The 6 Best Traeger Grills of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

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Traeger has features for every griller, from portability to Wi-Fi connectivity.

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Food & Wine / Will Dickey

Traeger sold its first grill in 1988, incorporating wood pellets as fuel for a more reliable heat than gas or charcoal. By regulating the temperature through the volume of pellets fed into the ignitor, you can have a hot-cooking grill or a slow-cooking smoker in one design: suited for meats or vegetables with the press of a few buttons. From its humble beginnings in Oregon, the inventor of the pellet grill has become one of the top names in outdoor cooking.

Traeger models range in price, size, and features offered. Yet, the many options can be confusing for a consumer to navigate. We put each of the four series — six models total — through rigorous testing, considering factors like assembly, heat control, capacity, features, and overall performance. Here's how to choose the best Traeger grill for your backyard and what you should know before purchasing.

Even heating, quick recovery, and almost an excess of features make this grill worth the price.

It’s expensive, and the hopper lid gets very hot during cooking, making refilling it a chore.

Simply calling the Timberline feature-rich would be a disservice, which is why it tops the list as the best Traeger grill we tested. This grill gives you ridiculously easy control, thanks to an included induction side burner, WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, and a digital control panel. The Timberline scored 5/5 in every category we tested: excellent heat control, smoky flavor, and searing, along with easy setup and cleanup.

We loved the distinct (but not overwhelming) smokiness it gave pizza, chicken, flank steaks, and pork shoulder. The only negative that appeared in our testing was that the hopper lid became very hot and required an oven mitt to open it for refilling. Although it is the most expensive out of all the Traeger series, its user-friendliness and top-of-the-line features make this grill more than worth its price tag.

Dimensions: 25 x 59 x 51 inches | Cooking Area: 880 square inches | Weight: 238 pounds | Max Temperature: 500°F | Hopper Capacity: 24 pounds

This grill has a large capacity and is excellent for searing and short smoking projects.

It’s subject to significant temperature dips when opening and doesn’t deliver a lot of smoke flavor during long smoking tests.

We selected the 780 as the best Pro series model because it outperformed the 34 in terms of both features and performance, and it achieved the highest marks for a grill at its attainable price point. It has a high capacity compared to other models and performed admirably in searing and short-smoking tests, providing a balanced, smoky flavor to chicken wings. We also appreciated how consistent the results were.

The 780 has all of the features a griller might look for and then some, including Wi-Fi (called WiFIRE) and a digital control panel. Setup is easy and intuitive, and the components are easily broken down for cleaning, though the heat shield can be stubborn. All in all, the grill heats quickly with no hot spots, despite a notable temperature dip after opening the grill. But the recovery time is markedly short unless you’re working at the highest temperatures.

Dimensions: 27 x 49 x 55 inches | Cooking Area: 780 square inches | Weight: 150 pounds | Max Temperature: 500°F | Hopper Capacity: 18 Pounds

The 34 is consistent in its performance, and it would make a great entry-level model for beginners.

It lacks many of the features included in later models, and it struggles to perform at higher temps.

We found the Series 34 to be average: not the worst performer in our pellet grill tests, but not up to par with the Timberline or even the Pro 780, either. It goes to work, pays the bills, has poker night once a week, has a beer in the backyard on weekends, and doesn’t make waves.

Part of the Gen 1 series, it lacks many of the features included in later models, like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity, and the control panel is not as detailed as its newer siblings. It performs well at lower temperatures, but it struggles to reach and maintain higher temps. In our short-smoke tests, it produced a large amount of smoke but yielded only a moderate smoky flavor. The grill also showed some cool spots at higher temperatures, especially near the door.

If you’re a fan of big, smoky flavor, this may not be the grill for you — especially considering that the 780 offers more features and better performance at only a slightly higher price point. However, this grill would be a great entry-level model for a beginner who is switching from a charcoal or propane grill to a pellet grill for the first time. Overall, if you’re looking for a safe, dependable, middle-of-the-road model, this grill will serve you well.

Many digital features and good heat retention work in this grill’s favor.

Despite the extra features, it didn’t generate a lot of smoke flavor, and the multi-grate design makes them difficult to scrape.

The Ironwood sits in the middle between the Pro 780 and the Timberline in terms of features, bringing more to the table than the 780 but not reaching the price point of the Timberline. So, in terms of features to dollars, it’s a good mid-range option. The Ironwood includes a Downdraft Exhaust system, venting the older, cooled smoke from the bottom, and a Super Smoke mode, which purportedly delivers more smoke without increasing the cooking temperature.

Despite these features, the Ironwood didn’t provide as much smoke as expected in our baking and smoking tests. We found that it heats and recovers quickly, however, with reasonably good heat retention. It smoked meat and baked pizza well in our tests, but it stumbled on our steak-searing test, giving faint grill marks and a mild smoke flavor.

Dimensions: 27 x 54 x 47 inches | Cooking Area: 885 square inches | Weight: 175 pounds | Max Temperature: 500°F | Hopper Capacity: 20 pounds

It’s an easily portable grill that heats quickly and performs as well as its Traeger peers.

It doesn’t produce as much smoke as we’d like, and a maximum temperature of 450°F doesn't provide a good sear.

Despite a few size-related drawbacks, the Tailgater performed as well as, or better than, many of the larger models tested. It exceeded our expectations in the smoking and searing tests, but it struggled a bit with baking, mainly due to our pizza pushing the limits of the cooking area.

It heats and recovers quickly, retains that heat, and provides good smoke flavor in all aspects but one. The long-smoking test didn't produce a very smoky flavor, but it did yield an excellent bark on the pork butt. It’s a very good portable grill with the same control panel interface as larger models, but that portability means it lacks Wi-Fi connectivity. It leaks a bit of smoke and would sear better with a higher upper-temperature limit than 450°F.

