Weber Wood Pellets Review: Are They Any Good?

Weber started selling wood pellets when they released their Smokefire pellet grill a few years ago.  It turns out that the pellets are a better product than the grill 🙂

My local Ace Hardware has stocked up on Weber wood pellets and carries the following flavors:

• Apple
• Cherry
• Hickory
• Grillmaster Blend
• Mesquite

Let’s do a quick Weber wood pellet review to see if these are the right pellets for your grill.

Do Weber Pellets Have Any Fillers?

I give Weber a LOT of credit for actually putting their pellet composition in big bold numbers on the front of the package.  Weber labels their pellets as “100% Flavor, Zero Fillers” and then gives the percentage of each wood species in the pellet.

The wood composition for each pellet flavor Weber offers is listed in the table below.  The flavor listed on the bag makes up 40% of the composition with the remaining pellet being composed of either Maple or Oak.

People will debate whether the 60% Maple and Oak component is true flavor wood or an inexpensive filler.  I am pretty neutral on the subject and am simply pleased that Weber is being transparent in their labeling.

Are Weber Pellets Any Good?

I brought a bag of Cherry wood pellets home and had fun putting it to use.

I loaded the pellets into the Spider Grill pellet adapter that I had hooked up to an old 22 inch Weber kettle.  The Spider ran smoothly with the Weber pellets and was able to easily hold temperatures as low as 180F and as high as 500F.

I did quite a few cooks with these pellets but my favorite was a simple batch of chicken wings. The wings got smoked at 180F for one hour and then grilled at 450F for 30 minutes.

The color and flavor was just about perfect.

The ash production from the Weber pellets was comparable to the ash produced by other brands.

Do You Have to Use Weber Pellets in a Weber Smokefire Pellet Grill?

Weber has said that you should use their pellets in the Smokefire grills.  They claim that the Smokefire was “developed and optimized for Weber pellets”

I say that this is a joke.  There is very little variation in the diameter and length of pellets between different producers.

Using another brand of pellet in your Weber Smokefire will not void your warranty or result in poor performance.

Can You Use Weber Pellets in a Traeger or Pit Boss?

You can absolutely use Weber pellets in a Traeger, Pit Boss or any other brand of pellet grill.

Trager states on their warranty information that Traeger grills run best with Traeger pellets but that does not mean that you have to use their pellets.

Almost every manufacturer of pellet grills makes the same generic claim of “For Best Performance with your XYZ Grill You Should Use XYZ Pellets”.

Should You Buy Weber Pellets?

I think you should try Weber pellets out at least once to see how you like them.  The pellets are a nice product, you know exactly what you are getting and the packaging is nice.

That being said, Weber is currently charging $17.99 for a 20 lb bag of pellets and you can buy other brands, like Pit Boss pellets, for a lot less.

I have not bought a second bag of Weber pellets.  I rarely shop at Ace Hardware and, while the Weber pellets treated me just fine, I was not so blown away by them that I would go out of my way to buy them again.