[ad_1]
Traeger has been manufacturing pellet grills for thirty years, but the Timberline 1300 is its first connected model, and it’s a beauty. Designed using input from longtime customers and professional pit bosses, the Timberline 1300 features Wi-Fi, which allows you to control cooking temperatures, set timers, and access a huge database of recipes from anywhere using your mobile device and a thoughtfully designed app. It also uses a patented smoke delivery system to ensure food gets the right amount of smoke and is cooked perfectly every time. Its $1,999.99 price will send budget-conscious grillers running for the charcoal aisle, but if you’ve been looking for a well-built, top-of-the-line pellet grill with smart home bells and whistles, you’re looking at our Editors’ Choice.
A Word About Pellet Grills
Back in the late ’80s, Traeger developed the first grill to use wood pellets as a fuel source rather than propane or charcoal. The compressed pellets are made of 100% wood and are around one inch long and a quarter of an inch thick. They are fed into a firepot where they are ignited and burn cleanly and evenly while leaving behind very little ash.
On the Timberline 1300, heat from the burning pellets is distributed throughout the cooking chamber using a convection fan and is augmented by a downdraft exhaust system that bathes the food in smoke before it exits at the back of grill. It’s equipped with a computer-controlled auger that delivers pellets to the firepot when needed and uses advanced algorithms to measure outdoor conditions in order to maintain a consistent internal chamber temperature. Traeger pellets are available in 20-pound bags and go for $18.99 per bag. Wood choices include alder, apple, cherry, hickory, maple, mesquite, and pecan.
Similar Products
Char-Broil SmartChef TRU-Infrared 3-Burner Gas Grill
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Char-Broil SmartChef TRU-Infrared 3-Burner Gas Grill Review
Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker With SmartChef Technology
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker With SmartChef Technology Review
Cinder Grill
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Cinder Grill Review
Weber iGrill Mini
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Weber iGrill Mini Review
Grillbot Automatic Grill Cleaning Robot
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Grillbot Automatic Grill Cleaning Robot Review
June Oven
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our June Oven Review
Anova Precision Cooker
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Anova Precision Cooker Review
ChefSteps Joule
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our ChefSteps Joule Review
Design and Features
A massive grill, the Timberline 1300 is built like a tank. It weighs 226 pounds, stands 4.0 feet tall, and is 4.8 feet wide and 2.3 feet deep. It has a matte black finish with brushed stainless steel shelves on the left and front, and a brushed stainless steel lid handle. The pill-shaped chamber offers 1,300 square inches of grilling space and is equipped with three heavy-duty removable stainless steel grilling grates. According to Traeger, the Timberline 1300 can hold up to 60 hamburgers, 12 chickens, 82 hot dogs, or 14 racks of ribs (no, not all at once).
The grill is supported by four heavy-duty tubular legs that are 3 inches in diameter. It has two fixed 7-inch rubber wheels on one end and two 3-inch lockable rubber wheels for steering on the other. Despite its size and weight, the grill is fairly easy to roll around as long as you’re on a relatively smooth and level surface.
To the right of the cooking chamber is a hopper with a wooden butcher block cover. It holds 24 pounds of pellets and has a tunnel at the bottom that drops pellets into the auger chamber. The auger then feeds pellets into the firepot, which is positioned in the center of the chamber, underneath a removable heat shield and grease tray. Since the grill uses convection heat to cook and smoke foods, you don’t have to worry about flare-ups from dripping fats and grease. There’s a slot below the shelf on the left that holds a drip pan, and there’s a trap door at the rear of hopper you can use to empty unused pellets if you want to cook with a different type of wood. Here you’ll also find a three-prong power cord and the main power switch.
The front of the hopper holds the grill’s electronic control panel which contains a 3-by-2 inch LCD, six function buttons, a probe port, and a dial control for navigating the menus, selecting menu items, and setting a cooking temperature. The LCD displays the set temperature and the current chamber temperature, a feature lacking on the Char-Broil SmartChef TRU-Infrared 3-Burner Gas Grill. It also tells you the probe temperature and the amount of time remaining in a cooking cycle, and guides you through all of the steps in a pre-programmed recipe.
The Standby button starts up the control panel once the main power switch is set to On, and is used at the end of a cooking cycle to cool down and shut off the grill. Pressing the Menu button gets you started with temperature and probe settings and gives you access to the recipe library, network settings, and grill settings such as display contrast, speaker volume, and firmware version. The Timer button is not tied to the cook cycle, but comes in handy to remind you to do things like spray or baste your meat, flip your food, or add more seasoning. You can press the Super Smoke button at any time during the cook cycle (as long as the temperature is between 165 and 225 degrees) to increase the amount of smoke released into the chamber if you want a more smoky taste, and the Keep Warm button limits the chamber temperature to 165 degrees so you can keep food warm without overcooking it. Last but not least, the Ignite button starts the grill.
The mobile app (for Android and iOS) is a pleasure to use. It offers mouthwatering pictures of recipe choices, full preparation instructions, and cooking tips and tricks. It also offers helpful online how-to videos and has links to social media sites where you can join the Traeger community to share recipes and experiences with other Traeger owners and the Trager Pro Team of professional and competitive grillers.
