Match what you spend on pellets to how long the meat sits in the smoke. For burgers, wings and chicken at 375°F, any clean hardwood blend does the job, and Pit Boss Competition Blend is the cheapest reputable one at about $20 for 40 lb in October 2026. For a 12-hour brisket at 225°F the wood is a large share of what you taste, and a filler-free bag like CookinPellets Perfect Mix or Lumber Jack 100 percent hickory pays for itself.
This page belongs to the gear guides, next to the smoke tube guide and the wireless thermometer picks. Pellets, a tube and a good probe decide more about how a cook tastes than the grill does.
How these bags were chosen
Four questions sorted the list. What does it cost per pound, checked on the maker’s site or a major retailer in October 2026? Does the maker say what woods are in the bag? Do owners consistently report clean ignition and low ash, or the opposite? And can a normal person buy it without a two-week wait?
We haven’t run a controlled burn test yet, with weighed ash and a timed burn per pound, and this page doesn’t pretend otherwise. The ranking comes from published specs, labeling and owner reports. When our own numbers land, the page will say so with the date.
What a long cook costs in pellets
At 1.5 lb an hour, a 12-hour cook burns about 18 lb. Here’s what that costs with each bag at October 2026 prices.
| Bag |
Price |
Bag size |
About per lb |
12-hour cook (18 lb) |
| Pit Boss Competition Blend |
about $20 |
40 lb |
$0.50 |
about $9 |
| Kingsford Craftsmoke Hickory |
about $18 |
20 lb |
$0.90 |
about $16 |
| Lumber Jack Competition Blend |
about $19 |
20 lb |
$0.95 |
about $17 |
| Bear Mountain Gourmet Blend |
about $20 |
20 lb |
$1.00 |
about $18 |
| Traeger Signature Blend |
about $20 |
20 lb |
$1.00 |
about $18 |
| Lumber Jack 100 Percent Hickory |
about $20 |
20 lb |
$1.00 |
about $18 |
| CookinPellets Perfect Mix |
about $42 |
40 lb |
$1.05 |
about $19 |
The spread between the cheapest and the dearest bag on a full brisket is about $10, which is less than the price of a pound of the brisket. On a 45-minute chicken cook the gap is pocket change either way. Before an overnight cook, run the pellet calculator so the hopper doesn’t run dry at 4 a.m.
What to look for in wood pellets for smoking
Blend or 100 percent single wood
Most pellets sold as hickory or apple are a blend: a base wood, usually oak or alder, with the named wood mixed in. Lumber Jack says on its own site that its flavored blends use alder or oak as a base depending on region. “100 percent natural hardwood,” the line on Traeger and Pit Boss bags, is accurate and tells you nothing about the ratio. A bag labeled 100 percent hickory, like Lumber Jack’s or CookinPellets’, is hickory all the way through, and on beef you can taste it.
Oak and alder bases have a job
Filler sounds like a scam, but oak and alder burn hot and steady with low ash, which makes the controller’s job easier. A straight cherry pellet burns a little cooler and leaves more ash behind. For chicken at 375°F a blend is fine and cheaper. For a long 225°F cook, the base wood is most of what reaches the meat, which is when a no-filler bag earns its price.
Moisture
A pellet is compressed sawdust held together by the wood’s own lignin, with no glue. Once it takes on water it swells, crumbles and either jams the auger or won’t light. Traeger’s own troubleshooting pages say good pellets look shiny and snap cleanly when you break one, and that dull, crumbly pellets are a leading cause of low-temperature errors.
Pit tip: Pour each new bag into a 5-gallon bucket with a gasket lid. A 20 lb bag fits with room to spare, and the bag left open in a garage will soften within weeks in humid weather.
Size and dust
Thinner pellets, Lumber Jack being the usual example, feed more evenly through the auger. Every bag has some dust at the bottom, but a lot of it means rough handling or damp storage somewhere along the way. Vacuum the bottom of the hopper when you clean the grill so that dust doesn’t end up smothering the fire pot.
Burn rate and weather
Expect about 1 to 1.5 lb an hour at 225°F in mild weather, around 2 lb in wind or cold, and up to 3 lb at 450°F. A 20 lb bag is about one long brisket in winter. Single-wood hickory burns a touch hotter than most blends, which helps the grill hold temperature on a 35°F day.
Which wood goes with which meat
| Meat |
Pellet |
Why |
| Brisket, beef ribs |
Hickory, oak, or a no-filler blend |
Strong enough to show through 10 or more hours |
| Pork butt, spare ribs |
Hickory with cherry or apple |
Cherry darkens the bark and softens the hickory |
| Turkey, whole chicken |
Cherry, pecan, apple |
Mild smoke and good color on the skin |
| Pork loin, tenderloin |
Apple, maple |
Short cooks need a light wood |
| Salmon |
Alder |
The traditional fish wood, gentle and clean |
| Beef, in small doses |
Mesquite |
Turns bitter over long, low cooks |
The recipes here follow the same logic. The ribs run half hickory and half cherry, the brisket uses oak and hickory, the turkey gets cherry and pecan, and the salmon stays with alder.
Who can skip premium pellets
If your pellet grill mostly works as an outdoor oven for burgers, wings and weeknight chicken, buy the cheapest 40 lb bag of a reputable blend and stop thinking about it. At 375°F and up the food isn’t on long enough to pick up the difference between a $20 bag and a $42 one.
Premium pellets pay off at 225°F for eight hours or more. Below that, the money is better spent on a smoke tube, which adds more smoke to the first few hours than any change of pellet brand.
Pellet questions people ask
Can I burn Pit Boss pellets in a Traeger?
Yes. Any food-grade hardwood pellet runs in any pellet grill, and owners of every brand burn Pit Boss, Bear Mountain and Lumber Jack without trouble. The only pellets to avoid are heating pellets sold for pellet stoves, which can contain softwood and binders that don’t belong near food.
Why does my pellet grill make so little smoke?
A pellet fire is small, efficient and fan-fed, so it burns clean by design. A 100 percent hickory bag helps a little. A smoke tube for the first three hours helps a lot, and so does starting the cook at 225°F or on a smoke setting rather than going straight to 275°F.
How long do wood pellets keep?
Sealed and dry, a year or more. In an open bag in a humid garage, a few weeks before they start to soften. Left in the hopper through a rainy week, long enough to swell and jam the auger, so empty the hopper if the grill will sit for more than a week in wet weather.
Is the bag at Walmart the same as the maker’s bag?
Usually the same brand, sometimes a different blend. Pit Boss Competition Blend at Walmart has at times been maple, hickory and apple while the Lowe’s bag carried cherry. The woods are printed on the bag, so read it, or buy from the maker’s site if the exact mix matters to you.