Smoke Hours compares pellet grills and pellet smokers from the figures their makers and sellers publish, then does the arithmetic in the open. This page sets out what we read, when, how grills are sorted and picked, what is missing, and what we never do.
What we read, and when
- Five stores, 37 in-stock grills and smokers (28 horizontal pellet grills, 1 pellet grill with a smoking cabinet, 4 vertical pellet smokers and 4 portables), read by script on November 7, 2026 between about 11:30 p.m. and midnight (Central European Time), with product pages read again on November 8 after midnight: pitboss-grills.com (18 grills), traeger.com (8), zgrills.com (6), campchef.com (2), and the retailer All Things Barbecue, atbbq.com (Weber Searwood XL 600 and two Yoder Smokers grills).
- Prices and stock: each Shopify store's public product feed (
products.json: Pit Boss, Z Grills, Camp Chef, All Things Barbecue); for Traeger, the price and "InStock" status in each product page's structured data. The lowest in-stock variant is shown, with the store's compare-at price when it shows one. - Specifications: Pit Boss's "Specifications" block on each product page; Z Grills' "Total Rack Surface Area" table; Traeger's "Capacity & Specs" block and its support guides (support.traeger.com); Camp Chef's specification field on the Woodwind 24 page; All Things Barbecue's listings for Weber and Yoder.
- Burn rates: Pit Boss's blog ("A good rule of thumb is to have 2 lbs. of pellets for every hour of smoking low and slow or 4 lbs. for every hour of grilling hot and fast"), Z Grills' and Yoder's run times per hopper, Camp Chef's FAQ for its 24-inch grill (a PDF hosted by CamperID), Traeger's "Fuel Input Rating" support article. All quoted on how many pounds of pellets per hour.
- Pellet bags: 14 in-stock bags from Pit Boss, Traeger, Z Grills, Camp Chef and All Things Barbecue, store prices of November 7, 2026, bag weight from the product title or label.
- Search phrasing: Google's U.S. autocomplete (November 7, 2026), used to choose page topics. We have no search volumes.
One seller per grill, for now
Every grill in our tables is listed at one store: the maker's own store, or All Things Barbecue for Weber and Yoder. The same grills are sold elsewhere (home-improvement chains, Amazon, Walmart), but those stores block automated reading or require their own programming interface to display a price, so we show no price we could not read ourselves. When we can read a second seller, its price will appear under the first, cheapest first.
What is not covered
- recteq and Green Mountain Grills: their stores returned a security check or "Too Many Requests" to our reader on November 7, 2026, so no prices or specifications.
- Traeger models out of stock online on the day: Ironwood, Ironwood XL, Ironwood 650, Ironwood 885, Timberline, Timberline XL, Pro 22 and Pro 34.
- Louisiana Grills: every grill on louisiana-grills.com was unavailable online. Weber's own store returned an error page to our reader; the Searwood 600 was out of stock at All Things Barbecue. Oklahoma Joe's and offset smokers in general: their store feed lists parts, not grills.
- Pit Boss's out-of-stock models (Pro Series, Competition Series, DX and several Onyx Edition grills), the Z Grills 7052B and the Blind Box (a random grill), bundles of a grill with accessories, griddles, gas and charcoal grills.
- Not in the data we read: Pit Boss weights, most main-grate sizes, every brand's igniter wattage except Traeger's portables ("120V AC voltage and 250 watts"), and any app subscription terms (none of the pages mentions one; we did not read the app stores).
How tables are sorted
By price, cheapest first, unless the column says otherwise (hopper size, price per square inch, space per item). A commission, present or future, never changes the order.
How picks and badges are chosen
Each "Our picks in 30 seconds" box applies written rules, in order. For each rule: the cheapest in-stock grill in that page's list that meets the condition. When that grill is already picked by an earlier rule, its card says so and the next-cheapest grill that meets the condition is shown with a badge that says "after the ... above".
- Comparison: cheapest horizontal pellet grill; cheapest with Wi-Fi app control; cheapest with a hopper of 24 lb or more (12 hours at 2 lb/hr [calc]); cheapest with 1,000 sq in or more; cheapest Traeger.
- Under $1,000: the last four rules, limited to grills at $1,000 or less.
- Beginners: cheapest grill of 450 sq in or more with Wi-Fi; cheapest that publishes its capacity in food; cheapest that publishes a full-hopper run time.
- Wi-Fi: cheapest Wi-Fi pellet grill; cheapest Wi-Fi grill with a 24 lb or bigger hopper; cheapest Wi-Fi vertical smoker.
Calculations
- Pellet cost per cook: pounds = burn rate x hours; cost = pounds x price per pound of the chosen bag; hours on one hopper = published hopper capacity / burn rate; three years = grill price + cost per cook x cooks a month x 36.
- How many burgers fit: space per item = median of (published total area / count the maker prints for that food); items that fit = the maker's own count when published, otherwise the area divided by the space per item, rounded down.
- Price per square inch = store price / published total area. Anything marked [calc] is our arithmetic.
What we do not do
- We do not test grills. We never write "tested" or describe a cook we did not do.
- No star ratings, no scores, no customer reviews written or imported by us (several stores show review counts and percentages; we do not repeat them).
- No discount percentage computed by us: a struck-through price only appears when the store shows it.
- No countdowns, no stock counters, no fake urgency.
How we are paid
Some links may earn us a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you, once a program accepts the site (none has yet). A commission is not part of any rule above. Details: affiliate disclosure.
How often
Prices are not updated live. We plan to read the stores again at least once a month, and after big sale periods (the November 2026 prices include Black Friday offers). Each price carries the date it was read, and each page the date it last changed.
Who writes
The Smoke Hours editorial team. Spotted an error or an out-of-date price? Write to the address on the About page.