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When it comes to making barbeque, nothing beats a wood-burning grill when it comes to delivering the best flavor. But with so many impressive options out there, selecting the best one for your delectable masterpieces can be tricky.
Traeger is one of the best brands on the market for wood-pellet grills that are easy to use, efficient, durable, and perfect for grilling various types of foods. To help you select the best Traeger model for your needs, we did the research to answer the “Traeger Renegade Elite vs. Pro Series 22 question” for you.
The Traeger Pro Series 22 and Traeger Renegade Elite both offer unique features to satisfy the needs of both pro and newbie grillers. Before we delve into what sets each model apart, let’s take a look at everything you need to know about picking the right wood-pellet grill for your specific needs.
How to Pick the Best Traeger Grill
The best Traeger grill for your home or outdoor use should have features that guarantee safety and convenience. At the very least, it should address the following features:
Grilling Area
The grilling area is where you’ll place your meat or other food to cook. The bigger it is, the more food you can grill at a time. If you have to manage a too-small cooking area, you have to grill in batches and risk some of the food getting cold before everyone’s food is ready.
Of course, the larger the grilling area, the more expensive the grill often is – and the more cleanup work you’ll have after each use.
That said, the convenience of having a grill area that’s large enough to cook for everyone at one time is usually worth the price.
Durability
The typical Traeger grill is built to last, so this isn’t an issue. Most Traeger grills comprise highly durable metal and other high-quality materials to ensure you can enjoy using your grill for years to come.
Proof of a grill’s durability usually becomes evident in the warranty that comes with it. Most Traeger grills come with a three-year warranty, which demonstrates the brand’s confidence in its product.
Ease of Use
The easier it is to use a grill, the more you can enjoy it. Most people prefer electric and gas grills because of their simplicity, but choosing these options sacrifices the flavor that you get with a wood-burning grill.
If you pick the right Traeger grill, you can enjoy the flavors of a wood grill with the convenience of a gas grill. For starters, choose a grill model with an easy-to-load hopper. The hopper is where you add your wood pellets, and it should be big enough to hold enough wood pellets to prevent frequent refills.
The grill also should have a user-friendly ignition to fire up your grill with ease. Other convenience features to look out for include a digital thermostat for regulating temperature and meat probes for monitoring your meat’s internal temperature.
Size and Weight
The bigger a grill, the heavier it typically is. You want a grill that’s big enough to handle your cooking but not so big that it becomes an inconvenience.
If you intend to move your grill around a lot, a smaller and lighter version is ideal. But, if you have a dedicated space for your grill and don’t move it often, you can go as big as you want!
High-quality grills like the Pro Series 22 are quite large yet lighter than similar grills of its size.
Portability
Size and weight aren’t the only factors that determine the portability of a grill. A portable grill also will have handles and tires that let you wheel it around with ease.
Budget
When it comes to grills, if you buy cheap, you get cheap, and cheap rarely lasts or performs satisfactorily. Rather than go for the cheapest grill you can find, opt for one that offers all of the features you need without exceeding your budget.
Traeger Renegade Elite vs. Pro Series 22
PROS
- Versatile grill that’s also useful for smoking, baking, roasting, braising, and more
- Attached 18-pound hopper
- Electronic auto-start ignition
- Comes with a warranty
- Automatic auger
- Dual temperature probe for checking grilling progress
- Lighter than the Traeger Pro Series 22
- Grease drain system
- All-terrain wheels for easy portability
- Easy to read LED for grill temperature
CONS
- Works best with Traeger’s hardwood pellets
- Grilling area is not suitable for preparing large-family meals
If you love eating and making BBQ, you’ll love the Traeger Renegade Elite. Unlike charcoal or gas grills, this wood-pellet grill lets you unlock the full flavor of your grilled meats and other foods through clean wood burning. It’s an excellent choice for creating juicy barbecues.
Do you intend to do more than grilling?
If so, the Renegade Elite maintains heat well, so it’s suitable for smoking, baking, roasting, braising, and creating various other types of delicacies with the perfect wood-fired taste.
You’ll have perfect control over your food preparation with the grill’s integrated digital Elite controller.
