The test was great, I hope he does another one, same test, but both grills using royal oak ,and nothing but salt and pepper on the ribs, I think it's like this, no way a Pellet grill is going to be able to give you the flavor like an offset on steroid can, that's what the gravity grills are, off sets on steroids
Great reviews. I have seen the charcoal pellets but haven't tried them yet. I also enjoy mixing my own blends of pellets,right now I'm using a 50/50 blend of apple and competition blend. Seems to work very well on chicken and ribs so far.
I followed your advice when shopping for a new grill and went with the Chargriller 980 and I have never looked back. The Chargriller took me from being an OK griller to a Hero Griller! Now my wife asks me "When are you cooking on the Chargriller again"? Makes my day. Great video and good job again buddy!
Would have liked to see a gravity vs pellet but with the same woods because id never use a smoker with just carcoal and not wood. Something like a Gravity Fed with charcoal and cherry chunks VS a Pellet Fed with cherry pellets.
Well done on the video buddy, if I would have known there were Charcoal pellets on the market it may have made my decision between the gravity and pellet grill harder
honestly the best comparison wouldn't be equal approach - it's if you do each the best possible approach, which tastes better? So that would involve wood in the charcoal burner, which is the big flavor advantage. The big issue with pellets is the lack of smoke flavor.
Great comparison and I like that you did charcoal to charcoal. What this experiment shows is how good the Camp Chef smoke control is. So if you are a bold smoke person, go gravity . If you like to dial the smoke down, Camp Chef.
@@AndersonsSmokeShow Update, because Camp Chef increase price, I did go with Char Griller at Menards with 11% in-store rebate. I did like smoking two 20 pound turkeys for Thanksgiving. Also I experimented with 3 hour boat-wrap ribs- results- no ring loss and plenty of smoke without the greasy mess. Pizza on cast iron was interesting, started at 500 and cranked to 700 to get air flow. Disadvantage is to get clean smoke you need to have grill at temp for at least 30 mins. Also, as you pointed out in another video, the chimmey requires aat least an hour to cool down. More clean-up as you need to get ash out of the stack and chamber opening after each cook. With cool down time, this is usually a next day task. So when I smoke, it is usually several meats all day which is then packaged and frozened.
Cool, by eliminating wood smokes, you have shown that both units work well. Will you be making part 3 with wood pellets and wood chunks in order to compare smoke flavors?
Probably not going to those lengths. Most complaints with pellet grills are that the smoke is way less than a charcoal fueled smoker… so wanted to test the playing field now that Royal oak made those 100% charcoal pellets. For my Own entertainment I’ll probably mix in some 100% cherry pellets and make my own blend
How do these compare to an electric smoker? I run a masterbuilt with the coil on the bottom and a wood chip tray and water tray. My temps swing about 15-20 degrees. So if I shoot for 250, itll drop down to 230 and then swing back up. Never stays right at 250. Do these do that the same thing?
I enjoyed your comparison, but I do not think it was completely fair to the Gravity Fed smoker which can put out a lot of smoke with wood chunks where as the pellet grill can not unless you use a smoke tube to add smoke flavor.
If you ever need a blind taste tester I'll fly in from Minnesota, gladly, lol. Love your channel. Just did my burn off/seasoning of my new 980 yesterday, and thank God for your assembly video on that one, whew, haha.
It is possible that Royal oak charcoal vs the B&B I used in this video would make a slight difference, but I’m not sure how much of a difference in smokiness it would have. Fair point though
Great content and comparison. Apples to apples test with fuel though would be the most stringent and accurate test. It’s that .5 point that sometimes separates a Grand Champ from Reserve Grand. Thank you for sharing.
Just when I am thinking great another 10 minutes watching meat trimming you drop the butter knife trick which I had not seen before. Nice. I would have liked to see this with wood pellets and gravity with wood chunks and your opinion of smoke flavor, no sauce. I like a little sauce some times but when judging meat flavor sauce should not be on in my opinion. Like your videos.
