Z GRILLS ZPG-7002B Newly Upgrade Wood Pellet Grill & Smoker, 8 in 1 BBQ Grill Auto Temperature Controls, inch Cooking Area, 700 sq in Black

Before buying this, I only ever had a simple charcoal or propane grill. This pellet grill is so easy to use and makes food so delicious it feels like cheating. I chose Z Grills because I wasn't impressed with the reviews for Pitt Boss stating how bad their customer service was. The PB was more $, and where is that value if they have bad service? The grill came undamaged and went together easily. It crushed making a 9.5lb pork butt (pictured) in 14 hours. My family went crazy over it. It's also easy to clean and took maybe 15 min tops to clean after the pork butt. The provided cover is thick and seems to be made well. My only suggestion is to use allen screws and bolts, the phillips provided strip very easily despite trying to be careful with them. The provided screw driver is laughable for putting this together.

Excellent buy. I’m a beginner at smoking and was a little apprehensive based on some comments about difficulty in assembly and inaccurate temperature readings. First, assembly: it states about 2.5 hours. It took me 2.5 hours and I was 2 months out of shoulder replacement surgery and still managed with a useless arm and my off hand. Second, Temperature control: I’ve cooked salmon, tritip and a whole chicken. After the smoke cycle you set the temperature and it will jump up higher than the setting so I turn it down until it drops to the setting and turn it back up. In other words it takes it a few minutes to settle in but after that it is remarkable steady. All three cooks turned out great and I highly recommend this unit (and its price point).

I am writing this review as a 2 way split. The first part for the grill itself, and the second for the company ZGrills. The grill seems to work well. I smoked a whole chicken as my first test, and after about 3 hours total, it came out very tasty. I thought the smoke flavor could have been a bit stronger, but I could have fixed that by running it on smoke mode an hour or so before I started the cook. The grill was reasonably easy to assemble, not hard to clean, and the operating instructions were very clear. All in all, I believe this machine will do a great job making my food for a long time. The company, ZGrills, however, was difficult to work with. My grill arrived with a large dent on the left front side of the core piece, and the lid had a flat space that left around a 1.5 inch gap between the bottom of the lid, and the front of the core. Immediately upon seeing this, I attempted to call the customer service number for the company. Nobody answered. It was within their operating hours, but only just barely, and on a Friday, so I chalked it up to everyone starting a slightly early weekend, and left a voicemail. I received a call back on Monday the next week (before their stated operating hours) with a nice lady who gave me instructions to send an email with pictures of what they needed to process the request. "Great!" I thought. We were on our way to getting it resolved. I send the email right away with all the pictures they requested, and listed out the issues I saw. My first response came only minutes after sending the email asking "Is the grill chamber damaged?" I mean, I just sent you the picture that it was, and listed it among the issues in my first email. So I try to call the customer service number again for clarification. Again, nobody answers. I try a couple more times, still no answer. Then I respond to the email stating yes, the core has issues, unless you don't consider that damage, and asked if I could get clarification. I get another email back, hours later this time (and once again outside their stated hours) stating they will send a replacement core and give me a tracking number once they have it. Okay, back in track. Two days later, I still haven't heard anything, so I email again asking if they've processed it yet? Them: Yes, here's your tracking number. Me: Great! And will the lid come with the same package (because I still haven't heard about it at this point) Them 3 hours later: According to the picture, the lid isn't damaged. (1.5 inches away from the face of the core isn't damaged apparently) Me: Sorry if I wasn't clear, but the lid is also damaged as it doesn't sit closed on the face. Here are additional pictures. *I try to call the phone again a few times, still no answer. Silence for 2 days. During this time, the replacement core arrives. I swap the lid over to the new core, still sits the same distance from the face. Me in another email: Please see these new pictures with the lid issue. As you can see, the lid obviously is damaged as well since it still sits 1.5 inches from the face. Them: We will arrange a new lid within 24 hours. *2 more days of silence* Me 11:00 am: Just checking, have you guys sent the lid? Them 8:30 pm: Here is your tracking number. Now, to their credit, I received the parts I needed, and now everything is working, but that entire process took two weeks from first phone call voicemail to last part needed received, with a lot of frustration besides. The last thing I will mention is the "damage" could not have happened during shipping. I can excuse someone not seeing the bend in the door, but I guarantee someone saw that big outward dent on the core, and packaged it up anyway. This is not thin metal, and would take more than a casual touch to cause it to bend so much, and in that place. Maybe I'm wrong. I attached the image below. You be the judge.

