A Yoder pellet grill costs about $4,900 for the YS640S in November 2026. What 10 gauge steel buys, what owners say on smoke and searing, and who should skip it.
Reviews are built from manufacturer specs, retailer listings and the pattern of owner reports. Our hands-on cooks and temperature tests are pending, and each page will say when one has happened and on what date.
Our take
Yoder builds the heaviest production pellet grill on the market, a 541 lb YS640S with a 10 gauge chamber, and owners report it holds temperature like an indoor oven and sears over open flame. At about $4,900 in November 2026 it pays off only for someone who cooks most weekends and plans to keep it ten years or more.
Best for
A weekend-every-weekend cook who has already worn out a thin-steel pellet grill, wants two-zone searing on the same cooker, and has a permanent spot for 541 lb.
Who should pass
Skip it if you cook twice a month or want heavy smoke; a Traeger Ironwood XL costs about $2,000, and the Lone Star Grillz 20 x 42 makes more smoke for about $3,150.
about $4,900
Price checked November 2026. Retail prices move.
Pros
Cons
Most people shouldn’t buy a Yoder pellet grill, and the ones who should usually know it already. If you cook most weekends, have worn out a thin-steel grill or two, and want the next one to last a decade, the YS640S Outlander at about $4,900 on Yoder’s site in November 2026 is the heaviest production pellet cooker you can buy without going to a custom shop.
Everyone else gets more value from the grills in my pellet grill reviews that cost a fifth as much. The Yoder is on my best pellet grills list as the buy-it-for-life pick, and that’s the only job it’s there to do.
This review draws on Yoder’s spec sheets, owners on the Yoder community forum and the big barbecue boards, and long-term reviews. My own temperature logs get added with a date when they exist.
The buyer is someone who has owned a Traeger or Pit Boss for years and is tired of a pit that drops 30°F every time the wind picks up. Owners who moved up say the first thing they noticed was how little the temperature moves in weather. That stability is what the 10 gauge chamber buys.
The second reason is grilling. The two-piece diffuser opens on the left for direct flame while the right side stays a convection oven, so a reverse-seared steak or a pan of burgers over fire happens on the same cooker you smoked the brisket on.
Pass on it if you move your grill, cook twice a month, or hope a pellet grill will taste like an offset. Owners say the Yoder burns clean, with thin blue smoke at 225°F and almost none at 400°F. If smoke volume is the goal, read my Lone Star Grillz review first, because owners call that one the smokiest pellet grill made.
| Model | Price (Nov 2026) | Cooking area | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YS480S Outlander | about $4,800 | 800 sq in | 470 lb | For tight patios |
| YS640S Outlander | about $4,900 | 1,070 sq in | 541 lb | The one most owners buy |
| YS640S with aluminum wheels | about $5,400 | 1,070 sq in | 541 lb | Same grill, upgraded wheel set |
| YS640S, Competition cart | about $3,200 | 1,070 sq in | 418 lb | Same chamber, wire shelves; the version on our best pellet grills list |
| YS640S, standard cart | from about $2,700 | 1,070 sq in | 335 lb | Same chamber, the lightest cart |
| YS1500S | see listing | see listing | see listing | Trailer-sized competition unit |
| YS640 built-in head | see listing | see listing | n/a | For outdoor kitchens |
“Outlander” is Yoder’s name for the current cart, with 10 inch wheels and 6.5 inch wide tires. The cooking chamber is the same on every YS640S. The $100 gap between the 480 and the 640 is small enough that almost nobody picks the 480 unless the patio forces it.
Pit tip: Yoder still sells the YS640S on its Competition cart for $3,199 and on the standard cart from $2,699 in November 2026, plus shipping. It’s the same cooking chamber on a lighter cart with smaller wheels, which saves $1,700 to $2,200 if the grill never leaves the patio.
From Yoder’s YS640S Outlander page in November 2026:
The 20 lb hopper is the spec I’d watch. It’s smaller than recteq’s 30 and 40 lb hoppers and Lone Star’s 40, and in a January overnight cook you may be topping it up.
Stability is the common thread in owner reports. One long-term reviewer logged the pit holding within about 1.5°F of the set point, and several forum owners say recovery after opening the lid is quick enough that they stopped worrying about peeking. The reason is physics: 1/8 inch steel soaks up heat and releases it slowly, so the controller isn’t fighting the box.
The flip side of that mass is startup. Owners report 15 to 20 minutes to settle at 225°F on a cool morning, and pellet use runs higher during warm-up because the steel has to come up too. Once it’s there, consumption is normal for the class, around 1 lb an hour at smoking temperatures and more in winter. A 12-hour brisket in mild weather uses well over half the 20 lb hopper once you add the warm-up, so the pellet calculator is worth a look before an overnight cook.
