Which is Better: Yoder YS640S or P&S MAVERICK 1250 W/ UPRIGHT SMOKEBOX
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expert
Looking to improve my outdoor kitchen. Currently have large Traeger, 8yrs, use it 4 times a week or so and love it. But temps are a bit high for smoking sausage, so I’m looking for a pellet grill/smoker I can get 140 or 150 f with.
Recently getting into sausage, snack stick, jerky making with 1HP #22 Meat! Grinder, 20lb mixer, 15lb stuffer, have done about 50lbs and love it. But need better low temp control now.
Currently cook steaks, pork butt, jerky, and pizza on Traeger, sometimes bake bread too. Which of above high end pellet grills will let me do all that still, but also reach a lower smoke temp? The 1250 with smokebox, I have heard the box is 100 f less than the grill part?
Thx for info and recommendations or advice! -
Tex_77 Team Blue Power User Traeger Primo Grills PK Grills Canning Sous Vide Community Moderator Kansas
The Yoder YS640 is a tank, you aren’t going to be able to consistently get the low temps you need for smoking sausage, ie, under 150. For smoking/grilling it can’t be beat.
As for the Maverick I have no experience with it, but they appear to be well built and heavy duty. If the smokebox is truly 100 degrees less than main chamber, of the two it will be the best for sausage smoking.
Now with all that said, you are looking for one grill that does everything great, and they just don’t exist. For the money you are looking to spend you would probably be better off keeping your Treager or updating to a little better pellet grill and buying a separate smoker that is purpose built for low end smokes and sausage making. For example the PK 100 Pro Smoker Smokehouse is $2,499, pair it with Camp Chef Woodwind Wifi 36 Pel @ $1,199 and you’re only spending a bit more than buying the Maverick alone. You’ll sacrifice the heavy duty construction on the Camp Chef as compared to the Maverick, but you will gain a professional quality smokehouse for your sausage.
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expert
Thx Tex! I was thinking the answer was probably going to be two units with a dedicated smoker…
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Although not ideal setup, I have smoked sausage on my Yoder 1500. I start with a cold grill and load sausage first with a large pan of ice. Then start the grill at 175 (lowest it goes) and smoke for two hours, bump to 185 for two hours and then 205 until done. Have had good results.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ So, to cut to the chase I have a P&S Maverick 1250 in stainless but without a sidebox and a ProSmoker PK100 for sausage/bacon/etc.
I love the P&S and would def recommend over a Yoder. Especially if you plan to stick with the sidebox as Yoder won’t give you that low temp. I have never seen someone sell a P&S for a Yoder, but plenty of the reverse - mainly temp swing and rust issues.
That said you can still make really good sausage on a straight up P&S/Yoder/Traeger even without the low temp. Worth a mention I once did a batch of snack sticks and cooked some on my P&S at 180F and rest in a ramped up cook in PK100. Gave a bunch of buddies a “taste test” and all preferred the P&S batch.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Guest on last edited by
@bmartin1000 said in Which is Better: Yoder YS640S or P&S MAVERICK 1250 W/ UPRIGHT SMOKEBOX:
Although not ideal setup, I have smoked sausage on my Yoder 1500. I start with a cold grill and load sausage first with a large pan of ice. Then start the grill at 175 (lowest it goes) and smoke for two hours, bump to 185 for two hours and then 205 until done. Have had good results.
I have often see this setup with ice or people saying to crack lid to hold temps lower than smoker normally will. But, won’t this just make the controller keep pushing pellets to hit the target temp? If you set to 175F and add ice, won’t it be burning extra pellets to compensate? Same with cracked lid - assume it just leads to bigger fire in burn pot.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by Jamieson22
Dave in AZ Also feel free to message me if you have any P&S or PK100 questions. Happy to help!
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ You make a decision on smoker(s)?
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to Jamieson22 on last edited by
Jamieson22 like a lot of things, the more you learn, the more questions lol. I was originally thinking one unit to do all, but pretty quickly decided a dedicated smoker would be better. Then I read a bunch of threads on folks who’ve built their own units using PID controls, and started reading on that.
Somewhere I ran across a digital smoker by Smokin’ It and was very impressed, and just yesterday discovered a Youtube channel “2 guys and a cooler”, and he uses that Smokin It one so I could see more detail.
So now I’m leaning towards the top end Smokin It, or the PK100 would be possible. What are your thoughts on the PK100 ability for 80f cold smoking, and temp control for a schedule? And just general design, vs the Smokin It, if you’ve seen that one? My plan is that if I don’t build one, then I will want a pretty high end fully capable unit if I’m goint to purchase.
Thanks! -
Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ In all honestly I bet a P&S 1250 with side box would do everything you are after.
That said I saw the Smokin’ it when I was shopping but bought a PK100 based on word of mouth/experiences with it. Will say the 1500 watt burner in the #4D may be a bit nicer than the 1250 watt in the PK100.
I have not yet cold smoked in my PK100. Though if I were to I’d likely just use a pellet maze or similar and the PK100 would serve as just the container. Not 100% sure it would ignite the sawdust on its lowest stetting but have not yet tried.
I will say the PK100 is very well built. And while I am not a weld expert, the photo of the wheel/leg of the #4D looks horrible, no?
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to Jamieson22 on last edited by
Jamieson22 just looked, that sure isn’t a weld I’d put on my advertising.
Size is 48"x21 wide x28 deep, vs. Pk100 is 48x21x21.
Look very similar, and I don’t think I’d use ANY of the smoker tray for either of them-- I would much rather use external cold smoker attachment like smoke daddy or Bellas cold smoke attachment. The Bellas from Smokin It can do an 80f smoke, from online youtube test reviews I’ve seen, for 8 hours…that is plenty of smoke for most anything. And has the benefit of not having to open door or mess with smoker exploding like someone else just reported this week.So for me, either would just be a digitally controlled oven box. The determining factors would be ability to easily and accurately control a stepped thermal schedule. How easy is it on the PK, can you program a 3 or 4 step schedule and leave it, or do you have to go change it for each temp? This is the area where reviews and videos of use are scarce.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ I can’t imagine adding a smoke generator into the front air vent on the PK100 would be difficult if that is route you wanted. But honestly, a cardboard box would work just as well as a > $2k stainless box for cold smoke, no? If cold smoke is what yo are really after grab a Masterbuilt 40 and add one.
You cannot program PK100 so if you want to change temp you do it in person. Never been an issue for me but I’m generally home when running it.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ Just a heads up, Coy from P&S just posted instructions on changing controller to allow a low of 140F.
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to Jamieson22 on last edited by
Jamieson22 thanks, that improves it a good bit!
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to Jamieson22 on last edited by
Jamieson22
Got a Smokin It 3.5 wifi. Ended up there because you can program a multi step temp profile with a time at each, then stop at some meat internal temp and alarm you. All on an easy in depth app on phone. Got tired of my Traeger holding a diff temp every time I use it, and not being able to replicate a cook.Wish I had unpacked and set up, I thought my Traeger would be fine for a cook tonight but while it held 135f in smoke setting last time, today it went up to 231 and stabilized! Got it at 200 stable now but higher than I want.
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ND Mike Big Green Egg Team Blue Regular Contributors Cast Iron Power User North Dakota Veteranreplied to Jamieson22 on last edited by
Jamieson22 that’s what I think too. I talked to a lot of guys that are in the know and they said if you crack the lid the controller will compensate for heat loss and dump extra pellets.
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Jamieson22 Team Blue PK100 Regular Contributors Power User Illinoisreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ Congrats on the new smoker! Def post some pics once you get it running.
