But on a flat top grill… You can cook everything you could make on traditional grill grates, plus more. Though it may take some fiddling to achieve the exact temp you want… It’s generally a simple process. To prevent this, experienced flat top grillers recommend preheating on low or medium-low, and slowly working up to those higher temp ranges. You need to add oil to your flat top as it preheats (to keep it nonstick)… And if your grill gets too hot, too quickly, that oil will burn off before you even have a chance to cook. To get a grill or griddle going… You’ll simply switch on the burners by pushing or turning a knob, and the cooktop will begin to preheat.
Fitted with the all-new proprietary non-stick armored ceramic cooking surface, the Ultimate Griddle delivers an unrivaled user-friendly cooking experience. The first of its kind, this exclusive surface is ready to use straight out of the box and is a dream to clean, needing just a gentle wipe after use. As an added bonus, the ceramic coating also protects the griddle from scratches and pit boss electric smoker rust, keeping your unit looking better for longer. Completely portable, the Ultimate Griddle utilizes the easy lift-off technology for simple transport to any campsite or tailgating event. These units are aesthetically qualified to be the centerpiece of your backyard cooking arrangement, while also being flexible enough to hit the road and handle your cooking needs wherever you go.
While pellet grills offer versatility and set-it-and-forget-it automated cooking technology that you won’t find with other types of grills, they also often come with a steep price tag. But you don’t have to fork over upwards of $1,000 for a quality pellet grill—there are plenty of good options under $500. It has limited features and capacity, but it scored good ratings in our searing tests.
Strangely, whenever you switch cooking temp, the auger runs continuously for four minutes before trying to adjust to the new set temp. This isn’t so bad if you’re going from low to high, but problematic in the opposite direction. We were slow smoking ribs when interrupted just as they passed the bend test and were ready to be sauced. Forgetting the controllers odd four minute drill, we turned the temp down from 225° to the lowest “Smoke” setting to hold them briefly. Meant as a safety feature to prevent fingers from getting injured in the auger chute below, it also prevents one from easily leveling the pellets as they get sucked into the auger.
It has some hot spots that result in slightly uneven cooking, but this is a good entry-point pellet grill at a reasonable price. We found a hot spot over the searing grate, pit boss flat top on the top of the firebox, which didn’t affect our cooking except when baking pizza. It’s a great grill for searing, which takes moving a lever on the heat diffuser.
You now get a PID temperature controller, which keeps your temperature a lot more stable. There’s also a larger screen and an easy pellet clean-out feature. The other major drawback with most pellet grills is their inability to sear.
Generally it doesn’t work well because the firepot flame is just too small to do much searing. We placed a flight of chicken wings over the open slider, flipping occasionally while taking care not to move them from their original positions. As expected, only the few wings directly over the flame were seared,(below). The slider design dictates the absence of a flame diffuser over the firepot and one is not included with Deluxe models. Most pellet grills have an electric igniter of some sort, plus a fan that creates convection and moves the smoke evenly around the inside of the cook chamber. As such, these grills heat quickly, maintain heat well, and recover temperature rapidly after you add food or open the lid.
With 892 square inches of cooking area, it has a good capacity and adequate heat retention and recovery times. We rated it a good value for the price, but app control and intelligent features found in more expensive models would increase its rating. Potential buyers will want to note that it does have less rack space than other pellet grills. Although the Pit Boss cook surface ran a bit hotter on the left side, it was reasonably even. With cooking temp set at 225° we measured temps at 240° left – 220° right. At the “High” maximum position on the controller dial we monitored actual temps at 520 left – 475 right.
It’s far from the most expensive pellet grill, but anything above this you start to get diminishing returns. Despite those flaws, this is still our pick for the best portable grill thanks to the great smoke flavor, ease of transportation, and cleaning. pit boss pellets The LED controls are not as user-friendly as the other Traeger models we’ve tested, but once you figure out how everything works the grill was easy enough to operate. Other options couldn’t hit high temperatures and struggled to sear properly.
The 440’s 5-pound hopper is notably smaller than other models, so you should expect to refill pellets more often. Other notable features on the Pit Boss 440 include a removable side shelf that doubles as a serving tray, a built-in bottle opener, and two large wheels for maneuvering it around a deck or patio. All parts were secured to prevent damage and we liked the colorful graphics on the hopper and under the hood that explained how a pellet smoker works for a first time user. When the 820 was almost fully assembled, we noticed an unused bag of washers that were not mentioned in the assembly instructions except in the parts list. After being on hold with customer service for ten minutes, we were advised to unscrew everything and refasten all parts adding the washers to the screw and lock nut assemblies.