Camp Chef SmokePro DLX Pellet Grill w/New PID Gen 2 Digital Controller - Bronze

Would not start the second time we tried to use itHow Do I return itCannot smoke the Christmas turkey

I am a 55 yr old single disabled woman. This is a review for newbies.1 - Very easy assembly. The only help I needed was to stand it up after I put the legs on.2 - Having never smoked anything before just watching videos on YouTube. I was worried about destroying my smoker by fire before I could learn to use it. I read my instructions 2-4 times(different areas). If you don’t read as thorough remember to open the lid while starting. Because there’s a lot of smoke, then it goes does.3 - Remember to wipe off oil with paper towels and then wash(the fire plate and drip pan).So so easy to assemble. So very easy to do my First Burn. Everything went so good a found myself smiling and I wasn’t even cooking yet.I bought some pork loin. Simple and cheap because I didn’t want to destroy expensive meat my first time. 200* for 2 hrs. my beautiful 1 1/2 - 2 inch thick cuts came out pink with grill marks. I only used ( steak seasoning) 1 seasoning. I couldn’t wait to get it one house I had to try it. So good!!!!I did do my research on different brands. Some the steal is thinner and will burn more pellets. Everything I found put Camp Chef in the same class as Treager with less cost. So I went with the Camp Chef Dxl. I don’t need Wi-fi. Some people want a good smoker but really NEED to make the RIGHT investment the first time around. I didn’t get the drop shelf.And last but not least going back to more Bang for Your Buck, it was bigger than I thought. Plenty big for a nice brisket or ribs. It had the warming rack. 🥳🥳🥳👏👏👏👏👏

I bought this to replace a Traeger Junior Pellet Grill that as I recall, I paid about $400 for about five years ago. It caught fire recently due to what I believe was a fault in its control unit that caused it to overfeed pellets into the firebox and was pretty much destroyed.First impressions: The Camp Chief is much more substantial. It is made of heavier gauge metal, and many of the parts are better engineered. The legs are tubular steel instead of bent sheet metal, and they have built-in threaded inserts that make assembly easier and are far more rigid and stronger. The hinges for the lid and its handle are much stronger, substantial, and better made. The cover for the burner and the drip tray are made of a much heavier grade of steel (stainless?). The control is solid state and has discrete temperature and smoke stettings, as well as both an internal thermometer and a separate meat probe thermometer. It also has a protective screen built into the pellet hopper to keep fingers from the auger, as well as controls for empting the ash from the burner and the pellet hopper, features lacking from my last smoker.Assembly: A snap. They included an Allen wrench for the eight leg bolts. There are also five phillips head screws for the accessory tray and two for the vent pipe. That's it!Getting up and running: Loaded the hopper with my favorite pellets, selected the auger feed setting, pushed the button, and it was ready (this is only needed when the auger is empty of pellets such as for the first use). I brought it up to 350 degrees for half an hour before using as recommended in the manual.First use: I started with something simple - chicken drumsticks. Just dusted them with Costco Rib Rub, turned the temperature to 300, turned them over once after about 25 minutes and removed them when done - about 45 minutes. They were PERFECTION! Juicy, smokey, cooked perfectly.I'm looking forward to smoking brisket, ribs, and salmon with this smoker. I think that this is the start of a beautiful friendship!

I want to love this smoker but there have been too many issues for a smoker in this price range. I will say that they have had great customer service, a quick email and photo of the damaged part and I had a new one on the way the same day. These are the issues I'm running into:1. Too many instances of the temperature inexplicably dropping in the middle of a smoke, forcing me to take off my meat and finish it in the oven (which for my brisket may have been a blessing in disguise, turned out fantastic). I've followed the instructions to a T and there was plenty of pellets in the bin so I still can't troubleshoot the cause. Hopefully customer service can help me with this one.2. Defective parts: I had a few parts that were defective. One part was clearly bent from shipping but the other was the chimney ring which is a welded piece of steel and had to have been from the factory that way.3. Not well insulated: The smoke escapes from a multitude of areas on the smoker besides the chimney. On a windy day, this will drastically impact your smoke temp fluctuations. I did buy some insulation for around the lid which helped dramatically but still, at this price point it's something that should be done right from the factory to make it a better product.4. Built-in thermometer did not work. Luckily I had already purchased a Bluetooth thermometer so I don't use it anyway. But again, at this price point, really?Overall I like this smoker when it functions properly. I would say about 50% of the time the thing just gives up midway through a smoke and I'm forced to finish in the oven. If Camp Chef is able to troubleshoot this and get it running 100%, I will update my review.

My appreciation goes out to camp chef. After seeing my package delivered by Fed-ex , and standing on its end. My first thoughts were going through my head by the way the box looked, that I would be un boxing a horror story. To my amazement there wasn’t a scratch or dent on the stove. Camp Chef uses a pretty good amount of Styrofoam reinforcement in the box, which saved the stove from crappy handling by shippers. Stove works awesome, and absolutely squelched any of the bad reviews I saw about the stove online. My advice to those of you reading reviews about the Camp Chef 24DLX Pellet Smoker ,keep in mind not all people read instructions. And not all people have common sense. The assembly was easy, and controller was easy after you got used to how it worked.