Flagship Inbound! What should I know?

[Zippydog]

I’ve been looking at RecTeq stuff for years and finally pulled the Black Friday trigger on a Flagship. My 20+ year Weber propane grill has served me well, but the base is rusted out and I’m tired of faking smoke with tubes and a chip box. So it’s game on.

I’m new to pellet land and have much to learn. If not RecTeq pellets, what are y’all using? I’d rather buy locally and have plenty of great options. How do you store pellets? Can they be left in the grill? ‘Bout to get cold here in Chicago, but I bought a cover and I’m a year-round griller.

thanks in advance for all tips and pointers!

 

[BigDan]

Welcome to the fun!

My favorite all around flavor and little dust… You can find locally depending upon where you are.

CookinPellets 40PM Perfect Mix, 1 Pack, Brown https://a.co/d/dNcdC46

I’m in GA and leave them in mine but it’s covered and under a porch.

Storage - just keep them in a dry location, have mine in a job box in my utility room in the garage.

 

[Gonefishin]

I use whatever pellets I can find, other then Pitt Boss, no idea if those are any good, I’ve just not trusted them. I find little difference between brands or flavors, if that’s the right term, though other folks do.

i store in the bag# till i need to open one then pour it into a 5 gallon pail with screw on lid.

FWIW, if I really want smoke flavor, I add a smoke tube, so don’t throw your old one out. Pellets give a light smoke compared to charcoal or cord wood.

 

[Jim6820]

Welcome to the forum, @Zippydog; glad to have you here with us. As for pellets, I prefer Hickory for most cooks; Bear Mountain or LumberJack. Both have seemed to be quality brands and work well in my grill.

 

[SmokeZilla]

Congrats on your pending purchase. When it comes to pellets, don’t go cheap! Buy quality and you will get better and more consistent results. I prefer RT’s Competition Blend for general smoking. I also get great results from the Kirkland (Costco) blend. There are also a couple of fruit wood based pellets that you can get (apple and cherry) that work well with pork and seafood). Another good fallback is mesquite for the potency and pecan because of its mild flavor. By the way, don’t throw away your smoke tubes. They can give you extra smoke which comes in handy fir denser proteins. One final tip, make sure you read the product packaging to make sure it is real wood, not too blended, and not fibers injected with oils such as the Traeger brands. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Zippydog]

Welcome to the forum, @Zippydog; glad to have you here with us. As for pellets, I prefer Hickory for most cooks; Bear Mountain or LumberJack. Both have seemed to be quality brands and work well in my grill.

Thanks!
I just bought some Bear Mountain gourmet blend.

 

[Zippydog]

Congrats on your pending purchase. When it comes to pellets, don’t go cheap! Buy quality and you will get better and more consistent results. I prefer RT’s Competition Blend for general smoking. I also get great results from the Kirkland (Costco) blend. There are also a couple of fruit wood based pellets that you can get (apple and cherry) that work well with pork and seafood). Another good fallback is mesquite for the potency and pecan because of its mild flavor. By the way, don’t throw away your smoke tubes. They can give you extra smoke which comes in handy fir denser proteins. One final tip, make sure you read the product packaging to make sure it is real wood, not too blended, and not fibers injected with oils such as the Traeger brands. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Thank you - super helpful. I just bought two 20# bags of Bear Mountain Gourmet Blend. One broke open when I put it in my SUV, so that’s the first one into a 5g pail with lid for storage.

 

[Waterboy]

Thanks!
I just bought some Bear Mountain gourmet blend.

Bear Mountain has a buy one get one and free shipping sale until the 27th but only for their Sweet BBQ or Bold BBQ. Not a bad price delivered to your door.

 

[TheRicker]

Congratulations on your RecTeq purchase and welcome to the forum family.

I typically use the Recteq or cookinpellets.com pellets. But I’ve tried many brands and flavors. You’ll want to experiment base on price and flavor of pellets.

I store unopened bags of pellets on the bottom shelf of a storage rack in my garage. Open bags are poured into 5-gallon buckets with a secured lid…in my garage. I do leave pellets in the hopper after a cook. I store my grill in my screened porch when not in use…sometimes with the cover on and sometimes not. I’ve not had a problem with pellets feeding properly in the 3 years I’ve had my RT-700 nor the 13 years with the Traeger BBQ075 before that. Bottom line…take care of your pellets. Kind of goes with that old slogan “keep your powder dry.”

Different brands of pellets create different quantities of ash. Some brands burn pellets faster than others. Keep mental or written notes to see what your results are and that will help you decide, over time, what works and what the better price points are.

I’m down to my last 10-lbs of pellets on-hand. I purchased a partial pallet of pellets from cookinpellets.com to get the best price on that particular brand.

I’ve found some good discount brands of pellets for as low as $8.99 for a 20-lb bag. What I find, often, with many of these at various stores is they’re handled a lot in the distribution process and there’s a decent amount of pellet dust in the bags. I don’t like that. I do strain my pellets in an effort to minimize the amount of that “sawdust” into my hopper and auger chamber.

You’ll want to vacuum out the ash in the cooking chamber after the 3rd or 4th cook…maybe more often for long cooks (thinking brisket). After a couple of those cleanings you’ll get a better idea how often you need to vacuum.

I highly recommend using bucket liners for the grease bucket. Likewise, line your drip pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Not everyone does. Some don’t use anything. Some are using the newer Teflon pads. I like foil.

There’s lots of info you’ll find from the great bbq’ers in this forum. Use that info getting started. But, Ultimately, you’ll want to make notes in your bbq journey and adapt to what you’ve learned and experienced. Then share what you’ve learned with us and other new owners & forum members.

Happy bbq’ing.

 

[JamesB]

I’ve been looking at RecTeq stuff for years and finally pulled the Black Friday trigger on a Flagship. My 20+ year Weber propane grill has served me well, but the base is rusted out and I’m tired of faking smoke with tubes and a chip box. So it’s game on.

I’m new to pellet land and have much to learn. If not RecTeq pellets, what are y’all using? I’d rather buy locally and have plenty of great options. How do you store pellets? Can they be left in the grill? ‘Bout to get cold here in Chicago, but I bought a cover and I’m a year-round griller.

thanks in advance for all tips and pointers!

Welcome ! If you’ve been trying to smoke low and slow meat on any propane grill, IMO, you’ll come to see them as them as the “Lousy-Bake” oven by comparison with your pellet grill.

 

[DesertRat]

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your Rec Tech as much as I do mine. As for pellets, I haven't found a huge difference in brands, never bought a cheap one though. As for storage, well, I live in the Mojave desert. I just tried to keep my pellets on our own property. Doesn't much matter where, they stay nice and dry. The hopper is usually about half full. Moisture just isn't a problem here. And my 590 is Undercover with two open sides of the patio. That's really helpful, but we get a huge amount of desert dust, so keeping it clean is a chore. I used to be a bit OCD on that, but I've gotten over that. But I would suggest as others already have, that you clean your smoker every three or four burns, and I don't do a lot of briskets, but I clean mine after every brisket.

 

[FastEddie]

Welcome to the family.
I use those red Solo Cups in my bucket. Cheap and easy. I brew beer, so I have those around.
I also have a welding blanket for the winter. Maintains heat better and uses less pellets.
Those smoke tubes are good for Cold Smoking too.

 

[Zippydog]

Welcome ! If you’ve been trying to smoke low and slow meat on any propane grill, IMO, you’ll come to see them as them as the “Lousy-Bake” oven by comparison with your pellet grill.

Can’t wait!!