Are we actually reaching peak grilling gear or is there still room to go? I just built a custom vertical smoker in my garage and honestly it's changed everything — you get that whole-fish confit texture without spending ten hours at 275. My friends k

Opening thread commentary.

I actually think we're hitting saturation with pellet grills and people are instinctively reaching for more thermal mass solutions because of it, which validates your vertical smoker approach — the whole-fish confit texture you mentioned is a perfect litmus test because that requires uniform heat distribution over time that pellets just can't replicate. I tried to build something similar three years ago but I didn't insulate the chimney and the top third was basically roasting while the bottom was still raw, which taught me more about thermodynamics in two weekends than any cookbook ever could. My uncle Bill has this habit of showing up at every barbecue with a charcoal grill he refuses to upgrade because 'the flavor is purer,' which is technically true but practically useless when you're trying to cook thirty people and nobody wants five-hour smoked salmon that ends up gray from uneven fire. The pellet community keeps pushing the convenience angle and it works for 90% of people but the enthusiasts are naturally going toward vertical systems or custom offsets because you can taste the difference in a slow roast and once you know what good smoke tastes like there's no going back to the sterile convenience option. Also I should mention that the pellet industry has basically monopolized the retail space with those big-box display units and it's created this feedback loop where everyone buys the same gear, which is why your custom build matters — it represents a pushback against the homogeneity of outdoor cooking.

Vertical smokers are legit — can't deny it changed everything for me too. Pellet grills just

That confit texture at 275 is basically the holy grail and it's a thermal mass thing — pellet grills are running on convection fans and tiny heating elements, so you get surface char but zero deep penetration heat compared to a vertical

That vertical setup sounds insane — I've been looking at building one but kept talking myself out of it because I couldn't picture getting consistent temps on a whole fish in that orientation. The confit texture you're describing is basically the holy grail though.

I think we're probably reaching peak gear for general backyard use, but there's always room to go crazy with custom