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New recteq Grills of 2023

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Spread the love2023 has been a busy year for grill manufacturers of all types and sizes, and that includes recteq. The pellet grill company whose grills catch eyes with lid handles made to look like bull horns just wrapped up the 2023 edition of recteq Fest over the first full …

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By Jeremy Pike

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New recteq grills of 2023

2023 has been a busy year for grill manufacturers of all types and sizes, and that includes recteq. The pellet grill company whose grills catch eyes with lid handles made to look like bull horns just wrapped up the 2023 edition of recteq Fest over the first full weekend of October. It had been teasing some new launches, and those new launches did not disappoint.

In all, recteq debuted five new grills over the weekend’s festivities. It updated the iconic RT-700 with the Flagship 1100, addressed the common issue of lack of searing power on pellet grills with the DualFire 1200, added two more pellet grills to its lineup with the Backyard Beast 1000 and the Deck Boss 590, and entered the outdoor griddle game with what the company calls “the world’s first and only wood fired griddle” with the SmokeStone 600 griddle.

There have been a couple of points of focus across the new pellet grills, namely Wi-Fi connectivity across all of them along with large pellet hopper capacities and big temperature ranges. There’s a lot of pellet-fired cooking across those five new launches. Let’s fire this up and break it all down.

An Overview Of recteq

In 2009, long-time friends Ron Cundy and Ray Carnes launched recteq. The two had been grilling together for years but Carnes was working on an idea for the best barbecue grill. So in 2009, Carnes reached out to Cundy, and recteq was born. They wanted grills that would last for years so they started with stainless steel construction. Now their pellet grills are well-respected and backed by warranties that are hard to find anywhere else in the industry.


The Recteq Flagship 1100 Pellet Grill Overview

If you’re into cooking a lot of food at once, the Flagship 1100 is for you. It boasts a total of 1109 square inches of cooking space that recteq says can accommodate up to 10 pork butts at the same time. That’s a lot of pulled pork for hosting a party. That much cooking space is going to need a lot of smoke, and the Flagship has a 40lb pellet hopper on the back of the unit so you can smoke those pork butts all night long without worrying about that hopper emptying.

The Flagship has a temperature range of 180°-700°F meaning you can go low and slow for those pork butts or crank the heat up for grilling up to 60 burgers at once. It comes with a Wi-Fi digital PID controller to ensure you’ve got consistent temperature control so you could even throw some brownies in a cast iron skillet on the grill for a hint of wood smoke while baking. Recteq includes two meat probes so you can monitor all your temperatures through the recteq app. No need to flip between apps to check on your grill and on your meat. 

To go with recteq’s philosophy of quality and longevity, the interior components like the firepot and drip pan are stainless steel, just like the exterior and the bull horns. The grill rides along on four swivel casters for easy movement, and two of them are locking to ensure your grill and meat don’t roll away when you aren’t looking. It’s backed by a six-year warranty which speaks to the company’s belief in the product and construction.

What We Like…

  • Huge pellet hopper to match the big cooking space
  • Wi-Fi connectivity coupled with included meat probes is always a plus
  • Six-year warranty sticks out

What Makes Us Angry…

  • Hard to be angry with anything about this pellet grill. You maybe can argue that it could use down-and-out ventilation to improve smoke circulation or an ash cleanout system, but that would be nitpicking in my opinion.


Recteq DualFire 1200 Pellet Grill Overview

One of the biggest complaints people have about pellet grills is the inability to get great sear or grill marks. Multiple companies have attempted to address this issue in different ways including sliding partitions to reveal the firepot for direct flame access, gas burners either as a side attachment, a second cooking chamber, or even in the main cooking chamber.

What recteq did was take the concept of the two cooking chambers split between gas and pellet-fired and said we could replicate that but only using wood pellets. So the DualFire 1200 has two cooking chambers both with their own firepots. The smaller side, which has 302 square inches of cooking space, is configured for direct heat. It has a heat deflector but rather than directly over the firepot like on most pellet grills, it sits on tabs just below the main grill grate. It also has holes around the edges to allow more heat and smoke to pass through. Recteq says it can hold 16 burgers, eight ribeye steaks, or 50 hot dogs.

Both sides of the grill can be controlled independently at the Wi-Fi-enabled PID controller or using the recteq app. The grill comes with four meat probes so you can track the grill temps and internal temperatures from one app. It has a temperature range of 180°-700°F so it should be able to deliver a quality sear on the direct heat side. The indirect side has a total of 935 sq in of cooking space over two racks. Recteq says that the indirect side can accommodate up to five pork butts at once. 

With two firepots that can be independently controlled, that might lead to you asking about the pellet hopper. Does it have one hopper that feeds into both firepots or two separate hoppers, one for each side? It’s one large hopper that feeds into both firepots. It has a pellet capacity of 70 pounds, the most I’ve ever seen on a standard backyard pellet grill. The DualFire 1200 is protected by a six-year warranty.

What We Like…

  • Dedicated searing area that is large enough to handle up to eight steaks
  • Doesn’t sacrifice on the smoking area that is able to accommodate up to five pork butts at once
  • Huge pellet hopper to ensure you can go high heat and low and slow for as long as needed without any concern of running out mid-cook

What Makes Us Angry…

  • Not quite angry, but I want to see the quality of the searing on the direct heat side due to the deflector. Multiple pellet grills have used direct flame access to try to get the best quality searing, and this isn’t quite cooking directly over the open firepot.


