Recteq makes pellet grills, but those can’t do it all when it comes to backyard cooking. So when the company sought to create an alternative for gas grillers, without making an actual gas grill, it needed to do something radically different.
With its newly launched X-Fire Pro, Recteq may have done that. The company says that its Dual Mode Cooking combines the best of wood pellets and gas, offering a temperature range between 225 and 1,250 degrees Fahrenheit. But it wasn’t just about getting to that high level of heat. For Recteq, harmonizing the dual capabilities with an intuitive design was most important.
“Part of our development process was going after the gas grill market, attracting new users to the pellet grill universe,” Recteq’s VP of products Ben Lesshafft said. “We really felt the best way to do that was to meet them on their turf.”
Gas grills are very easy to use. They feel more familiar to most people because they function a lot like a stove and light with the press of a button. Primarily designed for higher-heat cooking, these are the grills you want for burgers, steaks and other cookout essentials when you don’t want to futz with the extra care and clean up of charcoal. Turn it on, cook your food, turn it off. What’s more, gas grills have multiple burners, which allow backyard cooks to adjust and maintain multiple temperature zones as needed.
Recteq
With the X-Fire Pro Recteq needed to create a similar two-burner/fire pot setup. Just one of those wouldn’t be enough to adequately cover the 825 square inches of cooking space on such a large grill. That’s especially true when there’s a direct heat option involved. However, the dual fire pots aren’t what’s necessary for the 1,250-degree performance. For that, the company utilizes the fire pots from its Bullseye Deluxe model that’s also capable of 1,000-degree searing.
Lesshafft walked me through how Recteq achieves this, employing a specially designed, “gasification-style” fire pot that ignites the wood gas that’s produced when the pellets burn. With a double-walled construction for this crucial component, something that works similarly to the airflow channels on a Solo Stove fire pit, the company can ignite that wood gas at temperatures above 500-600 degrees for “an accelerated amount of heat.”
Now that Recteq can reach an extreme amount of heat by fully exploiting the pellets, it needs to allow food to come in direct contact with the flames. “That’s the adjustable damper,” Lesshafft said. “You can go fully closed, partially open, almost all the way open and wide open.” The damper and an Adaptive Sear Control feature are only available on the right-side fire pot though.
On the left, there’s a perforated steel deflector covering the heat source. This allows for the hot and cold sides of the grill, or hot and not-so-hot, both of which are common cooking setups for gas grilling. You’ll need higher heat for searing a steak, but more indirect heat for bringing it fully to temperature. Or maybe you have people over who all like their steaks cooked differently. Either way, gas grills allow you to have varied heat zones and so does the X-Fire Pro’s Grill Mode.
Recteq
Of course, the X-Fire Pro also had to be a pellet grill, and that brings us back to Recteq’s area of expertise. “Nobody with a gas grill brags about pork butt, brisket and ribs,” Lesshafft quipped.
Pellet grills are better at low-and-slow smoking. Sure, you can do baking, roasting and limited searing on most models, but the bread and butter here is smoked meat, seafood and other dishes. Most pellet grills these days offer some form of connectivity — Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or both — so that you can keep tabs on progress without standing outside the entire time. This is typically done with an app that also allows you to to adjust the cooking temperature of the grill, activate certain modes or shut it down from afar.
For Smoke Mode on the X-Fire Pro, only the left fire pot runs. That perforated deflector I mentioned is designed in such a way that the heat is pushed towards the middle of the grill. It’s similar to how an offset smoker (stick burner) works. Even though the active fire pot is on the left side of the cooking chamber, “the temperature balance is remarkably stable,” Lesshafft noted.
To completely synthesize the two types of grills into a single unit, Recteq also had to design controls that would be easy to understand for both gas and pellet grill users. “We wanted to create a lot of things that were familiar to the gas consumer,” he explained. “That’s the knobs on the front, a lot of stainless [steel], and even when you turn it on, that’s the LED rings around the lights.”
There are four knobs in total. The one on the left controls the two grill modes: Smoke and Grill. When you select the latter, all of the LEDs around those knobs light up red. There are two knobs for burner/fire pot control, allowing you to select low, medium, high or maximum. There’s also an Adaptive Sear Control knob which allows you to adjust how much direct flame is coming in contact with your food.
Recteq
When it’s time for Smoke Mode, turn that far left knob and the X-Fire Pro’s controls transform the machine into a traditional pellet grill. The LEDs around the four center knobs change from red to white, and the controller that’s mounted on the side shelf turns on. Here, you’ll adjust settings for those low-and-slow cooks and monitor temperatures. If you’re unfamiliar with pellet grilling, the controller’s display will help with tips like a reminder to keep the lid closed while smoking.
Most people who’ve cooked with a pellet grill are familiar with using a phone app to track temperatures and access remote controls. Recteq offers that in Smoke Mode on the X-Fire Pro, which means no one will be babysitting a pork shoulder or brisket grillside for 8-12 hours. Like much of the competition, this runs on your home Wi-Fi network.
While the grill is designed to run in two completely separate modes, you can switch between them with ease. If you wanted to reverse sear a steak, for example, you could just smoke it first at 225 and then open the lid and change to Grill Mode. The left fire pot is already going, but this would activate the one on the right for the desired exterior finish. Going from Grill Mode to Smoke Mode “requires a little bit more patience,” Lesshafft said, since the metal chamber has gotten hot and it will take a while for the grill to cool down to the appropriate temperature.
“We really tried to design it with the ultimate amount of versatility,” he said.
Recteq
And in the end, that appears to be what Recteq did. The company put two separate grills in one machine, catering to backyard cooks who are familiar with each one individually. And in doing so, it built a unique grill that stands out from most of the competition. The X-Fire Pro isn’t a pellet grill with enough searing performance to make it passable, it’s a high-heat beast. It offers a lot more flavor than gas by burning pellets, and it’s much easier to check your fuel levels here than when you’re dealing with a tank.
“We want to deliver what they need [in a gas grill],” Lessshafft concluded. “Should you want to dip your toe in the water of some food you can’t get on a gas grill, this gives you the vehicle to do that too.”
I’ll be putting an X-Fire Pro to the test soon so see if it’s worth the steep $1,550 investment. Yes, you can find a decent gas grill to pair with a solid pellet grill for less than that. But you’d have two cooking appliances on your deck or patio, and you’d still have to contend with the anxiety of propane tank levels before each grilling session. Recteq’s new model should remedy that, and if the performance claims hold up, it will also put a novel piece of grilling gear in your backyard.
Time will tell if Recteq has truly merged the two styles of cooking.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-of-both-worlds-how-recteq-designed-a-pellet-grill-for-gas-grillers-163047921.html?src=rss
