Thinking about buying a Recteq RT1300 pellet smoker to replace my 10 year old gas grill.

Anyone have a Recteq and can weigh in on its performance? First pellet smoker….

I have the 1100, which is the version before the 1300. I've had it for about 7-8 years and it's a tank. I've kept it outside without a cover and it's still going strong.

The only thing about a pellet smoker is that it takes 10-15 minutes for them to get to temp, whereas a gas grill can take 5 minutes. Smoked meat is worth the wait!

BTW, pork butts are 97 cents per lb at HEB. About to go load up!

I have a 700 and it is great. I don't know what the equation model number would be today. Mine is 5 years old and going strong. Only problem I have with it is the damn longhorns for handles. And, they took away the remote start feature a few years ago.

We've had two over 15 years. They are solid and the customer service can't be beat. I went three years without one and the minute I started using the new one I realized how how much I missed it. I used a gravity charcoal smoker in between and it worked great but rusted out and required more maintenance and babysitting. I'll always have a quality pellet smoker going forward.

I have had a Rectec rt-590 for many years now. Customer service was outstanding for me personally when my auger motor went out. Highly recommend

This is a timely topic. My weber gas grill made it 14 years. It needs a lot of parts replaced so I've been looking at replacement grill options. I like the fast convenient cooking of a gas grill and wouldn't mind smoking as well. I know thats what everyone wants, but pellet grills haven't seemed to master is the sear function. I have been looking at the weber searwood, but don't know anyone that has one.

Thanks guys. About to make the local BBQ pit peddler happy

between our cookoff team members (4 of us) we have
2 - 380
1 - 380x
2 - 590 (2 different versions)

we use them all for both home and competition use and none of them have ever had a single issue. recommend recteq products to everyone looking for pellet grills/smokers

Replaced a traeger timberline with rectec. Have been very pleased so far. Traeger has a sheet metal plate over pellet burner vs cast iron for rec rec. night and day difference on warm up time and heat levels

I got a Flagship 1100 in January of 2025 and use it multiple times a week. Overall, it has been absolutely great and far more convenient than the BGE. It doesn't do a low and slow brisket quite as well as my BGE but there is no difference in pork butts or ribs that I can tell. The huge amount of rack space and quick set it and forget it temp control is a game changer for the majority of my day to day grilling needs and has me grilling things that I would have previously just tossed in the oven.

I don't know if I'd go all-in on replacing a gas grill with a pellet smoker. Why not both? Those two each have different purposes for what they're best at.

I have a built-in gas grill and a pellet (mine is Traeger) and I find that I mostly use the smoker for those long low and slow cooks - brisket, pork butt, ribs, etc., which tend to happen less frequently for me these days with kids stuff every weekend. But for fast grilling - burgers, chops, chickens, fish filets, etc. or searing rare/ med rare steaks, the gas grill that gets really really hot and really quickly remains the more daily go-to. Obviously, you CAN get your pellet smoker hot enough for burgers, chicken thighs, etc. and it will add smoke flavor and make your back yard smell better when grilling, but it takes longer and requires buying a lot of pellets vs the easy always flowing permanent gas connection.

I've had the RT1250 for 4 years. Absolutely love it and absolutely will buy that brand again, if I ever need to.

I have a 1200 that replaced a treager and have no regrets. Love it.

I've got the 700 as well (it'll turn 5 next month) and love it. I wish I had the patio space to have the Bullseye as well for grill/sears. Technically the 700 can get up there in temps too, but with the size of it, it takes too long and is overly wasteful of the heat, but for smoking, love it.

And echoing the remote start complaint - evidently some users were too stupid to remove their cover before starting their smoker. A bit of a pity we don't support Darwin more then the rest of us could actual enjoy the convenience.

One thing I will say on the 700, I have had to switch to fat side down on my brisket because it still gets a bit warm under them and it makes the bottom side crunchy. Easy way to avoid is just using the fat side as a buffer during the pre-wrap stage.

Have had a Bullseye for about 4 years and I love it. Even my wife, who never has even so much as touched it, comments all the time that it puts out great food and works well. The only time it has been a problem is when I forget to keep an eye on pellets and it goes out mid-cook. And that delays dinner by half an hour or so.

SharkinAg said:

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We've had two over 15 years. They are solid and the customer service can't be beat. I went three years without one and the minute I started using the new one I realized how how much I missed it. I used a gravity charcoal smoker in between and it worked great but rusted out and required more maintenance and babysitting. I'll always have a quality pellet smoker going forward.

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Which gravity feed charcoal smoker did you have. I have always been intrigued by them, thinking they might be a better all-in-one piece of equipment.

So your overall experience says a quality (recteq) pellet smoker is better on all counts?

Roger350 said:

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SharkinAg said:

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We've had two over 15 years. They are solid and the customer service can't be beat. I went three years without one and the minute I started using the new one I realized how how much I missed it. I used a gravity charcoal smoker in between and it worked great but rusted out and required more maintenance and babysitting. I'll always have a quality pellet smoker going forward.

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Which gravity feed charcoal smoker did you have. I have always been intrigued by them, thinking they might be a better all-in-one piece of equipment.

So your overall experience says a quality (recteq) pellet smoker is better on all counts?

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I had the Chargriller 980. It cooked awesome food but you had to babysit it a little more than a pellet grill. Charcoal hangs up and doesn't feed as reliably as pellets and I had to replace a lot of parts. Their warranty sucked. If it broke it was on you. I live by the coast and it was practically rusted out in three years. Tons of cooking space.
That said, I love my rectec. I have the stainless steel flagship and it's solid. Cooking prime rib tomorrow.

So even charcoal brickets hung up in the gravity feed? Man, that sucks as I always figured you could use 100% actual wood chunks for better smoke, but if charcoal was getting stuck wood chunks would probably be terrible.

Appreciate the feed back!

Roger350 said:

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So even charcoal brickets hung up in the gravity feed? Man, that sucks as I always figured you could use 100% actual wood chunks for better smoke, but if charcoal was getting stuck wood chunks would probably be terrible.

Appreciate the feed back!

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I used lump and it would have trouble. The regular charcoal did better. But basically it would hang up and then the temp would drop and be hard to stabilize without removing everything from the grill. And if it got too hot it was hard to lower the temp because too much of the charcoal would be lit.

Again, really cool smoker but still not bulletproof like a rec tec.