Why pay more for a Louisiana Grill
Whether you’re new to pellet grilling or you’re a seasoned pro, you might be wondering why you should spend more on a Louisiana Grill. We’re here to tell you Louisiana Grills are worth the investment, since they’re better grills for better barbecue – for several reasons.
Let’s take a look.
The advantage of a PID controller
A PID controller on a pellet grill is exactly the same kind of controller that many industries have used for years. Basically, this kind of controller “learns” how fast or slow it needs to run the auger to supply pellets to the fire to maintain whatever temperature it is set at.
So, this means that we are always feeding pellets to the fire in a consistent manner giving us a very clean burning fire, which gives us that light blue, barely noticeable – but always there – smoke. We want that clean burning fire AND that light blue smoke because it’s the best tasting smoke.
You’ve probably had BBQ that smelled like a bad burning fire at a beach party. That comes from 2 things:
- A smoldering fire. Anytime you see gray, or black or dingey smoke – anything but that clean light blue smoke it is a smoldering fire. That smoldering fire means that a lot of contaminants are not burned up but are in the smoke getting on your food and tasting nasty.
- Oversmoking; cooking the food way too long in, more than likely, a smoldering fire.
If you watch any other brand of wood pellet grill you will be able “see” if it is a PID controller or not. Most other pellet grills will “puff” smoke – you will see gray or dark smoke coming out, then it will clear up, then it will “puff” that dark smoke again and then clear up. It will do this same thing over and over again while cooking. This is an “on – off” type control board – the same as the oven in your house.
The problem with a smoldering fire is the contaminants in the smoke can cause your food to have a bad/bitter smoke taste.
Convection Cooking
All wood pellet grills must have a fan to supply combustion air to the firepot to get the pellets to burn. Most pellet grills use a fan just big enough to supply combustion air to the firepot. Louisiana Grills uses a much larger fan to supply heated air for convection cooking.
That extra air in the cook chamber of a Louisiana Grill circulates heat and smoke more efficiently THROUGHOUT the cooking chamber. Thus, we get more heat and smoke down on the grate where your food is.
Putting the Pressure On
Where does heat and smoke always want to go:
- UP
- To the path of least resistance
So, in most wood pellet grills most of the heat and smoke rises to the top of the grill and easily exits out that big 3-inch diameter exhaust on the right side.
Where is your food in the grill? Humm, on the grate – a long way from where the heat and smoke is in most other wood pellet grills with those big exhaust stacks.
The exhaust on a Louisiana Grill is the 5 small holes spaced evenly across the back of the grill which does 2 things for us:
- This helps distribute heat and smoke more evenly across the length of the cooking chamber.
- Because the exhaust holes are smaller than what the combustion fan is putting in – the air in the cook chamber is pressurized which gives us much more even heat and smoke down on the gate where your food is. And cooks much faster.
Putting It All Together – What Does It All Mean
A Louisiana Grills is a Better Grill for Better Food.
The combination of a cleaner burn system, and a pressurized, convection cook chamber gives us: Better tasting food, that cooks more uniformly and cooks faster.
