12 Useful Pellet Grill Gadgets and Accessories

Perfect for Father’s Day

Gadgets and accessories can add more joy and convenience to owning a pellet grill. And let’s face it: we all enjoy buying things for our grill. So what are some pellet grill accessories available outside of the usual spatula and smoker tube that you might need…or at least want?

SlotDog

Listen, I know pellet smokers shine when cooking slow and low briskets and ribs. But face it, you use it for quick everyday grilling and it works incredibly well for it. Hot dogs on a pellet grill are perfectly evenly cooked. So how can this be improved? Simple: with a Slot Dog. This inexpensive gadget cuts a criss-cross pattern into your dogs which cooks up into a hedgehog-looking series of smoke-encrusted awesomeness. Lots of crispy edges. As an added bonus, the condiments sit better on your finished dogs. Whether you classify a hot dog as a sandwich or not (we’re in the ‘not a sandwich’ camp FWIW) the slot dog is an inexpensive way to up your dog game.

Slot Dog

  

Handheld Steam Cleaner

There is a grill-specific steam device on the market which doesn’t work incredibly well, and is pretty useless for anything other than cleaning your grill. But a small steam machine like the Valemo Handheld Steam Cleaner has a grill attachment, gets much hotter (which cleans better) and can clean other things around your home like tile grout, carpet stains, or car upholstery. It works, and you’ll be glad you own one. The grill brush attachment works like a normal grill brush, only it has 150-degree steam working at the same time, loosening up the crusty greasy stuff with ease. This works on ceramic-coated as well as stainless-steel grates and has the added benefit of less chance of chipping the finish on the former.

Magnetic Hooks

Grill manufacturers don’t seem to understand how useful hooks are on a grill. Most grills don’t have hooks. So what to do with the grill brushes, spatulas, tongs? Get yourself some of these heavy duty magnetic hooks and solve that problem. They’ll stick wherever you think is convenient. Oh, and if you own a stainless grill like a recteq or Grilla Grills, you’ll find that SOME stainless is indeed magnetic, despite what people say. Test if a magnet sticks where you might like a hook before buying. (More info in our article about Stainless vs Carbon Steel.) We personally like them on the side of the pellet hopper. Another alternative is S-hooks, which we cover next. Either way, hooks are necessary pellet grill accessories.

S-Hooks

S-Hooks simply hook over the side handles of your grill (if yours has them) as an alternative to magnets. These have a wide opening, large enough for larger diameter round handles on the front or sides of some grills.

Pinch Mitts  

These are miniature silicon oven mitts, known as Pinch Mitts, that slip over just the tips of two or three fingers. Great for pulling out hot probes, as well as nudging pans or grates, without the bulk and hassle of a full oven mitt. Works with nitrile gloves, easy to wash. A no brainer accessory that you’ll find yourself using all over the kitchen, as well as with your grill.

Dry Bag for Pellet Storage

You probably keep opened bags of pellets folded over in your garage. Maybe you use a dog food container or bucket. We’ve gone to using dry bags, like those used by campers and paddlers, as they’re waterproof, fold up to nothing when not in use, and are cheap and easy to get in the mail. Here’s a video of our full-bore garden hose test on using the Seat To Summit bag for pellet storage, where we placed paper towels at the top and bottom of the bag, along with pellets. The results: all were bone-dry. These bags are a giant recommendation for convenient pellet storage. They’re available in several sizes, but we recommend the 35L which will hold up to 20 lbs of pellets.

Protect your pellets from humidity with a water-tight bag. Easier to store when empty than a big container.

Heat Proof Gloves

Searing all the hairs off your knuckles, hands and forearms is kind of a sign you’re a griller. But pain is avoidable. These gloves are heat proof enough–over 900 degrees– to be able to grab hot coals, so your pork butt or cast-iron skillet are not a problem. They’re also cut-resistant. And they’re machine washable.

Bucket Liners

Your grease bucket is probably embarrassing. Use these disposable bucket liners from now on. Get a new bucket, if needed, and your grease draining side of the grill will no longer be a source of shame. We like these paper ones as they’re more environmentally friendly than the disposable aluminum ones and the top folds up for easier disposal.

And yes, they do make drip pan liners as well. But that’s not necessary. Just use some good old heavy duty aluminum foil. And do it often. No one likes their food infused with burnt carbon smell, and old food on drip pans is a sign of an amateur.

Ash Vac

Yes, shop vacs work fine. But if you’ve ever started one up having forgotten that your last job was cleaning the ash out your pellet grill, then you know the shock of a cloud of ash coming from your shop vac. And if you happen to be inside your house when it happens, oh boy. This vacuum is made for cleaning ash from fireplaces and grills. The largest difference is in the filtration of that fine ash. Note: DO NOT VACUUM HOT ASH!

Smell-free Bags

While this is a pellet grill accessories list, these are useful for anyone with a kitchen. You probably never knew these existed. They do. We learned of them from backpacking, where keeping food smells contained means racoons or bears won’t go rummaging around your camp. I have a sensitive sense of smell. So when I’ve smoked several chicken breasts or some ribs and put the leftovers in the fridge, no matter what I put them in, I can smell smoky marinade odors in the fridge. And THAT means that those same odors are infiltrating my ice in the freezer. Then I discovered these bags, used in hospital environments for smelly waste. Anyway, these bags work to keep those oh-so-odiferous morsels you’ve cooked from smelling up your fridge and freezer or trash can. They come in several sizes from sandwich-sized up to kitchen trash can sized. We like the medium size as it will hold a whole chicken or slabs of ribs easily. If you’re doing a large butchering, these may come in handy to keep the scraps from fouling up your garbage can.

There is no shortage of grilling accessories, for sure, but many are gimmicks and don’t turn out to be very useful to a real chef or pit master. The above list can maybe help show you some things that can make smoking with pellets a bit easier or more enjoyable.