Yoder Smokers YS480 & YS640 Pellet Grill Review | Product Roundup by All Things BBQ 

Westmoore Films had mine for about 6 months. This video doesn't even begin to explain the build on these. It's an absolute tank.

2 years in...what do you think? Still holding up well?

Awesome! Thanks for shopping with us, and we can't wait until you can start cooking!

Jeff Jassby hi what rubs and pellets from your experience is best?

I’m thinking of Yoder vs Rectec and like how Rectec is free shipping/easier to purchase

You won't be sorry with either the YS640 or the YS1500 for sure. Thanks for watching!

Thank you for building great pits!

How do I get one of these bad boys to Sweden? Is it even possible?

The Yoder will be worth the wait, thanks for watching!

Awesome, you will love it. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Lol! Don't sell the wife, Frank! We have financing available. ;-) Here's an overview of the latest version of that smoker, the YS640S w/ ACS control board:ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QocJjJVttfM.html.

Awesome, glad we could help!

Is ceramic better than carbon?

The pellet cooker, especially the YS series from Yoder produces food that has the color, flavor and texture of a wood pit. It's incredible what they can do. I prefer it over the WSM simply for the size as well. I can cook a full packer and a couple butts with room to spare! Thanks for the questions.

R Ryan do you want to wake up all hours of the night to check fire and add wood or do you want to get some sleep so when it's time to eat your not a zombie

Where do you live? We have YS640s all over the world, from Florida to Australia to the swamps of Louisiana and no one has had any problems at this point. A door is a possibility, but not sure if the custom shop at Yoder would have the time these days. It's always something we can work on though, just let us know if you want to chat about that. Thanks for watching!

Thanks. Live in Cincinnati and just found a Yoder owner within 30 miles. Have made contact and he has answered some questions for me.

By hand or vacuum. It doesn’t have a trap door.

The only difference is the cooking area. The 640 is larger. Other than size, both cookers are made from the same materials and have the same control board.

Maybe consider doing two 12lb turkeys? I find the smaller turkeys cook better than trying to cook one mammonth-sized turkey.

I'd give the YS series a 7 or 8. They produce great smoke through the entire range. That is of course my personal opinion, but I really prefer it over any other pellet grill out there and I like it more than my offset (also a Yoder) for most smoking jobs. Thanks for watching!

Mike I bought a YS640 about a year ago. It really is all they say it is. It's amazing. I went from a guy who cooks burgers with moderate success every couple of months to note being known in our little neighborhood as a pit master haha. Also if you want to add extra smoke flavor get an amazing smoke tube fit some extra smoke. I smoke ribs, pulled pork, pork belly, brisket, ham, burgers, hotdogs, sausage, and roast. You name you can do it with these smokers. I was going to buy a Big Green Egg. Thank goodness one of the sales reps saved from that mistake. You really can't go wrong here. My family loves it.

A.W. W. I know it’s been 2 years since you posted this comment but how are you liking the ys640. I’ve always been a fan of how the green eggs and kamado joes cook but this just seems so much more versatile.

@@BIGBUCKHT75 Kamado grilling is great also. I bought a Weber Summit Charcoal and I'm beyond happy with it. One thing a Kamado does well is high heat. Most pellet grills can't match a Kamado in that area. I never thought it mattered much since I rarely cooked over 500° at the time but, boy I'm glad I went with a Kamado. I got into making high temperature dough for pizzas and calzones. After having the high temperature food I've made, I'd be really sad to have to settle for a lower temp. It's hard to explain, you just have to try it to truly appreciate the Summit or most Kamados for that matter. I also love that it holds temperature exactly like a BGE or KJ but without the set backs of ceramics. Nothing should ever break on my cooker, there's nothing fragile and moving it around is a breeze. In all fairness, I think the BGE and KJ are both great and I'll be adding both to my lineup soon. But it's all about you in the end, buy whatever will always you the happiest.

Here is our reverse sear steak video on a YS640. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SY-ieRRl4ak.html Thanks for watching!

Pit. This is an older model. The newer ones have two additional probes that you can use for internal meat temp or grill area temp, all three of which are read outs on the screen or Wi-Fi to your phone.

Most of the time, yes. Unless you are using a two-piece diffuser, then you can just remove the door. Thanks for watching!