On smoke, owners are candid. Below 300°F you get thin blue smoke and a proper ring. Above that there’s almost nothing visible. Nobody reports acrid or dirty smoke. For more on a short cook, owners put a smoke tube on the second shelf; my smoke tube guide covers the options.
Searing is where the Yoder separates from most pellet grills. Pull the left plate of the diffuser and the fire pot is exposed. Owners with GrillGrates in that zone report grate temperatures well past 700°F while the right side stays far cooler (in an All Things Barbecue multi-zone test at a 450 to 500°F set point, the rest of the grate read above 300 to 350°F), which gives you a real two-zone layout on a pellet cooker.
Two complaints repeat. There’s no pellet dump door, so switching from hickory to apple means scooping the hopper or burning it empty. And the pellet chute can collect dust; owners suggest a coat of paste wax inside the hopper so pellets slide.
Build is the Yoder’s whole argument. Owners describe even welds, machined edges, a Nomex lid gasket, a drip lip, and welded gussets under the diffuser. Assembly is the one bad day. The 541 lb crate needs two adults and a decision about where the grill will live, because it isn’t moving after that.
The controller is a FireBoard, which matters more than it sounds. The app graphs pit and meat temperatures across the whole cook, lets you schedule set-point changes (225°F for six hours, then 275°F to finish), and sends alerts to your phone. If you already own a FireBoard thermometer, everything shows up in one place.
The warranty runs 10 years on the chamber and 3 on the electronics. The most common hardware complaint I found was a failed control board on a few units, and in those reports Yoder shipped a replacement under warranty. Rust complaints are rare compared with thin-steel brands, though the powder coat on the lid marks if you drag a grate across it.
$4,899 for the YS640S Outlander and $4,795 for the YS480S in November 2026, plus shipping. The same YS640S chamber is $3,199 on the Competition cart and from $2,699 on the standard cart.
| Grill | Price (Oct 2026) | Steel | Cooking area | Hopper | Chamber warranty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoder YS640S | about $4,900 | 10 gauge (1/8 in) | 1,070 sq in | 20 lb | 10 years |
| Lone Star Grillz 20 x 42 | about $3,150 | 3/16 in | 1,278 sq in | 40 lb with dump | Lifetime |
| Traeger Ironwood XL | about $2,000 | Thinner, insulated | 924 sq in | 22 lb | 10 years limited |
| recteq Backyard Beast 1200 | $1,199.99 | Stainless parts | 1,220 sq in | 30 lb | 6 years |
The Lone Star is the hard comparison. It has thicker steel, double the hopper with a dump door, a lifetime chamber warranty, and owners call it the smokiest pellet grill made, for about $1,750 less. It weighs 445 lb and you wait 8 to 14 weeks for one. The Yoder wins on its split-diffuser sear zone, the 600°F ceiling and the cart.
The recteq gives you stainless, a bigger hopper and Wi-Fi for well under half the Yoder’s price, with a lighter chamber. The Ironwood XL spends Yoder money on technology rather than steel and leaves about $2,900 for pellets and beef.
At this price a good offset smoker is also on the table, so the pellet grill vs offset smoker comparison is worth ten minutes before you order.
The space and the stable pit make long cooks the obvious place to start.
The smoke time calculator gives starting times for each.
It’s worth it if you cook every weekend, you’re done replacing grills, and you want searing over real flame on the same cooker. Buy the Lone Star Grillz 20 x 42 instead if smoke flavor matters more than the sear zone and you can wait for the build. If you cook twice a month, a Traeger Ironwood does the job and the difference buys a lot of brisket.
Set the grill to 250°F with oak and hickory pellets, wrap the brisket in butcher paper around 165°F, and pull it at about 203°F when the probe slides in easily. A 13 lb packer needs about 10 hours on the grill plus 1 to 2 hours of rest.
Smoke the roast at 225°F on oak and cherry pellets until the center reads 120 to 125°F, about 4 hours for a 7 lb 3 bone roast. Rest it while the grill heats to 450°F, sear 8 to 12 minutes, and rest 20 minutes for 130 to 135°F medium rare.
Smoke 1.5 inch belly cubes at 250°F on half pecan, half cherry pellets for about 2.5 hours, then braise in a covered pan with butter and sauce for an hour and reduce uncovered 20 to 30 minutes. Pull at 200 to 205°F, about 4.5 hours start to finish.