Z GRILLS ZPG 550B2 Wood Pellet Smoker, 8 in 1 BBQ Grill with Latest PID Technology LCD Controller, Auto Temperature Control, Meat Probe, 553 sq in Black

UPDATE 3: Babyback ribs came out fall-off-the-bone tender and juicy. I'm smoking a 3# pork loin roast for pulled pork bbq today. I've just double checked the set temperature vs. actual, using my Polder digital thermometer that's calibrated. As you can see from the photo, I've got the grill set at 225°. The actual is 224°. After I took the photo, it went up to 225° actual. This will change depending on breeze. If I can keep it to within +/- 5°, I'm happy. In my initial review I cover how to regulate the temperature to make it more accurate. The decision to buy the Z Grills ZPG-550B2, was an excellent decision. The PID v 2.1, works very well and the smoker makes excellent food. UPDATE 2: I've made cottage hams. Technically, these aren't ham, because you use boneless pork shoulder. It's a regional thing. After curing by brining for 7 days, I used " SMOKE" level on the smoker. The shoulder was cut into 8 pieces, each ~ 1 pound prior to brining. I smoked them to an internal temp of 145°. I've vacuum packed them and they're in the freezer. We had one and they are so much better than the store bought, found in the Miami Valley region of Ohio. I've made another pizza and calzones, which turned out perfect. I just made Ribeye steaks by slow cooking at 220°. I turned it up to "HI" and it got up to 515°. I reverse seered them. They're fantastic. So you can grill at a pretty high temperature. Update 1: I made a pizza tonight. I've never made one on a grill. I've always had to par-bake the dough to get the crust done on pizza. Tonight, I made the dough, then built the pizza on a BF Bill.F acacia wood pizza peel that I bought here on Amazon. I used a 14 x 14 x 1/4" pizza steel, made by Pimica which I also bought here on Amazon. I put the steel in the smoker and preheated it on "HI" for 30 minutes. I got the pizza onto the hot steel. I cooked it for 20 minutes. It came out perfect. I never turned it around. It was evenly browned on the top and bottom. It's the best pizza I've ever made. I've never used a smoker grill. After spending $80 at a national chain for 2 bbq smoked rib meals for my husband and me (which were delicious, but $80!?), I decided to buy a pellet smoker. This was a decision over a year in the making. I did extensive research and decided that the Z Grills ZPG-550B2 would be the perfect fit for us. I had some doubts after reading about controller problems with some Z Grills. It took some doing, but I realized that the problems seemed to stem from the PID v. 2.0. They seemed to have corrected the problems with PID v. 2.1. I chose this particular unit because it met all of my criteria: 1. 400-500 Sq in. Cooking area 2. Hopper cleanout 3. PID v. 2.1 4. Price I bought the pellet grill for $377 here on Amazon. The newest 450-500 sq in. Z Grills are priced at $450+, so this was the best bang/buck. Kudos to Amazon; the grill arrived 2 days earlier than expected. This is a heavy grill. I'm a 5'8" woman. It only took about an hour to assemble. My neighbor helped me stand it upright. It came with all components and hardware, and to Z Grills credit, all tools necessary to assemble. It also came with an owners manual and a separate sheet with assembly instructions. The manual didn't detail the entire startup procedure, which is really important to complete. I went to Z Grills website and also watched a YouTube video by Z Grills Australia. This is the procedure: 1. After making sure nothing is in the grill or pellet hopper, make sure the dial is on "SHUT DOWN CYCLE". Plug the grill in and press the power button to turn the grill on. Turn the dial to "SMOKE". Make sure the fan turns on and the auger is turning. It turns super slow. 2. Keep the lid open, and everything out of the grill during this whole process. Fill the hopper 1/2 full of pellets. 3. Turn the dial to "HI". The auger will turn, feeding the pellets into the fire box. Wait until you see pellets falling into the fire box. BE PATIENT! It took a good 10+ minutes before they started falling into the fire box. 4. Turn the dial back to "SMOKE". Watch until you get a good solid roaring fire started in the fire box. Again, patience is a virtue, because there needs to be enough pellets in the box to create the roaring fire. 5. Once the roaring fire is going, install (pre-cleaned) the heat baffle, grease tray. and grill racks. At this point, you can either proceed to the burn-in procedure, or shut it down. NOTE: It's important that you leave the grill plugged in and on "shutdown" whenever you're done with the grill. It controls the fire in the fire box until it's safe. Z Grills emphasizes the importance of doing this, and the host on YouTube demonstrated what happens if you don't do this. If you don't, it creates an uncontrolled burn, which can cause a back burn into the hopper, igniting the pellets in the hopper. The shutdown process takes 10 minutes. When done, the grill turns off on its own. Burn-In: 1. I wanted to use the smoker the next day, so I immediately did the burn-in procedure. Turned the dial to "HI". When you see lots of smoke, close the lid. Leave it burning on "HI" for 45 minutes. 2. After 45 minutes, with the lid still closed, turn the dial to "SMOKE". Leave it there for 10 minutes, so the fire can start slowing down. 3. After 10 minutes, turn the dial to "SHUT DOWN CYCLE" and allow the grill to shut down completely before unplugging. My first experience was to slow smoke/cook a whole chicken that I brined overnight. This was a pretty big chicken that weighed 6 1/4 lbs. I lightly coated the grates with a paper towel and cooking oil. I put the grill on 225° and put the bird on. After an hour, I put a Taylor digital thermometer in the grill by the bird, to see how accurate the ambient temperature was. It was off by -25 to -30°. Then, I remembered something about the stack cover. The cover has a fine threaded screw that's 2"+ long. It was a very windy day. I figured I was losing heat through the stack. I screwed the cover down, and watched as the ambient temperature in the grill went up. I adjusted the cover so that the ambient temperature in the grill was within +/- 3-5°. The cover is approximately 3/4" from the top of the stack. Don't make my mistake! My one mistake was not opening the pellet hopper to check it. I looked at the window. I was trying not to open anything that would cause heat loss. I checked the grill just prior to running an errand, 3 hours into the cook, and to my horror, found the temp down to 115°. Immediately, I turned it up, first to 250°, then up to HI. The temp dropped further. Like an idiot (thinking that the controller had failed), I removed the chicken, and took everything out to look at the fire box. There were only remnants of burnt pellets, with none coming out from the turning auger. I opened the hopper (which I should have done first), and I found that the hopper had emptied, except for the pellets around the edges, including the window. I had only filled the hopper about 1/2 to start the chicken. I quickly refilled it, and once the pellets started coming out again, it started right up. I completed the chicken in a total of 6 hours, including my goof. I'm guessing I lost 45-60 minutes. It was by far the best tasting chicken I've ever made, and I make a mean baked chicken. I was afraid it would be dry, because I didn't base or add a water pan. It started dripping juice from the drumsticks. I put the chicken in a large cake pan to catch the juice as I cut it up. I'm a Miami Valley Ohio native living in WV. "Cottage hams" are something that don't exist in WV. I got an authentic recipe and have a big pork shouler cut into 1# pieces brining for 1 week. I'll smoke them in a few days, then vaccum pack and freeze them. The last of the ones I bought while in Cincinnati, are long gone. I plan to make a pizza tomorrow in the grill on my new pizza steel. I'm so glad I didn't compromise on the hopper cleanout. I still had 1/2 hopper full of pellets. We've had horrible storms come through the night after I made the chicken. The morning after making the chicken, I opened the cleanout and got the remaining pellets out before they could get damp from humidity. The smoker is on my large front porch, but wood readily absorbs humidity. I've bought 6 different flavors of pellets, storing them in the house, in wood pellet bags that I bought from Amazon. I will update this long review as I gain more experience.