I’m trying to find the answer to that too. Their website shows a drip bucket on the 640 but not the 480.

@@iamthehenke I ended up buying the 480. It’s amazing!!!! The heat shield rests at an angle. Grease drips down into a chute, then the pail. (I wrap the shield in tinfoil to keep it grease- free.).

You can wrap it in foil or what I do is use foil wrapped cookie sheets that are easier to clean than the plate. The plate is heavy. It probably weighs 15-20lbs. It’s easier to load and unload a cookie sheet.

They are two separate companies that operate with different staff, and the Yoder staff was not involved in what was said or what went into the review. We reviewed the YS480/YS640 as we would any grill or smoker we carry. More reviews will be coming of Napoleon, Weber, Fire Magic and more. We simply started with our most popular model. Thanks for your question, and thank you for watching.

I'm probably going to buy one of these Yoders, but you should specifically mention Yoder is owned by the same parent company if this is the case. It's just common sense to disclose that sort of thing. I don't know why you'd argue with Kyle.

I didn't feel like it was an argument. Just set the misrepresentation straight. Yoder does not own ATBBQ and we don't share a parent company. Simply different companies.

The person that founded/owns Yoder also founded/owns ATBBQ.

There's 23 Yoder titled videos on this channel. Theres 3 videos of Napoleon and 5 of Weber. There aren't any actual grill reviews for these other manufacturers on this channel and the Yoder one is a year old. Yoder is arguably superior to both and is my personal preference, but the case for bias here is undeniable. You're plugging your own stuff, which is fine (especially in this case when you've got one of the best)... but own it.

Great question. No, the firebox on a Wichita is subject to very intense heat, which is extremely hard on paint. Having owned a Wichita for over 10-years, an annual cleaning, sanding and applying a few new coats of paint is the answer. For super easy cleanup on a 640, add the grease shield - www.atbbq.com/accessories/grill-accessories/ys-accessories/yoder-smokers-pellet-grill-grease-shield.html. Let us know if you have any other questions at all.

They are incredibly well built and will last being moved very well. The casters and wheels are quite good, but if you're going to compete or move a lot for catering or other reasons they do manufacture a competition cart version which you can see here: www.atbbq.com/yoder-smokers-ys640-pellet-grill-on-competition-cart.html Thanks for watching!

Thanks.

If you move it a lot, I would spring for the comp cart model. It has bigger/better casters. This thing is heavy. The 640 mode weighs 415lbs. You’ll want the larger casters.

Had my hands on one in Texas a few weeks back. The lid is way more heavy than it looked, but otherwise it's totally fine. The real problem I have is it's just another Traeger style design with a small center mount burn pot. No matter how well built, they'll all cook the same. I'm not a fan of the flavor profile off of center mount pits personally.

TEEvar Mine didn't. Love mine.

TEEvar There is always a chance something could happen, but if it does we will have it brought back and send a new one.

The YS480s does come with the diffuser plate. The pellet hopper on the 480 is the same as the 640 (they both hold 20 pounds of pellets). The main difference between the grills is the cook space. The 480 has 800 square cooking inches and the 640 has 1,070 square cooking inches. If you have any more questions about this grill, you can reach our team at info@atbbq.com or call us at 316-440-3950. Thanks!

@@allthingsbbq searched for this answer and finally found it explained in simple terms. Thanks….. I thought I was missing something. Good/ better/ best- and than the 480 vs 640.

Yes, we are shooting that one next. Most of the team will be on vacation next week, but it will be up in the next few weeks. Thanks for watching!

We'll add it to our list!

Powder coating wouldn't do anything for the pit as far as insulation goes. In our view, the paint is great. We have been cooking on the pits on our patio for years (they have more hours on them than any other Yoder pellet grill out there) and we have very few issues with the paint. The few we do get touched up, and 20 minutes of work makes a pit look brand new again! Thanks for watching.

We have plans to do the YS1500 next, and then the Cimarron after that. Yoder is working on building the first larger run of the Cimarron and we're in the pipeline to receive one.

+allthingsbbq good cause I'm thinking of a 1500 or a cimarron.

Either will be a great choice, and I'll try and work with Yoder to get a Cimarron to do a full review of as soon as I can. Have a great day!

