Whelp I Went and Did That Update. Full Grilla Mammoth review after my first few cooks.

Grilla Mammoth Pros and Cons from after my first week of ownership. The last pic is a pork tenderloin, short smoke but still smokey.

Cons

At initial burn in it threw an error because it was not heating up fast enough. Was about 45 degrees F outside. I was able to unplug and replug it in. At that point I adjusted the auger rate through the app. This feeds the pellets faster and it got to 400 with no issue after that. The error happened again on the 3rd day of testing as well. At this point I had already adjusted the auger rate back to 0. My starting temp was about 41 F. Looks like if you’re in a colder region it may be necessary to increase the auger rate and leave it so no error for failing to heat fast enough will arise. I increased the auger rate to +5% and it went right to temp with no issue. Not sure this is a really a con. More like a troubleshooting being they provide the tools and adjustments to rectify the issue. Luckily if you do the software update it will send a push notification to your phone telling you the error occurred.

The auger was making odd noises for the initial burn in. I believe this is just due to it being new as the next day when I fired it up the noise was substantially less noticeable.

The unit isn’t quiet. The fan is relatively loud and runs basically all the time. Compared to the OG Grilla I replaced it is noisier for sure.

If you set the timer in app or on the unit it will not send push notifications to your phone. The set temp for the probes also do not send push notifications to your phone once temp is reached. Though it doesn’t do this for the timer or temp probe function, the set temp setting does send a notification when set temp is reached on the smoker or if an error occurs. The app itself takes a little bit to update and reflect current standings of the smoker but not too bad.

No handles for moving it around.

The direction of the chimney causes ash and smoke residue to build up on the top of the unit. Not a ton but over time it could get bad. Cleaning after use should mitigate any issues. More of an inconvenience than anything, not really a huge problem.

The racks could be a little sturdier but they’ll get the job done. Solid for the most part, the inner grate portion is a little thinner on the metal than I prefer but it works.

Not so much a con as a warning. Use tongs to add in your whatnots to the lip diffuser. Low clearance, good chance of burning your hand if not careful.

Pros

Size, it can’t be beat for me. Especially when it comes to a moderate to high end brand when coupled with the price point. If you wanted to crowd it you could fit three racks of St. Louis spare ribs (Costco) per rack in the unit. With five racks it comes with, plus the additional five racks it can fit if you wanted to buy them, this should be plenty of space for most of us. Should be no issue doing three 15lb+ briskets without crowding it.

Pretty easy to assemble. Took me about 10 min if you don’t include packaging removal.

Hopper easily held a 40 lb bag of pellets. Now I don’t have to have half bags laying around.

The controller on the unit itself works great. Responsive and easy to use. From what I can tell you can access all features without the use of the app if you prefer not using the app.

At a starting point of 62 F the smoker got to 250 F in less than 10 min.

Besides the chimney portion, the unit does not get super hot on the outside. On initial burn at 400 F most of the sides were not hot enough to cause serious burns. Some spots hotter than others and will burn you, I don’t recommend touching a hot grill but I needed to know due to its location. At 250 F the sides are easily handled but have hot spots. Again, I do not advise touching metal on a live smoker for any reason. How you think I know the chimney is hot as hell?! Overall I believe the insulation on this is top notch.

Smoke levels are great. On par or better than previous pellet smokers I have used. Add in extra smoke with the diffuser lip should you want more (more about this below). I used one small piece of pecan per cook.

Lip diffuser. First day I tried mesquite chunks ranging from thumb to 1/3 fist size. They took almost three hours to actually have any sort of ignition. Second day I tried a roughly half fist sized chunk of pecan and it was smoldering within 30 min or so of lighting the smoker itself. Not sure what the mesquite issue was. Maybe just wood density of the mesquite. I prefer pecan anyways so no worries for me. I would imagine wood chips would be the easiest option for more smoke and would have no issues with ignition. I have no intention of trying charcoal with this but I imagine it’d work fine.

The unit controlled temp probes that it comes with are pretty accurate from my experience. Checked the accuracy with my existing thermometer and they were neck and neck. Offset adjustments can be made should you need to.

Install the software update. Prior to this update the unit settings would not reflect over to the app properly or vice versa, there were no notification pop ups on my phone for presets, timer, etc. Once this update was done it did send me a notification the set temp had been reached on the smoker. Timer pushes and set temp on probes did not work though, as noted above. Changing functionality (set temp, probe temps, timer, PID/PRO, etc) through the app does register over to the actual unit display with no issues from what I’ve seen.

The built in water pan fits a full size pan for catching drippings, grease, and debris. Two half pans side by side as well. Would hold a good amount of water if that’s your thing. Will be an easy clean after a messy cook. Only thing is if used for water as well keep an eye on it so it doesn’t over flow once the grease starts accumulating.

RTD and Probe Offset. Out of the box the internal temp was actually showing about 25 degrees F higher than the actual temp. I tested with an external probe at the same level as the internal thermometer. Luckily they have a built in adjustment so after a small amount of tinkering I got the internal temp to match my external probe temp. Naturally being a vertical smoker temps will swing one way or the other depending what shelf you are using so bear that in mind.

This last item could be a pro or con depending on your particular situation. In the roughly 30 hours I ran the new cooker this weekend it used just about 30lbs of pellets at 250 F. This was on the pro mode the whole time except for the initial burn in. These rough estimates include the initial burn in day where it went to 400 F for at least an hour then I brought it back down to 250F while I continued to play with it for a couple hours. Two of the four days it was on were no hotter than 70F outside, the other two days were 50F or cooler. For me personally I am happy with its efficiencies.

So far so good. If I had to do it over again I would buy this again. The timer function is an issue but it’ll probably be fixed with future software updates and even if it doesn’t I use the timer on my watch anyways. Naturally if for some reason it goes to hell I will update accordingly.

by Fabulous-Operation51