REVIEW UPDATE 2/28/23: The grill lost the ability to hold the 225 & 450 degree settings. All other temperature settings were spot on. I contacted customer service & explained the issue. They kept in contact with suggestions from their tech people. Sadly, none of the suggestions worked. They then notified me that they were sending me the latest upgrade control board. It works as good or better than it did when new. I keep the grill clean & it is on a covered porch. I can honestly say that it looks as good as new & I feel it will last a good long time. Great grill......GREAT company to deal wiith !!! This has to be the BEST packed item I have ever purchased. Assembly was fairly easy & the instructions were somewhat easy to comprehend & execute. I followed all the initial burn in instructions & proceeded to make a rack of ribs the following day, (today). The temperature, while being somewhat close to the dial setting, would fluctuate almost 40 degrees up & down. Some reviewers have criticized the ability to contact customer service. I have had absolutely NO problems both times I called them. They were extremely helpful & emailed some troubleshooting steps to take to remedy the problem. They said that if these steps do not stabilize the temperature fluctuations that they will send me a new control board or whatever parts I may need to rectify the problem. The grill is VERY substantial. Well built with heavy duty materials. I will try the steps they emailed me to remedy the problem & update this review then. Here is the update. The troubleshooting instructions did not work. They had a problem with the circuit boards & admitted that to me. They also were upfront about the fact that the boards were back ordered. Instead of making me wait for a new shipment of boards, they sent a new hopper assembly. This had the circuit board included. I received it & installed the new unit. Not a big job. It now works fantastically. Holds temp within 10 degrees either way. I now would NOT hesitate to recommend this to my friends & family. I see people saying that customer service is not good. Personally, I must say that they were responsive & quick. They always answered the phone & there was never a run around about why this or that could not be done. They made SURE the problem was solved & to my satisfaction. A solid product & solid customer Service. Mel was fantastic. A credit to her company. I could not ask for more. It's now 5/18/20. The grill is still working great. One thing I discovered, and this made a difference in holding the temperature steadier, was the wire from the heat probe to the controller should hang loose outside the grill box, not bundled up out of sight between the hopper & grill box. I would still highly recommend this grill. The grill developed a problem. The temperature was almost spot on on all settings except high, where the temp should reach 450 degrees. I contacted the company for advise on how to fix the problem. They went over & above, again, to solve the problem. I cannot say enough about Angie & Gloria in the CS department. A great grill & a great company to do business with !!!! If & when this grill reaches the end of it's serviceable life, I will NOT hesitate to purchase another.

I bought this grill as a birthday gift for my husband. Solid grill, great quality and finish-- horrible assembly and startup instructions! My husband assembled entire grill before realizing the instructions were missing the part to hook up the electronics. After disassembling and reassembling, he followed the instructions for initial startup and they were WRONG! Thank goodness for other Z Grill owners who posted on YouTube to get us through the startup process. Unfortunately, the grill kept overheating and shutting itself down. After multiple e-mails with "Bill" at customer service who kept asking us why the grill was not working (isn't that his job?), we were about the ship this grill back when my husband gave it one more try. Remember the missing instructions for connecting the electronics? Surprise that was the issue! Apparently the wiring on this grill is quite sensitive -- we finally got the grill working by leaving the 3 foot of wiring hanging "randomly" to the side of the grill and not tucking it in. Fortunately we don't have any small children were these wires could become an issue. After getting the grill working, it is 5 STARS but only gave it 3 stars because of frustrating assembly and poor startup instructions.