To control the grill from the app, tap the Remote tab at the bottom of the screen to open the dashboard. Here you’re presented with a grill gauge that allows you to set and view the current and target temperature, a Timer gauge, and a Probe gauge. Along the bottom of the dashboard are buttons for a Sauce Timer, Super Smoke, and Keep Warm. Tapping the gear icon in the upper right corner takes you to a screen where you can program and save up to four custom cook cycles, edit network settings, and shut down the grill. The app will alert you with a notification and a series of beeps when the grill has preheated, reached its probe temperature, completed a cooking cycle, and cooled down sufficiently to cover it.
The Timberline has a temperature range of 165-500 degrees Fahrenheit so you can slow cook at a low temperature (225 is ideal for ribs, brisket, and more), roast, bake, and even sear meats. It offers multiple cooking methods; you can cook at a single temperature for a set period of time, or create a custom cook program with various steps, temperature changes, probe targets, and cook times. You can save up to four of these custom cycles, delete them as necessary, and add new ones. You can also cook with a probe by setting an internal temperature target for your food. The grill and the app will beep when the target temperature is reached. If you’d rather let the grill do all the work, select one of Traeger’s recipes from the app. It’s somewhat similar to the June Intelligent Oven, though it doesn’t actually identify food without your input.
As was the case with the Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker With SmartChef Technology, cooking with one of Traeger’s pre-programmed recipes is as easy as it gets. However, Traeger’s extensive database of recipes makes the meager Char-Broil offerings look like an afterthought. At the time of this review there are over one thousand recipes, with new ones being added every day. Categories include Beef, Pork, Lamb, Poultry, Vegetables, Seafood, Pizza, Wild Game, and Baked Goods (yes, you can even make pizza and bake bread with this grill). Once you find a recipe and have completed the recommended preparations, select Cook Now at the bottom of the screen and follow the instructions. The app will automatically set the correct cooking temperature and probe target, tell you when to add your food, and let you know when it’s done.
Installation and Performance
The Timberline 1300 took over an hour to assemble and required two people, but the illustrated instructions, numbered parts, and included tools made it relatively easy. Conversely, the Char-Broil SmartChef 3-Burner Gas Grill required close to six hours to assemble, though it too comes with detailed illustrated instructions.
Once complete, I moved on to the seasoning phase, which burns off any oils used in manufacturing and prepares the grill for regular cooking. I plugged it in, set the temperature to 500, hit Ignite, and waited a minute or two until the temperature began to rise and the grill started smoking. Once the screen read 500 I let it season for 45 minutes before shutting it down.
To connect the grill to my home Wi-Fi network, I downloaded the iOS app, created an account, and tapped the Remote button in the app. I tapped Connect to Traeger WiFIRE and selected Wi-Fi information from the menu. When the onboard controller displayed the grill’s SSID and password, I used my phone’s Wi-Fi settings to connect it, returned to the app, and entered my home Wi-Fi information. Within seconds the grill was connected. I gave it a name and was finished.
I used the Traeger recipes to smoke up three racks of baby back ribs. Once the ribs were rubbed up with my own variation of a Kansas City rub, I loaded the hopper with hickory pellets, hit the recipe’s Cook Now button, ignited the grill, and closed the lid. It took around seven minutes to ignite, then another 10 minutes or so to preheat to 225 degrees. I set the timer to an hour to remind me to spray the ribs down with a mixture of apple juice and water, and did so every hour for the full six hours of smoking time. When the ribs were done I hit the Standby button and the grill went into a ten minute shutdown cycle.
I also used the grill to cook a batch of burgers and dogs and they came out great, though the wood flavor was hardly noticeable because I cooked them at 400 degrees and they finished quickly. I smoked a hunk of wild salmon at 200 degrees for around two hours with Super Smoke on, and it came out firm and smoky. Finally, I roasted a whole chicken at 375 degrees for a little over an hour and it turned out moist, with a noticeably smoky flavor and crispy skin.
Conclusions
Whether you’re into low and slow smoking or fast and hot searing, the Traeger Timberline 1300 will deliver perfectly cooked food while you spend your time with friends and family, or just kicking back watching the game. Wi-Fi connectivity not only lets you program the grill to cook at exact temperatures using your smartphone, it also gives you access to more than a thousand recipes you can program into the grill with the tap of a button. It’s very easy to use and built to last, and the mobile app is intuitive and easy on the eyes, but all this grilling goodness will set you back a couple grand. However, if you take your grilling seriously and don’t mind shelling out for a premium wood-fired pellet grill that can do it all, the Timberline 1300 will not disappoint. It’s a shoo-in for our Editors’ Choice award, and one of the best high-tech grilling gadgets we’ve tested.
If you don’t have room in your budget for a $2000 grill, the Char-Broil SmartChef TRU-Infrared 3-Burner Gas Grill, also an Editors’ Choice, is a top-performing gas-powered grill that is also Wi-Fi enabled and very easy to use. You won’t get the wood-fired smokiness that you get with the Traeger grill, but it costs $1,200 less and uses IR technology to deliver juicy, evenly cooked foods without flare-ups. Or, check out the Char-Broil Digital Electric Smoker; it’s not nearly as versatile as the Timberline 1300, but it delivers delicious smoked food and is a snap to use.
4.5
(Opens in a new window)
(Opens in a new window)
View More
The Traeger Timberline 1300 is a wood-fired grill that uses hardwood pellets, a modulating fan, and Wi-Fi to deliver incredible smoked and barbecued food. It’s big and expensive, but if you take your grilling seriously, it doesn’t get much better than this.
[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/traeger-timberline-1300