I got the 7002B version and am extremely happy with the overall value. Like others, I've eyed a traeger but couldn't figure out why they were so damn expensive. I went through a similar buying process with my Vision kamado grill - I could never justify a big green egg. Important to note, I do still own and will always own my Vision S series kamado, however it will soon be converted to propane. My experiences then with this Z-grill are tempered by my existing stellar Vision grill. For low and slow the Zgrill pellet system CRUSHES a charcoal kamado. Kamado's are great but if you want to do low and slow then the initial setup can be painful, if you over shoot your temp it takes awhile to bring it back down. Take yours eyes off it and over shoot during cooking ... well you get the idea. Zgrill, turn it on, set the temp, walk away. Keep an eye on the timer and you're set. Thus far I've done burgers twice at 450 and they turned out stellar. Beer can style chicken once at 450 and again, stellar result. Pork tenderloin twice, once a longer smoke at 225 and last night a quick run at 450 both turned out perfect. The really killer result though was doing 3-2-1 ribs ... 3 hours at smoke, 2 at 225, 1 hour at 450 which actually turned out to be about 25m for half the ribs (smaller baby backs) and about 40 minutes for the two larger/thicker racks. These were the best ribs i've ever done, i couldn't even cut them into individual ribs as the bones just fell out so the family descended upon these like savage animals. Some things to note: 1) compared to my thermoworks smoke thermometers the internal thermo is never quite in agreement but its close enough. I do use my thermoworks religiously for both meat and internal air temp monitoring. however after these 5 runs i know what to expect at various temps from the internal thermo so if i'm doing more than one piece of meat that needs monitoring, i have no issues relying on just the internal. again, it aint perfect, but its close enough. 2) I have modified the Zgrill. First, I added 6 firebricks to the bottom. After my first use (burgers at 450) i noticed some issues getting to and holding high temps along with the usual left to right temp discrepancy that pellet grills often have. The firebricks solved those. Second, added a seal for the door. Third, wrapped a bungie chord around the right front wheel and use this to hold the door tightly closed. cost for these 3 was like $40 and well worth it as IMO it is a much more stable grill now. Brisket is scheduled for the big game and i'm excited to do a real long low n slow cook. Over all, including the cost of the mods I did, it is really hard to beat the cost/performance of this Zgrill. Would highly recommend to anyone.

It took me about 2 hours to assemble the grill alone In a cramped space. I did the 45 minute burn out on high and the controller held the temperature good. It got as hot as 465 degrees at first then brought everything in and had about a 10 to 15 degree swing from 440 to 455 degrees and held in that area most of the time. I did everything exactly by the manual. A few days later I did my first cook, baby back ribs and beef ribs using pecan pellets. I smoked the ribs for 3 hours then rapped them in foil for three hours. I had a 20 degree swing a couple of times in the beginning. Then it settled out to a 10 degree swing most of the time with a little more at times and a little less at times. As far as the temperature swing, conventional ovens generally have a 30 degree swing in temps as the burner cycles off and on, some less some more. Now that's 30 degrees to high then 30 degrees to low from the set point. So this grill held the temperature very well. I smoked the ribs on the 225 degree setting and the temperature was in the high 40's to low 50's outside in the 6 hour smoke time. The ribs were very good and would pull away from the bone with little effort. They had a good smoke ring about 1/2 of the way through the rib meat. This is my first pellet grill and I have always used a conventional wood/charcoal smoker. You don't get the smoke on the pellet grill like on a conventional smoker. But the ribs did have a good smoke taste and I have been known to get to much smoke on my meat. So I am pleased with the 450A 2020 upgraded Z Grill. I'll cook a 5 pound prime rib roast on Christmas day, I think it will come out very good. My wife got me a great gift for Christmas. Update: Jan 30th: I have cooked a prime rib roast, baby back ribs and a brisket on the grill. All were in cold weather putting the meat on the grill at 30 degree F temps. All came out good and tasted good. Set the desired temp and let it go, very easy compared to a standard wood smoker. It does leave a smoke ring and the taste is very good. But it is not as good as cooking the old fashion way, but very good and convenient, simple. It's good enough and will probably get better as I learn to cook with it.