Want to go hot and fast, or low and slow?
The grill’s user-friendly controller lets you manage how hot the grill gets and control your results.
The Renegade also ensures the consistency of your grilling by keeping temperatures within your selected settings. You can set it to your desired temperature, put on the meat, then go do your chores and come back later to check on it.
This model allows you to raise the temperature to as high as 450 degrees Fahrenheit and monitors the heat via the easy-to-read display.
What about durability?
The body of the Renegade Elite comprises highly durable materials that can withstand the elements regardless of the weather, so you can use it outdoors year-round.
Its sturdy sawhorse chassis also keeps it firmly planted when the grill is stationary.
Other convenient features of the Renegade Elite are its all-terrain wheels and its attached 18-pound hopper.
Its two wheels let you move it around with ease, and when the grill is stationary, you don’t have to worry about it moving around, thanks to two steel legs that you must lift to move the grill.
The 18-pound hopper holds the wood pellets, which the grill releases automatically, through the auger and into the firepit. The design ensures refilling the hopper is easy, and frequent hopper refills are not necessary.
The Renegade Elite features an electronic auto-start ignition that eliminates the need for a match or lighter. This feature is super-handy, especially on windy days. Simply flip a switch, and your grill will come to life – of course, as long as it’s plugged in!
Using the grill and eating the food that comes out of it aren’t the only fun parts about the Renegade Elite. Cleanup and maintenance are also a breeze thanks to its easy to clean porcelain grill grates. The grills are non-stick, which means less time cleaning and worries about stubborn food residue.
For a little more than $500, you can get this versatile grill for your outdoor and home use. Its 380-square inch grilling area is suitable for feeding a small- to medium-sized family without hassle.
Professional grillers enjoy the attached Tool Caddy Rack for keeping utensils and spices close by and the Wire Front Prep Rack for prepping produce, loading the grill, and testing foods before unloading them.
PROS
- Side lift bar and all-terrain wheels for easy mobility
- Electronic auto-start ignition
- Easy to clean and maintain
- Three-year warranty
- Powerful, durable steel construction with a sawhorse chassis
- Consistent, even temperature dispersal throughout the grill
- Dual meat temperature probes
- Easy to read LED for monitoring the grill’s temperature
- Automatic auger
- Versatility to grill, roast, braise, smoke, bake, and BBQ
- Larger grilling area for more food
- Grease drain system
- Digital Pro controller for greater control, convenience, and precise cooking
CONS
- Heavier than similar grills
- No tool caddy rack
- Lack of satisfactory internal insulation under the grates
The Pro Series 22 is much like the Renegade Elite but includes extra features that make its higher price tag (more than $600) a worthwhile investment. The biggest of these features is the Pro Series 22’s larger grilling area.
Unlike the Renegade Elite’s limited 380-square-inch grilling area, the Pro Series 22 comes with a 572-square-inch area. It’s big enough to make 16 burgers or four chickens or 24 hot dogs or five rib racks at once.
If that’s not enough, the grill comes with an extra rack that you can use to make an additional 12 hotdogs or eight burgers.
That’s impressive for a grill that has overall smaller dimensions than the Renegade Elite, though it is slightly heavier.
Like the Renegade Elite, this grill burns wood-pellets to generate the heat for juicy barbecues with the perfect wood-fired taste. It’s also just as versatile as the competition, so you can use it hot and fast, or low and slow, to smoke, grill, bake, braise, roast, or BBQ to your heart’s desire.
You have full control over the grill’s temperature, thanks to its Digital Pro controller and LED temperature screen. All of these features let you control and monitor the temperature of the grill without opening it.
The grill is built tough, with a steel body that can withstand outdoor use and is good-looking enough for home use. And if you need to move it around, its two all-terrain wheels will let you wheel it anywhere you want it to be.
Once in place, the grill has two steel legs attached to its sawhorse chassis to keep it stationary and stable, regardless of the type of work you’re doing on the grill.
Maintenance also is easy, thanks to the nonstick porcelain grills and pellet hopper clean-out. Unlike hard-to-clean grills that contaminate new cooking with the smell and taste of your previous meal, the Pro Series 22 ensures that you can always have a fresh grill.
