So you have decided to purchase a grill for your backyard barbecues during the weekends. Chances are you have come across with the Traeger Ironwood and Pit Boss grills.
Traeger and Pit Boss are two amazing brands that produce grills of the best quality. They are very well-known and you might be stuck between which one you should choose.
Traeger is a tried and tested company when it comes to producing pellet grills. In fact, they are the pioneer in making pellet grills as they have started their production in the 1980s.
So really, the other brands are just copycats of Traeger. That includes Pit Boss but the thing is, other brands produce better pellet grills sometimes and make different designs and features.
The patent of these grills is based on the classic barrel-type grill. The difference with these ones is that instead of using charcoal or lumps of wood, they use pellets to heat the grill chamber.
Pit Boss is a grill company that was founded in 1999. Known for the durability of its products, this company made its way to the top and is now considered one of the best alongside Traeger.
Pit Boss also offers a wide variety of grills and you are not stuck with just pellet grills. One thing that you can expect from them, no matter the product, is the quality of build and features.
So since the introduction of this post has presented an almost similar comparison about the company, it is only right that we see which one is better for you as they do have differences.
This post will help you make a more informed decision on choosing which grill you should purchase. Read on as we give you a full comparison of these two amazing grill brands.
Cooking Surface
The thing with these grills is that the Traeger Ironwood is limited to only two sizes. So comparing the cooking surface will be a little bit tricky so stick around as we try to do that for you.
See, Traeger Ironwood is a line of grills from Traeger. That means that they do have other products but these are the ones closest to Pit Boss grills so we chose to compare them.
The total cooking surface is one of the major and noticeable differences between the Traeger Ironwood and Pit Boss grills. There is a lot to compare but we will keep it simple.
Cooking space is an important feature that you should always consider when trying to buy a grill. This will let you know where exactly you can use the grill that you buy.
It will also be important to your lifestyle like when you are just grilling for the family or when you have friends coming over all the time. So you need to know which one fits your preferences.
Traeger Ironwood
The Traeger Ironwood grill series offers two pellet grills. These are the Ironwood 650 and Ironwood 885 that have the same features and power for cooking almost anything.
The numbers of the grills indicate the total cooking surface in square inches. So as you can see, there is a lot of cooking space in the Ironwood 885, but it is not a large grill.
When you look at the Ironwood grills, you will be wondering how they can fit that much cooking space in such a small chamber. The secret lies in the pill-shaped dome and chamber of the grill.
The pill-shaped chamber allows the grill to create an extra layer of racks. This way, you can put all the food in different sets of racks which will also give you versatility in cooking.
So the Traeger Ironwood grills may look smaller than most grills but they have a feature that allows you to cook multiple foods at the same time which makes them great for parties.
Pit Boss
Since there are more choices for the Pit Boss grills, they win in this category. It is also believed to be a brand that offers so much space for such a small price.
The largest Pit Boss pellet grill is the Pro Series 1100. This, obviously, offers 1100 square inches of cooking space inside a similar chamber and it is very large so you can cook anything.
Aside from that, Pit Boss also offers vertical grills or smokers which might not seem like they offer huge cooking surfaces, but they actually do, so do not get fooled by the looks of it.
The set of racks that you can put on the Pit Boss grills is amazing. You can cook a lot of food in it and there would still be space for other foods that might need heating up.
Pit Boss grills are also dubbed as one of the best value-for-cooking space grills. This means that you pay less for the same cooking surface as most pellet grills on the market.
Hopper Capacity
The fact that these grills will be used for long periods of time makes you think that they are going to need something that keeps on refueling them and that is what the hopper is for.
The pellet hopper is an enclosure that sits right beside the grill chamber. It contains the fuel for the grill and it has a pathway that allows the pellets to pass from the hopper to the firebox.
So that means that the larger the pellet hopper, the less time you are going to use up in refilling them frequently. This makes the grills great for slow and low-temperature cooking.
The Traeger Ironwood grills have a large 20-pound pellet hopper. The grills are also made to be efficient as a full load of the pellet hopper can last up to 10 hours of cooking time.
Pit Boss grills have different sizes of pellet hoppers as well. Depending on the model of the grill that you choose, the pellet hopper would range from 5 pounds up to 27 pounds.