You can check them out here: www.atbbq.com/grills-and-smokers/pellet-grills/yoder-smokers-ys640s-pellet-grill-with-acs.html

Sorry I took a bit to get back to you, I was out of town. The answer is an absolute yes. When an offset is run dead clean (no dirty smoke) it is tough to tell the difference between food smoked on it and a YS series pellet grill. Yoder pits put off more clean smoke through the full range than anyone else. If someone wants more they can always supplement with a smoke tube, but we rarely do that. Thanks!

@@allthingsbbq I tried the smoke tube but I personally found it to be a gimmick. It introduced a dirty acrid smoke.

Due to how the unit cooks (forced air with dual fans) it just isn't necessary. It won't benefit the cook at all. I have seen people put them in the units before, but it doesn't make the food any better... I think it's just about doing it for some people. Thanks!

Well, most of the import cookers cook pretty much identically (they are all based on the original Traeger design) so I would go with something you can get solid service on if needed. Either a local dealer or call the manufacturer to find out who you feel best about. On the flip side, we offer financing with Affirm, so that can make purchasing a Yoder even easier. Thanks!

They do not, it is simply an add-on.

Where do you find that? for a 640? Thanks

Jeff Miller Here it is: www.atbbq.com/yoder-smokers-heat-diffuser-access-door.html

At least 10. 4 on top and 6 on bottom.

Just the size. The YS640 is 8" wider than the YS480.

allthingsbbq okay thanks, your channel is awesome!

Sorry it took four days to get back to you, we just got back from family vacation on Tuesday and I have been playing catch up! I have cooked extensively on nearly every pellet grill on the market and just so happen to have spent a good amount of time cooking on a Rec Tec. Here are the four places the Rec Tec can't compete: Build Quality: While the Rec Tec is well built and fairly heavy duty for an import grill, it weighs nearly half as much as the YS640 and the body is almost half as thin. The body on a Rec Tec is the same gauge as the pellet hopper lid on a YS640, which is the lightest weight gauge used on the cooker. It just won't hold up over time the same way. Versatility: You can't pull the diffuser out of a Rec Tec and grill direct over a wood fire. Only a few pellet grills allow it and the YS640 has the largest open direct grilling surface (at 320 square inches) of any traditional pellet grill on the market. Yoder was the first to offer custom GrillGrates for high-heat searing as an option straight from the factory for this reason. Controller Quality: The Rec Tec uses a simple PID controller. A PID is nice if you only need to control a single variable (like fuel flow rate), but a pellet grill has to cook outside in different weather, from cold to hot, dry to wet and with wind coming and going. Add to that the different cooks you'll do from a few chicken breasts to a loaded cooker full of meat and the PID can't keep up. It doesn't have the intelligence to handle all of that information and react to it. The YS series has a custom built micro-controller (designed in Kansas, manufactured in Oklahoma) that looks at multiple variables and controls the auger with more speeds than any other company. Smoke and Heat Flow: The airflow of a pit is going to have a huge impact on the color and flavor of food it puts out, and also on the evenness of the grate area. The YS series has an offset pot instead of the standard small center mount pot that nearly everyone uses (which Traeger originally designed in the 1980s). This has several nice effects on the cook, one is that it cooks low and slow much more like a traditional offset pit and the food looks and tastes closer to it due to that fact. The other great thing is the size of the burn pot. Being larger it can hold more pellets, which means it will produce more smoke throughout the smoking range. The YS640 produces real smoke at 300º while the Rec Tec starts to shut down around 250º. The way they have gotten around that is by stuttering the fan, which is good in theory until you realize that smoldering pellets produce a ton of creosote and make foods bitter and black. By burning a larger amount of pellet the YS series can burn them at a lower BTU to get to the cooking temp you want without sacrificing flavor. No need to set the smoker at 180º for the first three hours of a cook to get flavor, just set it to 250º and let it rip. One other reason to buy a Yoder Smokers pit is the cook space. The YS series has more headroom and a whopping 1,070 square cooking inches while the largest Rec Tec comes in at 680 square inches, so it won't be able to feed large groups or do really big cooks well. I hope that answers your questions and let me know if you have any others. Have a great day and thanks for watching, Josh