.
“There was a day when our ratings weren’t very good on iOS, and now we’re the highest-rated app for growth,” he said. “The app has come a long way. “We are very proud of it.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-recteqs-dual-chamber-and-gridle-designs-put-a-unique-spin-on-pellet-grills-120025500.html?src =rss
