Traeger Woodridge Pellet Grill, Tested and Reviewed

Despite cooking over live fire for decades, I was a stranger to pellet grills until a few years ago. I interviewed Tank Jackson, a South Carolina pastured pork farmer and whole hog barbecue pro, for a piece I was working on and he told me of his newfound respect for pellet grills. How could a professional pitmaster use something as hands-off as a pellet grill?

Jackson explained that unless he’s doing it for money, he’s lost the desire to sit up tending a fire all night for barbecue. He could load a pellet grill’s hopper, set the temperature, and have the smoker ready to cook in the time it took him to unpackage and season a rack of ribs. This idea intrigued me, as I’m an avid outdoor cook and love live-fire cooking and smoking, but sometimes I wish I could be a little more hands-off in my cooking. 

We’ve since thoroughly tested several popular pellet grill models, and Traeger grills have scored well in our ratings. When the folks at Traeger asked me if I wanted a sneak peek of the new Woodridge line, designed to bring a full-sized pellet grill at a more approachable price, I obliged. Here’s what I found in my testing.

Dimensions: 45.8 (height) x 50.1 (width) x 27 (depth) inches | Grilling Area: 860 square inches | Warranty: 10 years overall, 3 years for grates

The Woodridge arrived unassembled on a pallet via freight delivery. It’s heavy for one person, approaching 160 pounds with packaging, and I required a hand truck to move it from the street to my backyard for assembly. I’d suggest an extra set of hands for that part. When fully assembled, the Woodridge weighs 138 pounds and measures 50 x 27 x 46 inches, with a generous 860 square inches of cooking area.

The packaging is unique because several non-standard-shaped boxes inside the primary carton contain pieces grouped by labels showing four animal types. The animals signify a segment of the assembly process: the pig boxes go together, the elk boxes with the elk, and so on. The bottom of the primary carton serves as a template for orienting the grill for the first assembly steps, and all the necessary tools and fasteners are in the box. 

According to the manual, assembly should take 90 minutes to two hours if you rely on the pictogram instructions. I’m pretty good at following instructions, but I hit a few snags in the assembly process, mainly trying to understand how some pieces should align. I thought the illustrations could have shown more detail for finding the appropriate angle or space to insert the problem pieces. An assembly video was available for each step, but these also lacked the detail I wanted. Because of that, I finished building the grill in almost four hours.

With the assembly complete, I had no issues connecting the WiFIRE to my home network and starting the burn-in process. This process seasons the grill for its first use, letting it run at 350°F for 20 minutes, then increasing the temperature to 500°F for 30 minutes. With heating, raising the temperature, and then allowing the grill to cool, I spent about 90 minutes on this step. But I didn’t have to stay on top of it — the WiFi app connectivity allowed me to set the temperature and a timer for when the grill hit its targets, and I could go off and do other things while the grill burned.

The first cooking test was a “quick” smoke. I coated chicken thighs with a simple rub and smoked them on a sheet pan at 250°F for about two hours. I used Traeger Signature Blend wood pellets, and the meat came out tender, with a light, woody smoke. When I smoke food, I like to taste the wood more than smoke, so this suited me well.

My next test was a long smoke. I again used a simple barbecue rub — so I could better taste the flavor the grill added — on a 3-pound piece of brisket and smoked it at 225°F for about five hours. I then wrapped the meat and increased the heat to 275°F for another four hours until the internal temperature hit 205°F. As a control, I placed a MEATER Pro XL wireless thermometer probe alongside Traeger’s temperature probe and monitored the accuracy of Traeger’s internal and ambient temperature probes. The three sensors stayed within 5° to 10°F of each other during cooking, so I’ll call that pretty accurate. The brisket had just enough texture that it required a knife to slice but was incredibly tender to the tooth. Again, it had a light smoky flavor that didn’t overwhelm. Both smoking tests showed the grill held a steady temperature, only fluctuating 5°F over the cook, not counting the fairly quick recovery time after opening the grill to handle the food.

For the final cooking test, I set the temperature to 500°F (its highest setting) and grilled some 4-ounce burger patties. I turned the burgers every three minutes, examining the char that developed. After nine minutes, the burgers hit 135°F, so I pulled them. They’d gotten a sear, but not the char I expected from a grilled burger. After first opening the grill to turn the burgers, the ambient temperature never recovered to 500°F, hanging more in the 425° to 450°F range. Although lacking char, the burgers came out moist with just a hint of woody smoke.

I hate cleaning grills. But after these three tests, I needed to clean my mess. The grates were a matter of applying a good grill brush. Once clean, they lifted out, and some hooks on the side rails allowed me to hang them out of the way while I cleaned the rest of the grill. A thin layer of brown ash coated most of the internal workings. I lifted the drip pan out, gave it a scrape to remove burnt-on food and drippings, and then gave it a quick scrub. Under the drip pan, more ash collected, but as there wasn’t any accumulated grease, I used a dust brush to clean the sides and bottom, sweeping it into the grease and ash collection system. It would also be equally easy to use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner for this step. Cleaning, disassembly, and reassembly took about 15 minutes after three cooks, so I’ll give it a good rating in that category. 

A final item to look at was fuel efficiency. I started testing with a 20-pound bag of pellets. After about 14 hours of cooking, two at maximum heat, I have enough pellets left to cook another batch of burgers. I’ve used more lump charcoal in the same amount of time than I did pellets for these cooks. 

The Verdict

Aside from assembly, the Traeger Woodridge was very easy to use and created tasty, moist meats. There are certainly many other uses for Traeger pellet grills besides grilling or smoking, as many people use them as outdoor pizza ovens, for baking, and for braising. The versatility impressed me, even within my limited testing. I found the restrained smoke flavor a plus, and cleaning it wasn’t so bad. 

The Woodridge is the entry-level model of Traeger’s new line. The next step up is the Woodridge Pro, which offers 970 square inches of cooking area, a folding side table, and Traeger’s Super Smoke feature for those who prefer a smokier flavor. The Woodridge Elite offers the same features as the Pro and adds a side burner for searing. While I haven’t tested them, Traeger’s track record in our tests leads me to believe they’re worth the investment, too.