Well the chief complaint about pellet grills is the fact that the smoke doesn’t live up to that of a charcoal smoker. So with the charcoal pellets my goal was to see if they were now on equal grounds. In terms of sauce… I like sauce on my ribs and I made them exactly the same so I don’t think that it matters
Went from a Vision komado(still have) to a Recteq 590. Not happy though. Not enough smoke flavor. Looking at getting the 980. Seems like the best of both worlds. Ease of use and good smoke flavor
Pellet grills are definitely a more mild smoke flavor. Ease of use is great but that comes with some sacrifices. The masterbuilt gravity series 800 or Char Griller 980 are both great options
For the most part it is. It’s a little dirtier and more involved to light… neither of which are a big deal though. Once running, it operates very very similar to a pellet grill
@AndersonsSmokeShow thanks for the reply. I've been looking at all the options for a few weeks now. I really like the convenience of the pellet smoker so I was hoping the gravity fed was similar. Thanks!
Shall we say the difference between a pellet grill and a gravity feed is that the flavor between them in all cooks is the difference between that high-end steak house flavor you get from the pellet grill, and the backyard grill flavor of the stick burning gravity feed,, we have the tech to cure this problem , take a 55 gal drum hang a gravity chimney on one side and a pellet hopper on the other, with a dial in the middle , that says restaurant flavor on one side and backyard BBQ on the other and mixed nuts in the middle
Nice video I have a 980 chargriller put for what ever reason it will not hold low temperatures i haved used lump charcoal as well as briquettes. After 45 minutes or 1 hour i get runaway temperatures that what to stabilize around 450 degrees. I have watched several videos of your and others i don"t understand why I dont see others with this issue, perhaps I should return it and get a different one but not sure it would be any different.
Been thinking about a gravity BBQ so thanks for comparison. I have a pellet, Weber and a 30 GA offset so why not. One thing though, I'm thinking the sauce could have been left off for smoke depth, but I get many do sauce on the final cook so ..
I don't bother cutting the tail off the rack. Your not in a competition and the tail makes a great snack during the cook. If that is the 100% California sourced Olive Ranch oil, you have picked the best olive oil available in America.
Honestly no. The only thing I would suggest is watching my temperature test video as I explain a lot about how the grill functions. There is one key part that’s important to understand and I cover it in that video.
Hey, great video. Can you update this video with the new Woodwind Pro. In between both of the options and the new Woodwind Pro smoke box feature seems legit. Thanks
My old boss has the Bull and it’s nice as hell! I do some work with Camp Chef and they sent this SG30 to me. My dad has the WW24 and it’s super nice! At the end of the day they are both great but I think the value is better on the SmokePro SG line
If you want to get deep down into the science of it… then right it’s the not the smoke, it’s the nitric oxide. Buuuuut try producing the necessary amounts of nitric oxide for a smoke ring without smoke and see how non-existent the ring is. Now in terms of penetration… the better word would be stick or cohere.
@@AndersonsSmokeShow for sure, and I'm sure you know this, I just caught the phrasing and thought I would comment. People love to go to war over bbq :) I have to say I love my Chargriller 980, it gives better smoke over my Yoder and similar to my vertical smoke daddy. It's a *great* smoker
Real gravity smoker like a Stumps or Assassin would eat a pellet cooker and that master built , they aren’t even in the same class due to insulation and thickness
Electrical. How many BBQ guys actually understand what a PID controller is? This guy does because I’ve actually worked on huge systems with PID control. Also cooking is a science…. Engineering is data driven, so they can intertwine. Also you can throw in thoroughness and attention to detail.
I don’t think Andrew is saying he is more qualified to BBQ because he is an engineer, he only seems to be giving clarification as to why his channel and perspective focuses on data and results. He has pointed out on many reviews to cook to your individual taste and not be influenced by others trying to convince you their way is better!
I feel bad for the blind testers that werent there to try out these ribs, and im not surprised the gravity fed had bolder flavor. Nice test 👌🏼
Yeah… everyone left me that day lol
The test was great, I hope he does another one, same test, but both grills using royal oak ,and nothing but salt and pepper on the ribs, I think it's like this, no way a Pellet grill is going to be able to give you the flavor like an offset on steroid can, that's what the gravity grills are, off sets on steroids
Great reviews. I have seen the charcoal pellets but haven't tried them yet. I also enjoy mixing my own blends of pellets,right now I'm using a 50/50 blend of apple and competition blend. Seems to work very well on chicken and ribs so far.
They charcoal pellets are great!