So in terms of range when it comes to lasting cooking time, Pit Boss takes the advantage as the largest pellet hopper can go for over 12 hours of continuous cooking.
Even if you go out of the Ironwood grill series, the pellet hopper of most Traeger grills will only be able to hold up to 20 pounds of wood pellets, so Pit Boss is a clear winner here.
Temperature Control
When it comes to temperature control, these two lines of grills are almost the same. They retain heat perfectly and heat loss is a rare issue even if you cook in cold or windy conditions.
The Traeger Ironwood grills have two layers of stainless steel that help in insulating the chamber. This way, you can get a precise temperature inside the grill when cooking.
It allows you to cook outdoors even when there is a lot of wind. This also makes the grill efficient since they do not use up as much fuel for heating up the cooking chamber of the grill.
Pit Boss grills have the same insulating properties. You can use it in any condition outdoors and since some have large pellet hoppers, these grills do not cost a lot in terms of fuel consumption.
Precision is also an important feature of temperature control. This makes the grills able to produce heat and come down to low temperatures for versatility in cooking.
The Traeger Ironwood grills have a temperature increment of as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that you can switch the cooking temperature precisely for any type of food.
It also makes the grills apply more control on the food that is cooking. It can slow down the cooking process when needed for foods that do not need too much heat when cooking.
The Pit Boss grills are a bit harder to control because the temperature can only be lowered or controlled by 25 degrees Fahrenheit increments. This is a bit high for most grills.
This is a risky feature because you might get the grill going too hot and you will have a hard time selecting the precise temperature that you want your food to be cooked in.
Nonetheless, the Grills from Pit Boss offer a lot of insulation so they are also great in reserving the fuel available. Traeger Ironwood grills win this round as they have more accurate increments.
Temperature Range
While control of the temperature is important in improving the versatility of the grills, the temperature range is also a factor that hugely affects the said versatility.
The wider the range of the temperature, the more versatile the grill is. This is because they will be able to cook different types of food at different temperatures required by a particular food.
The Traeger Ironwood grills can go as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a hot cooking temperature that can cook pizzas in minutes and sear steaks perfectly without burning them.
While that may seem impressive, it is not quite the best as the Pit Boss grills have a maximum temperature of 500 degrees Fahrenheit. So you can cook in these grills at a faster rate.
The Pit Boss grills are perfect for searing meat such as steaks and barbecues. It also helps in cooking other recipes that might require cookware other than the grill itself.
Since we have talked about their power on how high the grills can get, it is also important to know how low they can get while still being able to put up great finishes on the food,
The lower the grill can get, the better they are at cooking meat that requires slow cooking. The Traeger Ironwood grills can go as low as 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
The same goes for the Pit Boss grills which makes both lines of grills perfect for smoking meat. 180 degrees Fahrenheit is just the right temperature for a slow and low cooking process.
Wireless Control
Traeger is known for the quality of build and materials that they use when making the grills. They are also commonly associated with WiFi-controlled grills.
This is an advantage of the Traeger Ironwood grills as they can be controlled through your smartphone or any mobile device. Just connect the grill to your WiFi source.
From there, you can download the Traeger app on your smartphone and then connect the phone with the same WiFi that the Traeger Ironwood is connected to.
The app offers a lot of controls where you can set the timer and temperature on it so you no longer need to stand beside the piping hot grill to wait for your food.
There are also some extra recipes on the app. With those recipes, you can just click them and the grill takes care of the proper time and temperature for that particular recipe.
Pit Boss grills do not have this feature so you still need to control them manually. Meaning, you need to input the desired time and temperature for the food that you are cooking.
Conclusion
Since Pit Boss grills do not have the WiFi feature, they are sold at a cheaper price. They are amazing and even without the advanced feature, they can cook food just as well as the Traeger.
Traeger Ironwood grills are perfect for both smoking and searing meat. They can get up to high temperatures as well as the low to cook meat in any way that you want.
These grills are perfect for any weather conditions as they have great insulation. They also might not look like it but they have a large cooking area where you can put as many foods as you want.
Pit Boss grills are also impressive because they actually have the sizes. You can choose which one fits your lifestyle best and then cook at the right temperature and timing.
Both grills from these two companies are truly amazing. You can cook anything in them, you just need to figure out which one fits you best before you choose between the Traeger Ironwood grills and Pit Boss grills.
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