Few grills聽have the cult following聽Traeger鈥檚聽do. The company鈥檚 wood-pellet models are capable of smoking, baking, roasting, and grilling in an approachable way, with digital displays that make it easy to keep a steady temperature for hours.
That functionality comes at a price: Traeger grills are big, heavy, and expensive, running anywhere from $500 and 76 pounds to $2,000 and 266 pounds. They鈥檙e not the sort of thing you聽wheel around the patio or easily pack away for the winter鈥攖hey聽become a fixture聽in your yard.
So when we heard that Traeger was rolling out聽a pair of grills鈥the ($400) and ($300)鈥攊ntended for camping and tailgating, we were intrigued. Over two weeks and several delicious meals, I聽found that the Ranger packs many of Traeger鈥檚聽best features into a miniaturized frame, though it isn鈥檛 really a grill聽I鈥檇 bring camping.聽
The Ranger weighs聽60 pounds, measures 13 inches high, 21 inches wide, and 20 inches deep, and has no legs. To achieve its compact dimensions, Traeger聽moved the eight-pound pellet hopper inside the聽body, rather than have聽it protrude from the side, as in Traeger鈥檚 other designs. At 184 square inches, the grilling area is enough to fit five large chicken breasts, with room left over on either side. Feature-wise, the Ranger聽comes with聽Traeger鈥檚 higher-end digital temperature controls, which allow聽you to adjust in increments of five degrees rather than 25; a built-in meat thermometer; and a warming mode that reduces the grill temperature to 165 degrees, to keep food toasty after it鈥檚 done cooking. (The Scout is the same size聽as the Ranger, but has a four-pound hopper and 25-degree temperature controls. It鈥檚 also聽lighter, at 45 pounds.)
Out of the box, the Ranger was pretty easy to set up: it comes preassembled, save for the metal handle and feet. Before first use, I primed the auger with pellets聽(something you should do any time it runs out of pellets), then left the grill on high for 45 minutes to clean it (you have to do this only once).
The digital interface, which changes the grill聽temperature by adjusting how quickly the pellets are fed into the聽fire pit, makes cooking virtually foolproof.聽I used the display to set the temperature, and the grill beeped when it was聽ready to go. Once my meat was聽on the grill, I adjusted the timer to alert me when I needed to flip the food, and set the聽thermometer to check the meat鈥檚 internal temperature, which flashes on the display. The Ranger cooked my chicken in about the same time as my propane grill, but the temperature control meant I spent聽less time worrying about over- or undercooking. In all, the Ranger delivered the superior taste of grilling with the ease of oven cooking.
On the other hand, setup and cleaning took more time than I鈥檓 accustomed to. Lacking聽legs, the grill is聽designed to sit聽atop something, like a picnic table or tailgate. This meant hoisting it onto my patio table (remember, it weighs 60 pounds) and聽setting up an extension cord every time I wanted to use it. You could get a little table for it聽or聽position it permanently on the ground, but grilling in a squat is awkward.聽
The 15 to 30 minutes of prep time to get the pellets burning and the grill preheated wasn鈥檛 all that different from an聽oven or charcoal grill, but when I finished cooking聽I had to leave the Ranger plugged in鈥攊n shutdown聽mode鈥攆or ten minutes. (The cycle burns through the remaining pellets in the fire pit, so no smoldering embers remain.) We have only a single exterior outlet in our yard, and when we had friends over for a barbecue, we had to wait until the grill finished cooling before plugging in our string lights.
Ultimately, the Ranger and the Scout help round out the size range of Traeger鈥檚 grills, offering the company鈥檚 techy user-friendliness in a smaller package. But I鈥檇 hesitate to call them portable. Would I bring the Ranger on聽a car-camping trip or a day trip to the lake? Probably not. It鈥檚 the size of a large home printer and far too heavy to drag around in the woods; it also requires electricity. Plus, the grill area is too small to cook a full meal for a large group聽of people. That said, the compact footprint makes it ideal for space-constrained patio聽grillers who want something more than a simple hibachi.
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