The hottest temperature for a pellet grill I get asked a lot and what is their maximum temperatures for different brands, it’s, often related to grilling and barbequing steaks or cooking pizza for instance.
I review and write for some pellet grill distributors, having tested many, I’ll give you my experiences since you’re probably looking at getting one of the smokers.
I also discovered quite a bit more about the functionality behind searing effectively on a pellet grill smoker. Remember always, it’s primarily a smoker.
Any pellet grill I have seen you can cook a steak on. But!
Some folks get really into the sear marks and the higher temperature is definitely needed for this. Well, actually it’s also about heat retention – I’ll go into a hack about this as a ninja tip as well.
I will add some steak-grilling pictures on standard grills below vs the hack I use.
Pellet Grill Smoker Maximum Temperatures & Ranges
| Memphis Pellet Grill Smokers | 180-650°F |
| Weber Pellet Grill Smokers | 200-600°F |
| Louisana Pellet Grill Smokers | 170-600°F |
| Green Mountain Grill Smokers | 150-550°F |
| Traeger Pellet Grill Smokers | 150-500°F |
| REC TEC Pellet Grill Smokers | 180-500°F |
| Camp Chef Pellet Grills Smokers | 160-500°F |
| Pit Boss Pellet Grill Smokers | 180-500°F |
| Z Grill Pellet Grill Smokers | 180-450°F |
Pellet Grill smoker models with cast iron grills as standard will always perform better at hot temperatures.
Since reverse searing has become popular, high temperatures get sear marks on the outside, however standard pellet grill, any of the above aren’t designed for this.
I am personally not a fan of the pellet smokers, which have a sliding protector to open up the burn pot directly to the grill. If you google the first Weber SmokeFire Gen I, you will see that it was causing many a patio fire. Gen II has improved this, but I am not a fan of this model at all.
From all the research I have done, all these pellet grills can sear to some degree when a pellet grill can get to 450°F.
Ways To Get The Hottest Temperature From a Pellet Grill Smoker
What Helps Achieve Maximum Temperature:
- Clean Burning Fire Pot
- Heating Up – Give it Time
- Cast Iron Griddle or Frying Pan
- Pizza Stones for Heat Retention
Clean Burning Fire Pot
Neglecting to clean after each cooking session can lead to inefficiencies in the pellet-burning since ash will cover the fan making it less efficient. Since airflow is used to control the burning and temperature. If you create a blockage, you will end up stopping the system from working properly, which can cause other issues as well.
Heating Up – Give it Time
Being patient I have found is the first point, you can help a lot by giving the grill time to heat up. I find you need about 15 minutes at least and then add another 5 minutes to be sure.
Get your grills or pan in there early to get the heat locked in.
Also, remember that the temperature range is based on ‘under the hood’ temperature. With +350°F needed to caramelize, it’s at the grill grate level, where you want the action happening and that heat to be reached. If we are talking searing steaks!
Pizza Stones for Heat Retention
Pizza dough varies a lot, I have been lucky enough to travel to Naples, Italy – the epicenter of Napoletana pizza they say.
It was amazing.
What I did learn from that style of pizza, is that less is more in terms of toppings.
Secondly, you need a filthy hot oven (woodfired ideally) that can crank to 300-350°C/570-660°F. Now that is some serious heat, but I want to mention this is only one kind of pizza style. Pan crust style doesn’t need this crazy hot temperature.
You can go super-thin crust and smashing out awesome pizzas at lower temperatures as well.
Pizza Stones can retain a lot of heat, that is why you use them to help crisp up the base of the pizza dough.
On my high BTU gas grill, to date, I have broken 2x, it’s my own fault, I didn’t buy stones that could handle more than about 500°F/250°C.
It’s the same principle as having a water pan in the smoking area, you are using it for moisture but also for maintaining more even heat inside the cooking area (always add hot/boiling water for the low & slow, or you will pull down the temp).
Cast Iron Griddle or Frying Pan
Yeah, so these are all about holding heat and getting up to a decent temperature.
Placing the cast iron directing over the fire pot will get the most heat as well.
Just be careful, too many times I have burned my hand on a cast iron handle – carelessly forgetting that it’s going to be super hot.
I have a flat lid on a dutch oven, this works amazing for heat retention, it is one of those Le Creuset ones, it was bought actually for high moisture sourdough.
Searing Techniques & Temperatures
Reverse searing (indirect cooking until internal target temp is reached, then sear marking outside) is talked about in the BBQing community. I’m a purist and go the old school way, but for thicker cuts, it can work nicely.
The grill grates is another point which will make a big difference on a pellet grill for searing and I would suggest them if you are a searing kinda guy.
The grates can hold more heat, then that’s going to be an advantage when searing steak. Another option is a heavy pan like cast iron or enamel-coated dutch oven style.
Protein and sugars start to brown on the meat when the temperature goes above 350°F, the chef call this carmelizing happening of those sugars in the protein.
With the lower temperature range like Z Grill or Traeger adding a cast iron grill or hot plate will help hold and maintain the heat better when doing a direct heat bbq grilling session.
Wrote a guide to this and steak searing here.
There are Traeger branded grill grates, for Z grill pellet grills, you can look at 3rd party generic grill grates as well.
There are some really cool interlocking ones, so you can customize the size you need.
Here are a handful I can recommend on a page going into a bit more detail on grills and hot plates.
Check out the Comparison Chart I did here – enjoy!