I followed your advice when shopping for a new grill and went with the Chargriller 980 and I have never looked back. The Chargriller took me from being an OK griller to a Hero Griller! Now my wife asks me "When are you cooking on the Chargriller again"? Makes my day. Great video and good job again buddy!
Heck yeah Joe!
You’re lucky to have such a wife and life.
I have a bag of those charcoal pellets sitting in the garage. Cant wait to try them out.
They are the real deal in my opinion
Would have liked to see a gravity vs pellet but with the same woods because id never use a smoker with just carcoal and not wood. Something like a Gravity Fed with charcoal and cherry chunks VS a Pellet Fed with cherry pellets.
Well the biggest argument is that the pellets are “weak” compared to charcoal, so I want to see how even the playing field is with just the charcoal
Thanks for the comparison. I really enjoy your content and value your honest reviews :)
Thanks! I appreciate the support
Well done on the video buddy, if I would have known there were Charcoal pellets on the market it may have made my decision between the gravity and pellet grill harder
I’m pretty impressed with the charcoal pellets so far! Good stuff!
honestly the best comparison wouldn't be equal approach - it's if you do each the best possible approach, which tastes better? So that would involve wood in the charcoal burner, which is the big flavor advantage. The big issue with pellets is the lack of smoke flavor.
Nice work. I'm gonna try those charcoal pellets in my Silverbac.
They are honestly pretty legit! I’m going to try and mix some 100% cherry pellets with some charcoal pellets
Cooking my first set of St. Louis ribs on my 980 tomorrow. I know they will be great. Haven’t had a bad meal on this thing yet!
Oh me either! Cooks great food
@@AndersonsSmokeShow they turned out phenomenal! Money well spent on this cooker!
@@kellywilliams2372 awesome!!
Great comparison and I like that you did charcoal to charcoal. What this experiment shows is how good the Camp Chef smoke control is. So if you are a bold smoke person, go gravity . If you like to dial the smoke down, Camp Chef.
Exactly! Thanks for watching
@@AndersonsSmokeShow Update, because Camp Chef increase price, I did go with Char Griller at Menards with 11% in-store rebate. I did like smoking two 20 pound turkeys for Thanksgiving. Also I experimented with 3 hour boat-wrap ribs- results- no ring loss and plenty of smoke without the greasy mess. Pizza on cast iron was interesting, started at 500 and cranked to 700 to get air flow. Disadvantage is to get clean smoke you need to have grill at temp for at least 30 mins. Also, as you pointed out in another video, the chimmey requires aat least an hour to cool down. More clean-up as you need to get ash out of the stack and chamber opening after each cook. With cool down time, this is usually a next day task. So when I smoke, it is usually several meats all day which is then packaged and frozened.
Nice comparison cook off! Looks delicious👍
Thanks! Those charcoal pellets are impressive! Thanks for watching
Great video and comparison! I'm gonna try some of those charcoal pellets.
The charcoal pellets are great in my opinion
Cool, by eliminating wood smokes, you have shown that both units work well. Will you be making part 3 with wood pellets and wood chunks
in order to compare smoke flavors?
Probably not going to those lengths. Most complaints with pellet grills are that the smoke is way less than a charcoal fueled smoker… so wanted to test the playing field now that Royal
oak made those 100% charcoal pellets. For my
Own entertainment I’ll probably mix in some 100% cherry pellets and make my own blend
Great video! I have heard that the Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets run hotter than wood pellets when cooked on high. Have you tried that?
I haven’t run on high with them, I’ll have to try that
How do these compare to an electric smoker? I run a masterbuilt with the coil on the bottom and a wood chip tray and water tray. My temps swing about 15-20 degrees. So if I shoot for 250, itll drop down to 230 and then swing back up. Never stays right at 250. Do these do that the same thing?
Looks good
But the 5 hr of grilling
Won't work for me
I'll look for a electric smoker
Seems a lot less babysitting
Never heard of charcoal pellets. Got some on the way.
They are honestly really good
Hoping to see those charcoal pellets here in Australia 🤞
Just score the backside left to right then top to bottom. Way easier then trying to remove the membrane.
Mad Scientist? Lol
@@AndersonsSmokeShow yes! Lol. It actually works really well. Made things a lot easier. At least I think so.
I enjoyed your comparison, but I do not think it was completely fair to the Gravity Fed smoker which can put out a lot of smoke with wood chunks where as the pellet grill can not unless you use a smoke tube to add smoke flavor.
