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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

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.