Traeger Pro 780 + Smoke Daddy Magnum PIG cold smoke generator = HEAVEN

[Dan-H]

my 820 is a "pro" so slightly different, but still not much room on the left.

Mine looks like this but this isn't mine.

 

[DJDDay]

my 820 is a "pro" so slightly different, but still not much room on the left.

Mine looks like this but this isn't mine.



View attachment 8870

That shelf on the right would definitely pose a problem with the Magnum PIG. You won't be able to access the top lid to add wood, let alone mount it, I'm afraid.

 

[Dan-H]

That shelf on the right would definitely pose a problem with the Magnum PIG. You won't be able to access the top lid to add wood, let alone mount it, I'm afraid.

Thanks. The right side shelf can be removed. I don't want to drill into the PB as I think I'll be selling it soon.

I think i can plumb a smoke pipe in the grease chute. Maybe a flex tube.

I look forward to seeing your cooks with the P. I. G.

 

[DJDDay]

I look forward to seeing your cooks with the P. I. G.

Here's my first (turned out amazing)!



Will have to experiment with different woods though - I only had a bag of apple chips laying around at the time, which is definitely not my first choice for ribeye.

 

[Dan-H]

I used Pecan in the smoke daddy with tri tip.

Did it in my BGE. first hour just the SD.

Lit coals and had 180F grate along with the SD.

Cooked until 120 F then reverse seared it. It was one of the best I've cooked, and we eat a lot of tri-tip.

 

[DJDDay]

I used Pecan in the smoke daddy with tri tip.

Did it in my BGE. first hour just the SD.

Lit coals and had 180F grate along with the SD.

Cooked until 120 F then reverse seared it. It was one of the best I've cooked, and we eat a lot of tri-tip.

Very cool - thanks for sharing! Yeah, I'm a huge fan of pecan wood for my steaks - will have to try that next (just happened to be out of everything except apple at the time). Also nice to see another Smoke Daddy user approach cooking in a similar manner as I did (cold smoke with the grill off for an hour first; then hot cook/sear). I don't think I'll ever be able to do a steak any other way now! That said, I might back off in the cold smoke zone for a bit - maybe only do 30-45 minutes instead of an hour. Will have to experiment.

 

[Dan-H]

Here are a few pics. Amazon has pecan chips...

This was USDA Choice tri tip from Costco.

I started the smoke daddy, and let the smoke clean up before putting meat onto the cold grate. It ran about an hour with just smoke.

Pit temp was slightly above outside temp around 65 to 70F

I lit a small amount of lump, and slowly brought the pit temp up to 180F.

This was the smoke with the SD and a small amount of lump burning in the BGE.

I left the top vent wide open ( removed ) until temp came up to 180F.

I think this pic was when IT was 120F. The probe was removed so I'm about to pull it to reset grates for a reverse sear.

Searing it direct.

The slow smoke to 120F internal gives an even rare all the way through.

It wasn't a long cook and it was TASTY !!

 

[Dan-H]

Small cooks are fine on the BGE, but it's only 18 inch grate, so connecting the SD to my pellet would have space for 4 full slabs of St Louis Ribs. If I can make it work without drilling into the pellet, that would be awesome.

 

[miguelb]

Small cooks are fine on the BGE, but it's only 18 inch grate, so connecting the SD to my pellet would have space for 4 full slabs of St Louis Ribs. If I can make it work without drilling into the pellet, that would be awesome.

It is possible to run the tube via the probe hole? Might require some zip zap piping but it's would be interesting if that works.

 

[DJDDay]

It is possible to run the tube via the probe hole?

I actually considered doing this for my Pro 780, but ultimately decided against it. Getting a "clean" smoke from what essentially amounts to a miniature stick burner chamber requires proper airflow (in and out), and I felt stepping the smoke exhaust tube diameter down from its current 3/4" size to less than half an inch to fit into the probe hole would risk delivering a dirty burn (hence an acrid taste in your cooks), or not even allow enough airflow for it to work well at all.

Will be interested to see if anyone decides to try this approach, though. Smoke Daddy suggests you keep the smoke exhaust tube unmodified for it to work "correctly". YMMV, as my 25" extension works superb (but I also kept the original diameter for the most part)!

 

[Dan-H]

I'm going to try to bring it in via the grease chute.

I'll mock it up with PVC first to work out the lengths and angles.

It needs to be removable, but the creosote will glue parts together so I'll have to plan for that.

 

[StarpagSmokeHouse]

HI!

Thank you so much for your in-depth report on this! I recently bought the Century 885 from Costco a couple of months ago and am absolutely IN LOVE. I am accustomed to smoking meat on my old beefy stick burner where the bark was to die for so I certainly was surprised by my initial cooks on the Traeger. After changing my expectations and doing some research and eventually adding one of those pellet smoker mazes I have become much happier... I have always played with the idea of adding the PIG to my rig but have been hesitant to do so because of the need to add woodchips after an hour or two? The pellet maze works decently well and I can run it on a full load for about 4-5 hours..... how often do you truly have to mess with the SD during a cook... I am a new foster parent to 3 and have a bio baby so the Traeger convenience of set and forget is truly the selling point for me so I don't want something that will add too much more labor... what are your thoughts?

THANKS FOR CHAMPIONING THIS!