But you can put wood chunks in with the brickets to add wood smoke from what I understand.
I tried to keep the playing field as equal as possible, but yeah smoke wise you can definitely get more out of the gravity fed smokers
If you ever need a blind taste tester I'll fly in from Minnesota, gladly, lol. Love your channel. Just did my burn off/seasoning of my new 980 yesterday, and thank God for your assembly video on that one, whew, haha.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy the new grill!
Cool video enjoyed it, wondering if there is a way to use the same brand pellets/briquettes to really nail it down.
It is possible that Royal oak charcoal vs the B&B I used in this video would make a slight difference, but I’m not sure how much of a difference in smokiness it would have. Fair point though
Great content and comparison. Apples to apples test with fuel though would be the most stringent and accurate test. It’s that .5 point that sometimes separates a Grand Champ from Reserve Grand. Thank you for sharing.
Just when I am thinking great another 10 minutes watching meat trimming you drop the butter knife trick which I had not seen before. Nice. I would have liked to see this with wood pellets and gravity with wood chunks and your opinion of smoke flavor, no sauce. I like a little sauce some times but when judging meat flavor sauce should not be on in my opinion. Like your videos.
Well the chief complaint about pellet grills is the fact that the smoke doesn’t live up to that of a charcoal smoker. So with the charcoal pellets my goal was to see if they were now on equal grounds. In terms of sauce… I like sauce on my ribs and I made them exactly the same so I don’t think that it matters
Went from a Vision komado(still have) to a Recteq 590. Not happy though. Not enough smoke flavor. Looking at getting the 980. Seems like the best of both worlds. Ease of use and good smoke flavor
Pellet grills are definitely a more mild smoke flavor. Ease of use is great but that comes with some sacrifices. The masterbuilt gravity series 800 or Char Griller 980 are both great options
Thanks for your videos! What tells you that they are ready for saucing/finishing? Do you bring them to 200 degrees (F)?
How do you know when someone's an engineer? They'll tell you.
Another Great Video
Thanks man!
A neat experiment where the best result is some good eating ribs!
Heck yeah! I love it lol
I'm looking to buy a new smoker and wanted to ask the community. Is the gravity fed smokers as easy to use, control, or maintain as a pellet smoker?
For the most part it is. It’s a little dirtier and more involved to light… neither of which are a big deal though. Once running, it operates very very similar to a pellet grill
@AndersonsSmokeShow thanks for the reply. I've been looking at all the options for a few weeks now. I really like the convenience of the pellet smoker so I was hoping the gravity fed was similar. Thanks!
Shall we say the difference between a pellet grill and a gravity feed is that the flavor between them in all cooks is the difference between that high-end steak house flavor you get from the pellet grill, and the backyard grill flavor of the stick burning gravity feed,, we have the tech to cure this problem , take a 55 gal drum hang a gravity chimney on one side and a pellet hopper on the other, with a dial in the middle , that says restaurant flavor on one side and backyard BBQ on the other and mixed nuts in the middle
I'm extremely happy with my 980. Used my dad pellet several times, it was good, but the 980 gives more traditional bbq flavor
It does for sure! Get your dad some Royal Oak 100% charcoal pellets and give them a try.
Do you ever have problems with creosote drops from inside top of camp chef? Love the vid! Great info!
I’ve see a few dark drops on the food on just about all of my grills
@@AndersonsSmokeShow creosote can make you very ill. May be time to clean underside of lid.
Nice video I have a 980 chargriller put for what ever reason it will not hold low temperatures i haved used lump charcoal as well as briquettes. After 45 minutes or 1 hour i get runaway temperatures that what to stabilize around 450 degrees.
I have watched several videos of your and others i don"t understand why I dont see others with this issue, perhaps I should return it and get a different one but not sure it would be any different.
That’s strange… check your temp sensor to ensure it’s not damaged. Also look at the hopper insert to make sure it’s not spun around 180deg
Been thinking about a gravity BBQ so thanks for comparison. I have a pellet, Weber and a 30 GA offset so why not. One thing though, I'm thinking the sauce could have been left off for smoke depth, but I get many do sauce on the final cook so ..
