Traeger Smokers

[Papa Tom]

Is a kamodo similar to a BGE?

The short answer is yes. The basic design is a thousand years old, though the fire boxes may differ. An Imperial Kamado is earthenware, a true flower pot so to speak. BGE and Primos, kind of the diff between a Chevy and Ford pickup. Both with get you there, high tech ceramics etc.

That said, they are not pellet cookers.

If I were looking to buy a pellet cooker, I tale a serious look at the FATBOYZ pellet cooker.

It's said that the FATBOYZ cooker is a Traeger commercial design that they have been hesitant to produce under their name. I think it has something to do with NSF certification.
Don't remember where I heard that for sure but I think it was from Fast Eddy.

[DATsBBQ]

Papa,
They are made by ProRoaster. http://www.prosmokernroaster.com , using the Traeger pellet system. It is their low end smoker. Everything they make is NSF certified.

A while ago I emailed Traeger a question if they made a SS NSF cooker. The reply I got was that they are now distributing the Fatboyz and the quote was a $1,000 more than what I got from ProRoaster When I informed Traeger of that they told that price was for the "proto-type" model that is no longer available. Funny thing, but the brochure on the ProRoaster site is the same brochure I downloaded a year ago, so I wonder what changes, if any, were made.

Here's a Utube link to some comparison tests with an FEC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsZo_RAl ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mopdiqr1rA

FatBoyz is the name of a BBQ team that hooked up with them, kind of a reverse endorsement.

[Papa Tom]

Thanks Dave pretty impressive. I'd seen those videos before but had forgotten about them. They were made when FE challenged FatBoyz to back up their clams of a 1 degree differential top to bottom.
I have found Traeger hard to deal with as you have, they missed out on selling me a commercial unit when I bought the Old Hickory because they were less than responsive. After I told their salesman to pound dirt they had my x-SIL call me ( Scott Crawford a Traeger distributor that I have a good relationship with) and I said I'd buy the commercial unit from Scott but not from their HO sales staff, they declined, I bought a Old Hickory. I also had trouble with them on a pellet purchase. I will not deal again with Traeger HO although their dealers and distributors tend to be good honest business people and Traeger support does a excellent job of providing warranty support for dealer sales. The blessing now is the expiration of patents and the new competition in the marketplace we will see much improved cookers.