Recteq Backyard Beast 1000 Pellet Grill Overview

The Backyard Beast is focused on delivering high-quality food in large quantities without needing to pay a premium, clocking in at just over $1000 for 1014 square inches of cooking space. Everything you expect to find in a recteq pellet grill is here: stainless steel construction, black powder-coated lid, and stainless steel bull horns.

That cooking space is split across two stainless steel cooking grates and can hold 50 burgers, eight racks of ribs, and up to nine pork butts. The Backyard Beast will be big enough for even the biggest summer parties and has a 30lb pellet hopper to ensure you can keep the smoke rolling for as long as needed.

The grill has a temperature range of 180°-700°F controlled by a Wi-Fi-enabled PID controller. You can use the two included meat thermometer probes to monitor internal temperatures right alongside keeping an eye on the grill itself using the recteq app. The Backyard Beast is backed by a six-year warranty.

What We Like…

  • Large pellet hopper capacity
  • Big cooking area
  • Wi-Fi connectivity

What Makes Us Angry…

  • Nothing really. It’s got a good set of features that isn’t exorbitantly priced.


Recteq Deck Boss 590 Pellet Grill Overview

Up until this point, the new releases from recteq all delivered large cooking areas. Not everyone wants that, though. You may only cook for your family or you may not have the space for a large pellet grill. Enter the Deck Boss 590. It delivers a lot of the same features that the Backyard Beast and the Flagship 1100 deliver but in a smaller package with 590 square inches of cooking space.

You have the same Wi-Fi-enabled PID controller and a big temperature range of 180°-700°F. The Deck Boss also has a big 30lb pellet hopper so you aren’t going to run low even if you throw five pork butts on the pellet grill and smoke them low and slow. It is backed by a four-year warranty.

What We Like…

  • Big pellet hopper
  • Wi-Fi connectivity
  • Still able to fit five pork butts on a smaller pellet grill

What Makes Us Angry…

  • Nothing. This is a smaller pellet grill under $1000 that can still smoke low and slow for hours, has a big temperature range, Wi-Fi connectivity, and is backed by a four-year warranty. What’s not to like? This is great for a family.


Recteq SmokeStone 600 Wood-Fired Griddle Overview

Smokestone 600

This might just be the cherry on the top for recteq’s new releases. Griddles have become a big part of the outdoor cooking industry. Blackstone may be the most iconic brand, but other companies like Camp Chef, Weber, Char-Griller, and LoCo Cookers all dove in. Now recteq has taken it in another direction.

Every single outdoor griddle I’ve seen is either gas-powered or electric. Recteq instead leaned into everything they’ve done as a pellet grill manufacturing company and made the griddle powered by wood pellets. It has a 17lb pellet hopper and a temperature range of 275°-625°F controlled by a Wi-Fi-enabled PID controller.

Yes, the SmokeStone is powered by a PID controller for precise temperature control and it connects to your phone via Wi-Fi and the recteq app. 

As for wood smoke flavor, the SmokeStone has air holes around the entirety of the cooking space to allow the smoke from the wood pellets to circulate the cooking chamber. So the pellets create the heat needed to cook your food while also giving you some extra flavoring. 

The SmokeStone has 600 sq in of cooking space on the griddle surface. It even has a warming rack for if food is finishing early or you just want to warm something up without fully cooking it which adds an additional 178 square inches of cooking area. In all, it can cook 30 burgers, 70 strips of bacon, or 24 pancakes.

An outdoor griddle is an amazing piece of equipment that allows you to be able to cook every meal of the day outside, especially when paired with another type of grill. To add precision temperature control and wood flavor to the mix is innovative. The SmokeStone is protected by a six-year warranty.

What We Like…

  • Precision temperature control in a griddle
  • Wood smoke flavor on a griddle
  • Wi-Fi control

What Makes Us Angry…

  • The SmokeStone 600 boasts a pretty hefty price point for an outdoor griddle, but it’s packed with features that you aren’t going to find anywhere else. 

Wrapping It Up

So there you have it! Recteq just dropped five incredible pieces of cooking equipment at recteq Fest 2023. There’s a pellet grill for everyone, whether you need to be able to cook huge amounts of pulled pork or just looking to smoke some food for your family on the weekend. Then you have the innovative approach to addressing the searing issues on the DualFire 1200 and quite possibly the most technologically advanced outdoor griddle yet with the SmokeStone 600.

We look forward to seeing all these grills in action, and hopefully, we can log some hands-on time! Stay tuned for more information and hopefully in-depth reviews in the future.

Which of these new recteq grills are you most interested in checking out? Let us know in the comments!

5 thoughts on “New recteq Grills of 2023”

    • Hi Scotty! The Backyard Beast definitely does look interesting. It’s got a good temperature range and plenty of cooking space. As for the venting vs a traditional smoke stack, I’ve got the Camp Chef Apex that has the same style of ventilation. I like it, and it makes covering the grill a lot easier! I do think it circulates the smoke better. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s worth upgrading if it’s the only feature and you otherwise enjoy your current pellet grill, but it is a positive.

      Reply
  1. Besides making the best grills, the customer service is outstanding, friendly and fair. Does not matter to whoom you talk to. You just cannot go wrong!

    Reply
    • Hi Dale! That’s the biggest difference, but there are a couple of other key differences as well. The Backyard Beast has a 30lb pellet hopper mounted to the side. Recteq opted for a rear pellet hopper on the Flagship that can hold 40 pounds of pellets. So if you’re looking to smoke a lot of meat for a long time, that extra 10 lbs of pellets could come in handy.

      Hope that helps!

      Reply

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