I’m a sauce guy 100%. Since I did everything exactly the same I think it was still a fair comparison
@@AndersonsSmokeShow Sure, I agree it was apples to apples
Were you aiming for that fly with the shaker?! Haha
I wasn’t lol. I need to get one of those bug blasters
Which one more xpensive to run?
I don't bother cutting the tail off the rack. Your not in a competition and the tail makes a great snack during the cook. If that is the 100% California sourced Olive Ranch oil, you have picked the best olive oil available in America.
Much better flavor form the Char Griller 980, doubt I'll ever use a my Yoder 640 again
Definitely a more bold smoke than a pellet grill, but pellets are clean and convenient. I like having the options of both.
Have you experienced any issues with the chargriller? Just purchased one, hoping to build it within the next couple weeks.
Honestly no. The only thing I would suggest is watching my temperature test video as I explain a lot about how the grill functions. There is one key part that’s important to understand and I cover it in that video.
@@AndersonsSmokeShow thank you
Hey, great video. Can you update this video with the new Woodwind Pro. In between both of the options and the new Woodwind Pro smoke box feature seems legit. Thanks
I actually have that on my video schedule
@@AndersonsSmokeShow looking forward to it. Thanks
Any reason why you picked the sg over their woodwind series? Also have you looked @ rectrc or grilla grills??
My old boss has the Bull and it’s nice as hell! I do some work with Camp Chef and they sent this SG30 to me. My dad has the WW24 and it’s super nice! At the end of the day they are both great but I think the value is better on the SmokePro SG line
Smoke penetration doesn't cause a smoke ring. It's completely unrelated. Love the episode though
If you want to get deep down into the science of it… then right it’s the not the smoke, it’s the nitric oxide. Buuuuut try producing the necessary amounts of nitric oxide for a smoke ring without smoke and see how non-existent the ring is. Now in terms of penetration… the better word would be stick or cohere.
@@AndersonsSmokeShow for sure, and I'm sure you know this, I just caught the phrasing and thought I would comment. People love to go to war over bbq :)
I have to say I love my Chargriller 980, it gives better smoke over my Yoder and similar to my vertical smoke daddy. It's a *great* smoker
The 980 does a great job, and honestly comes in a great price in today’s market.
Is the inside of the Camp Chef big enough (tall wise) to do a beer can turkey
I’ve never done a beer can Turkey. Thought about it, but I’ve done a bunch of beer can chickens with no problems
@@AndersonsSmokeShow What I meant was, is the lid tall enough to stand up a small to medium turkey
Is this a rib cooking video or grill comparison
It’s a bit of both
Nah bro you gotta do a do over with the same brand coals u can’t compare tht
🤷🏼♂️
Always one dirtbag that gives a thumbs down for some stupid reason. Great video brother
Probably some vegan
Yeah it surprises me sometimes, but there are some trolls out there. Already had to set one straight lol
@@AndersonsSmokeShow 😡
Hello, what did you spray them with in that orange pump sprayer ?
Angry Orchard
@@AndersonsSmokeShow I don't want to sound dumb, but what is that, I never have heard of that here in Texas.
Real gravity smoker like a Stumps or Assassin would eat a pellet cooker and that master built , they aren’t even in the same class due to insulation and thickness
Perfectly cooked!!😁👍👍 Sub’d
Thanks for the support Conrad!
Dang I need some ribs now lol.
Story of my life 🤣🤣
Didn't two racks start in the camp chef? I think I missed one getting moved to the gravity fed. Or maybe the one rack got pulled earlier.
One wasn’t part of the video. I was making the 2nd rack on the camp chef for family.
way too many ads!
UA-cam controls that…
@@AndersonsSmokeShow Your channel is the only one I watch that has ads every 2.5 minutes. I like your content but the ad frequency drives me crazy.
You say that you're an engineer. What kind of engineer? How does your engineering expertise apply to BBQ cooking?
Electrical. How many BBQ guys actually understand what a PID controller is? This guy does because I’ve actually worked on huge systems with PID control. Also cooking is a science…. Engineering is data driven, so they can intertwine. Also you can throw in thoroughness and attention to detail.
I don’t think Andrew is saying he is more qualified to BBQ because he is an engineer, he only seems to be giving clarification as to why his channel and perspective focuses on data and results. He has pointed out on many reviews to cook to your individual taste and not be influenced by others trying to convince you their way is better!