 

[DJDDay]

I have always played with the idea of adding the PIG to my rig but have been hesitant to do so because of the need to add woodchips after an hour or two? The pellet maze works decently well and I can run it on a full load for about 4-5 hours..... how often do you truly have to mess with the SD during a cook...

Greetings! So, to be clear - Smoke Daddy claims up to 4 hours of smoke on the Magnum PIG. In my experience, the only way you can get up to 4 hours without messing with it is:

1. Run it for a cold smoke (meaning - Traeger off)
2. Run it on the air pump's lowest setting
3. Fill the burn pot up to the highest level it will allow (right below the Venturi blow tube
4. Don't use just smaller wood chips - also include some larger chunks of solid wood in there

If you used to have a stick burner, then you know the "user interaction" requires adding wood and stoking the fire pot occasionally, but with the Magnum PIG it's not nearly as much IMHO because the chamber is so small and you're only allowing a small amount of oxygen through the burn pot. How often you have to interact with it would depend on what you use it for. As mentioned above, with an actual cold smoke (read: Traeger off), then sure - you can get up to 4 hours without touching it.

But turn the Traeger on, and you have to crank the air pump above 55% in order to overtake the Traeger's convection fan blowing air out. This speeds up the burn time on the Smoke Daddy Magnum PIG, so your "not having to mess with it" timeframe drops to roughly 2 hours. Maybe less. Maybe more.

Also, as I said in my original post:

"Observations: if you’ve grown used to the convenience and speed at using a pellet grill, especially for the shutdown (I would usually shut my Pro 780 down after a cook and it would be so cold I could put the cover back on within 20-25 minutes), be prepared to wait. The Smoke Daddy Magnum PIG takes at minimum 1 hour to 90 minutes to cool down, and that’s if you remember to choke off all of the air intakes first."

So, there's THAT. In a nutshell, you're trading off the hands-free "set it and forget it" (I say illusion, since we all know you do have to do some babysitting with these smokers) of cooking on a pellet smoker for the return of a proper smoker with actual wood fire smoke infusion. It's a trade off. How much value that is to you since you've got a bunch of kids and little time, well - you'll have to make that call.

One thing is for certain - I'd never go with any of the smaller Smoke Daddy models. The Magnum PIG is the only one that has the burn time that would make the mod worthwhile IMHO.

 

[StarpagSmokeHouse]

Greetings! So, to be clear - Smoke Daddy claims up to 4 hours of smoke on the Magnum PIG. In my experience, the only way you can get up to 4 hours without messing with it is:

1. Run it for a cold smoke (meaning - Traeger off)
2. Run it on the air pump's lowest setting
3. Fill the burn pot up to the highest level it will allow (right below the Venturi blow tube
4. Don't use just smaller wood chips - also include some larger chunks of solid wood in there

If you used to have a stick burner, then you know the "user interaction" requires adding wood and stoking the fire pot occasionally, but with the Magnum PIG it's not nearly as much IMHO because the chamber is so small and you're only allowing a small amount of oxygen through the burn pot. How often you have to interact with it would depend on what you use it for. As mentioned above, with an actual cold smoke (read: Traeger off), then sure - you can get up to 4 hours without touching it.

But turn the Traeger on, and you have to crank the air pump above 55% in order to overtake the Traeger's convection fan blowing air out. This speeds up the burn time on the Smoke Daddy Magnum PIG, so your "not having to mess with it" timeframe drops to roughly 2 hours. Maybe less. Maybe more.

Also, as I said in my original post:

"Observations: if you’ve grown used to the convenience and speed at using a pellet grill, especially for the shutdown (I would usually shut my Pro 780 down after a cook and it would be so cold I could put the cover back on within 20-25 minutes), be prepared to wait. The Smoke Daddy Magnum PIG takes at minimum 1 hour to 90 minutes to cool down, and that’s if you remember to choke off all of the air intakes first."

So, there's THAT. In a nutshell, you're trading off the hands-free "set it and forget it" (I say illusion, since we all know you do have to do some babysitting with these smokers) of cooking on a pellet smoker for the return of a proper smoker with actual wood fire smoke infusion. It's a trade off. How much value that is to you since you've got a bunch of kids and little time, well - you'll have to make that call.

One thing is for certain - I'd never go with any of the smaller Smoke Daddy models. The Magnum PIG is the only one that has the burn time that would make the mod worthwhile IMHO.

Thanks so much for your continued thorough explanations and answers.. you rock!

 

[DJDDay]

Glad to help!

I'll also add that - creosote build-up is a reoccurring thing that must be addressed after every single use of the Smoke Daddy. After about 3-4 hours of use, so much creosote formed inside of my 25" extension pipe that smoke would no longer flow into my Traeger, even with the air pump on high. So, I'm re-evaluating whether I'll continue to use the 25" extension and just stick with the factory length, or buy an extra-long pipe cleaner to clean out my extension pipe after every cook. This of course adds a little more time and cleanup after every use (about 5-10 minutes), so again - something to keep in mind.

For my own personal use, I think it's 100% worth it. For everyone else, YMMV...

* EDIT - UPDATE (12-6-2022): I have since abandoned using the 3 / 4 ” electrical conduit pipe extension, as it's not needed. Plenty of smoke permeates the barrel without it, and the creosote build up was an issue. Much easier/simpler with the stock PIG mount only, and much easier to clean out the creosote with the included wire brush.