Pro vs ironwood. Can’t decide

[primeone]

Blueberry French toast casserole
View attachment 318

Wow, that looks awesome! I might have to try that sometime. Is this the recipe you used? https://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/baked-goods/blueberry-french-toast-casserole

 

[Joshnic]

Ya that is the recipe, turned out really good. I should have took a pic of the finished product.

 

[GrillMeister]

I was between the Timberline and the Ironwood and what flipped me to the Ironwood was the add on front folding shelf (not available on the Timberline). I live in Texas and insulation is not that big an issue when you are cooking outside in 80 degree heat in February.

The Ironwood 885 offered me most of what I wanted at a cheaper price, plus I got the ability to have the shelf I have on my Century 22.

It's great to not have to deal with a chimney and the drips that come from them.

 

[Beaser]

Blueberry French toast casserole
View attachment 318

That's looks like bread pudding. My favourite desert (breakfast and midnight snack)

 

[canyonblue737]

My Ironwood 650 on the latest firmware 1.0.0.6 has been so incredibly rock solid on temps. Using Hickory and Signature Blend I've seen it hold temps from 180 to 275 (and everywhere between) within + or - 3 degrees once stabilized... for hours and hours on end, it's almost mind boggling. When changing temps you might see and occasional lag 10-20 degrees low or high (usually more like 10) for 5-10 minutes before it hits it dead on. I'm impressed.

 

[capnpyro]

“Stale smoke” is funny, it reminds me of my first job at Best Buy ages ago, I was instructed to tell people that the gold plated printer cables (that cost $20 more) provided richer color on your prints because uh gold conducts better?

 

[BarricadeGT]

So I’m looking for a new Traeger but can’t decide on the model.
The sales guy at bbq world was very pro on the pro and was negative on the ironwood. In particular the downdraft feature. According to him the chimney needs to be at the top or else you get stale smoke on your food. But the other bbq speciality store said it’s a great feature.
In my mind that’s the deciding feature.
Thoughts on the downdraft or the grills in general.
Thanks

As an Ironwood 885 owner, either save your money and get the pro, spend more and the timberline, or look into a different brand.

It seems to be a common issue of a lid gap on the ironwoods, which lets heat/smoke out, hurts insulation, and I'm sure it won't help pellet burning efficiency in the winter.

 

[PaulyPaul]

The Ironwood only has double wall insulation on the side walls. Both grills have the same double wall on the curved bottom half of the drum. IMHO, the biggest advantage is that the downdraft exhaust seems to circulate the air more consistently and has a few extra features in the D2 controller like Supersmoke, pellet level sensor and a few other small goodies.

My Pro 575 has been great. Works great at the lower temps after the firmware update. Still has a bit of a temperature gap at the higher temperatures but my latest mucking around seems to show that the cause might be related to the weather. When the air temperature is above 70F the gap seems to reduce. The other day the temperature dipped down to 55F when I was cooking dinner and I notice much more of a gap when you set the grill to 350F+.

Both are great grills. I would have purchased the Ironwood but I got a big discount on the Pro put it close to half the price. Was a no brainer for me...

I agree with you completely. Was going to get another Ironwood, but got far too much of a discount on my new Pro 575 ($400 otd, from authorized dealer) vs $100 off MRSP on Ironwood. That sort of savings was just too much to rationalize and pass it up for the Ironwood.

I have been happy with the Pro and have not really noticed too much of a difference in performance. Lucky I have not experienced any temp issues or anything else. Both connected to wifi and app without issue. Taste is exactly the same to me. I don't have them at the same location so sort of hard to do a side by side but surely is minimal once you are grilling. I did spend a 100$ more on some accessories for the Pro that I would not have needed to spend on the Ironwood. Pellet sensor and magnetic hooks.

 

[dblcrona]

I debated between the grills for a few weeks and ended up going with the Ironwood 650 and have been happy with my decision. With a fan moving and circulating the air, I felt the smokestack was not needed.

Here are some of the main reasons I convinced myself (and wife) I needed to spend the extra money.. haha

• 500 degrees,
• Double wall insulation

*** Adjustable lower grate - This has been really nice.
* Side shelf

I figured it was about $100 a feature

Also, check out this chart showing the benefits of the different d2 controllers:

With the latest firmware upgrade the Pro 575 now goes up to 500F.

 

[PaulyPaul]

“Stale smoke” is funny, it reminds me of my first job at Best Buy ages ago, I was instructed to tell people that the gold plated printer cables (that cost $20 more) provided richer color on your prints because uh gold conducts better?

LOL, vendors use to tell us that better cables gave richer fuller surround sound and bass. SMH