Traeger Pro 575 Smoker Ode After 6 Years of Heavy Use

I’ll never forget the time I served a dry turkey at a dinner party. After planning and prepping and brining for literal days leading up to the event, I proudly placed my masterpiece in the center of the table and watched as everyone took their first bites, gave polite little smiles, and quickly moved on to the other dishes. I may have shed a tear or two for my ruined bird in bed that night.

Luckily, not long after my failed meal, I discovered the secret to never cooking dry poultry again: the Traeger Pro 575.

Trager Pro 575 Grill

With its buttons, digital screen, drip catchers, and smokestack, this piece of equipment looks intimidating at first, but I was pleased to find that it’s actually foolproof. The Traeger’s D2 drivetrain and 20-volt, brushless motor allow it to hone in on an exact temperature and hold it—fluctuating weather, nosy chefs who open the lid a little too frequently, and big gusts of wind be damned. There’s a simple temperature probe to pop into your meat, and you can also set an alarm, so it alerts you when your gauge hits your desired temperature.

Inside, with 572 square inches of cooking space (including a removable top rack for two-tier smoking), there’s plenty of room to cook for a crowd, no matter if I want that top shelf to squeeze in as many drumsticks as possible or to remove it and make way for a towering beer-can chicken. To be exact, the smoker holds 24 burgers, 5 racks of ribs, or 4 whole (small) chickens at once.

The pellet compartment holds 18 pounds of pellets, which saves middle-of-the-night trips to the smoker when I’m working on an overnight brisket or sneaking out for a trail run while dinner slow-cooks. I also like how I can monitor and control the temperature via the app on my phone if I’m too busy to head out to the backyard to adjust.

At a price point of $800, this is an investment piece; but not only is the smoker easy to master, it’s also durable. After six years of heavy use—and despite ignoring more than a few helpful “Clean Grill!” alerts—the Pro 575 is still chugging along, munching down pellets and spitting out flavorful, moist meals.

I’ve been smoking with my Traeger regularly since 2020 and have relied on it to prepare wings and drummies, brisket, salmon, ribs, beer chickens, and entire 15-pound turkeys. From dry rubs and brines to marinades and butter baths, no matter whether prep takes minutes or days, I have yet to serve anything I prepared on the Traeger dry.