The hopper can hold 18 pounds of pellets, and you can easily refill or switch out its contents to suit your preferences.
All in all, this grill is perfect for pro grillers or first-timers with large families. It’s also ideal if you frequently have large barbecue gatherings with guests so you can churn out more food faster with consistent quality.
Traeger Renegade Elite vs. Pro Series 22: Which Should You Choose?
Here are the features of the Traeger Renegade Elite and Pro Series 22 stacked against one another:
Traeger Renegade Elite
- 380-square-inch grilling area
- Tool caddy rack
- Digital Elite controller with lighted display
- Wire front prep rack
- Auto-start system
- Dual meat probes
- Hopper clean-out door
- Grease drain system
Pro Series 22
- 572-square-inch grilling area
- Comes with a main rack and extra rack
- Digital Pro controller with lighted display
- Dual meat probes
- Auto-start system
- Grease drain system
- Hopper clean-out door
Delicious Flavor
Both Traeger grills use wood pellets, which is very much like using wood to barbecue, but more convenient. Using wood heightens the flavor of food. For your convenience and to ensure you get the exact flavor you want, you can buy Traeger’s unique blend of wood pellets, available in flavors including hickory, applewood, cherry, mesquite, and more. The digital smart-grill technology on both grills also ensures virtually removes the risk of undercooking or overcooking your food.Usefulness
The Renegade Elite and Pro Series 22 are versatile enough for accomplishing a full range of recipes. You can use it to grill, braise, roast, barbecue, bake, smoke, and more. You can easily complete all of these types of cooking with the grill’s “set-and-forget-it” feature that gives you full control over temperature levels. The wheels on both grills also make them ideal for cooking at home or for other outdoor cooking. You can move it with ease. And because the entire grill is one unit, you don’t have to worry about taking it apart and setting it up again when you reach the destination where you will use it.Minimal Mess
Charcoal grills can be super-messy. Propane grills are a little better but still messy. Traeger’s use of pellet grills minimizes messes. The porcelain grill, Hopper clean-out door, and grease drain features on the Renegade Elite and Pro Series 22 also ensure that clean up after each use of the grill is quick and easy.User-friendly
The auto-start system on both grills reduces the danger and stress of starting your grill with a match. The attached hopper and auger units also make starting and using the grills much easier. With the digital controllers and lighted displays, having full control over your grilling is far easier than most other grills offer.Value for Your Money
The Traeger Renegade Elite and Pro Series 22 aren’t the cheapest grills on the market, but they both offer great value for money, especially if you are thinking long-term. For instance, both models are highly durable, so you won’t have to worry about replacing them or parts anytime soon. The three-year warranties ensure that purchasing either grill is risk-free. Also, wood pellets for grilling are more affordable than gas and electricity, meaning you’ll be spending less but making more barbecue.So, Which Grill is Best?
Both grills have a lot to offer, so what will determine the right one for you are your unique needs and priorities. For example, is the budget your priority? If budget is your priority, then the Renegade Elite is your best choice, as it offers many of the same features as the Pro Series 22 at a far lower price.Do you want the largest possible cooking area?
If you want a grill with enough cooking space to prepare food for you and the occasional guest, the Renegade Elite is a good choice. On the other hand, if you do a lot of barbecuing for your family of eight or more, or you have lots of barbecue parties with plenty of guests, the Pro Series 22 is the obvious winner. With its main rack and extra rack, you can shell out 24 burgers at once. That’s efficient cooking! The Pro Series 22 also is the right choice if you need a grill for commercial cooking for multiple patrons at a time.
Final Verdict: Which is Better?
Both grills are fantastic, and what makes one or the other a better choice will depend on who’s going to be using it and how.
If you are on a budget and don’t plan on grilling for more than five to eight people, the Renegade Elite is more than enough to satisfy your needs, whether you intend to cook at home or outdoors.
But if you can afford it, and you make lots of barbecue for lots of people regularly, the Pro Series 22 is the better choice, hands-down.
Make the choice that’s right for YOU and get yours today!
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