The hopper is beyond pointless. It either jams due to the pellet weight in the hopper or it empties and turns off because you are forced to underfill it. Meat gets ruined constantly due to the heat turning off and I have spent more money on wasted meat than I did purchasing the unit. Below is the letter to the manufacturer after their very pitiful response. Please do not waste your money. First off, let me be clear, the temperature does not get too high, EVER. IT SHUTS OFF ENTIRELY when the pellets stop feeding either from becoming jammed or lack of pellets due to forced underfilling as your hopper design is UTTER CRAP. Let us just be clear on that in the first place. Second, I will NOT stand in front of the hopper AND STIR WITH A STICK. The entire purpose of my purchase of this grill was to be able to set the temp, fill the hopper, and WALK AWAY and check once every few hours. So NO thank you to that bit of advice. Finally, I will not make any attempt to procure, at my own expense, a weighted pan to fit the dimensions of your hopper. If your design does not work without a weight (and let me be frank, I don't think it will work at all) then you should have included that in the design to begin with. It is laughable that you even took the time to send that picture and expect me to reference as a design flaw fix. What kind of customer service representative are you? To be honest, I am surprised you didn't send me a picture of the stick with which you ever so kindly instructed me to use.... I expect you to replace this grill with one that WORKS PROPERLY when I turn on the device and with MINIMAL, I repeat MINIMAL interference from all humans in general. Barring a replacement, I expect a refund for which I will gladly send you this piece garbage which is cluttering my patio as it is not fit for use. Attached you will find the orginal receipt, which by the way, includes shipping address, name, etc. and you will find the serial number of this "grill" although the term is being used very loosely as at this point its only a sculpture on my back patio. I expect word from you shortly on your plans for replacement of the unit or refund of the unit. Their initial response below as well as the picture of the weight they want me to use: Hi, Don't worry. This is just an uncommon condition and may only happen when the temp reaches high. We can ship you a new updated hopper cover which can better improve this issue. While waiting, here are some suggestions if you meet this issue. You could have a try to remove the upper safety net in the hopper(it's ok to do that) and use a stick to stir up the pellets. Meanwhile, you can place something heavy in it to help. (see attached pic for reference) Sorry for the inconvenience to you.

It's fantastic! I've had "old school" smokers in the past. Took a shot on this one and I have to say I'm super impressed with the quality. I was going to go bigger, but this size is plenty big especially if you also have a regular grill. Been well over a year and hasn't let me down. I highly recommend getting the insulating cover with it. It really cuts down on the amount of pellets you go through. I also ordered a 10 x 24" stainless steel shelf and riveted right on top of the existing front shelf. Now it can hold a half sheet pan much easier. The shelf it came with was a bit shallow for my liking.

I’m impressed so far. I just put this smoker together and I am surprised at how well it’s built. It came with gloves and tools to put it together.. nice touch. It was packaged well and arrived on time. The thickness of the steel is as good as any well made smoker. It is sturdy and has a nice coating to protect it. It also includes a cover that is also thick and an impressive construction. I got this smoker because my son-in-law has a more expensive smoker and makes great food, but has less features, such as trays and a cover. This model has more features and is considerably cheaper. I have not cooked on it yet but I’m excited to start smoking meat. The directions were ok? I’m handy so I figured it out but they could be better. Overall I’m very pleased. Let’s see how it smokes meat! I’ll advise. I’m not usually one to write reviews but so far I’m pretty impressed by this smoker.