Dimensions: 18 x 37 x 36 inches | Cooking Area: 300 square inches | Weight: 62 pounds | Max Temperature: 450°F | Hopper Capacity: 8 pounds

This portable model requires little space to store and transport it, and it's a good value for its size.

Its performance fell slightly short of the other models in our tests.

Another Trager Grill in the portable class is the Ranger. While the Tailgater is a collapsible, mobile model, the Ranger is designed for tabletop use and has a slight advantage in the amount of space necessary to store and transport it. At a slightly lower price point than the Tailgater 20, it's a good value for the size, but its results in our tests fell short of other models.

The Ranger is quick to heat, reaching maximum temperature more quickly than most of the other models we tested, and it held temperature within 5°F of the setting on the control panel for most of the tests. However, because of the location of the drip pan, which reflected a large amount of heat to the grill, it did not fare well as a baking device. But it did well in our short-smoke test with chicken wings, and it produced a moderate sear during our searing tests. If you often grill on the go and value portability above all else, then this might be the best option for you.

The Timberline gets our vote for the best Traeger grill due to its even heating, quick recovery, and abundance of features, including WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. If you're looking for something a bit more affordable, the Traeger Pro 780 provides value, consistency, and a wide range of added functionality that make it stand out from the competition.

To determine which Traeger grill is the best, we tested each of the brand's series to determine its merits and drawbacks. We put all the grills through a series of tasks that any consumer would perform and rated them on a scale of 1 to 5, starting with setup. Traeger claims a temperature accuracy of +/- 15°F in its controls, so the next step was to test that accuracy at the highest temperature. While at temperature, we tested how well the grills seared steaks. Working our way down the temperature scale, the subsequent tests evaluated how well the grills baked a frozen pizza at 425°F and chicken wings at 225°F, as we looked for consistency, grill marks, and smoke flavor.

The top performers moved on to another series of tests where we gauged how well the grills smoked a pork butt, evaluating the total cook time, any temperature fluctuations over the process, the bark development on the meat, and how much smoke flavor the meat retained. The final test — a task every consumer would face — was the ease of cleanup. We then averaged the scores across each category and used that average to rate our top picks and select which ones are worth the investment.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

As we tested each Traeger series, we came across a few common themes that are important to look out for when deciding which Traeger grill is right for you. Whether you're an avid griller who is switching to pellets for the first time or a long-time pellet devotee who's looking to upgrade your grill, here are a few factors to consider when selecting the best model for your backyard.

From the most basic, bare-bones models to the highest-end grills, these are the product lines in a nutshell.

When it comes to the size of a grill, the first factor to consider is how much outdoor space you have available to operate it safely. Next is the available cooking area of the grill. It’s a good idea to purchase a grill with a cooking space that’s a little larger than what you’ll regularly need, just in case you want to cook something a bit bigger or for entertaining a larger group than normal.

Also, consider the relative size of the hopper to the cooking area and the maximum temperature of the grill. If you like a hands-off approach to cooking, you’ll want to ensure that the hopper is large enough that you won’t have to refill it. Another consideration is how the hopper is accessed. If you must open the grill to refill the hopper, you’ll lose temperature, which could result in uneven cooking. So, you’ll want to ensure that the hopper is large enough to minimize that scenario.

Food & Wine / Will Dickey

The higher-end Traegers have fantastic features, but do you need them all? Wi-Fi or Bluetooth app connectivity make cooking a far less hands-on activity, but is that functionality something you’ll use regularly? If the answer is no, consider a model with similar size and heat capacities at a lower price point to attain the same goal. Also worth considering is the idea that more features mean more opportunities for a component to fail. While warranties are great, replacement parts aren’t instantaneously available, and the lack of a functioning feature could ruin your grilling plans.

There’s only a 500°F difference in maximum temperatures between the newer, higher-end models and the older or portable models. If you want a good sear with your grill, you’ll want a model with a 500°F upper limit, as 450°F just isn’t hot enough to achieve a proper sear. While a high upper-end temperature is good, you’ll also want to consider how well the grill retains heat and how quickly it recovers temperature after opening it. Another worthwhile consideration is how quickly the grill attains the desired temperature. More prolonged heating and recovery times mean higher fuel consumption.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

That answer lies in your expectations of the grill. After analyzing the test results, I think I’d use one for smoking, baking, or general grilling where a Maillard crust can build slowly. Traegers aren’t great for high-heat searing. However, the higher-end models' general hands-off capabilities and app connectivity appeal in many ways. They’re versatile – to a point – and make set-it-and-forget-it cooking extremely easy.

Traeger manufactured its grills in Oregon until 2010, when manufacturing moved to China to remain competitive in pricing.

The basic process is to spray the grates and the inside of the chimney with a mild degreaser or soap and let them soak while you clean the rest of the grill. Empty the grease tray and the hopper, remove any sawdust, and reassemble the parts. Then just wipe the grates, chimney, and exterior with a cloth or paper towel. A full description of the process can be found on Traeger’s website.

The life expectancy of a Traeger grill is between five to 10 years if you're cleaning and caring for it as recommended. That said, Traeger offers warranties for its grills. All grills made before October 2021 have a three-year warranty. Otherwise, flat-top grills have a five-year limited warranty. Grills from the Timberline and Ironwood series have a 10-year limited warranty. D2 WiFIRE Grills have a seven-year warranty. Non-connected grills (ones without WiFi) have a seven-year warranty.

Traeger pellets are sold online at Amazon and on the Traeger website as well as in stores like the Home Depot and Ace Hardware.

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Food Republic, and other publications.