Recteq Deck Boss 590 Review
In this article, we review the Recteq Deck Boss 590. We have logged over 100 hours on the grill and fired it up over 50 times over the course of a year. We have had an incredible experience with the grill and recommend it to anyone who is looking to get into pellet grills. It is perfect for everyday cooking for a small family or hosting 15-20 people parties!
What is a Pellet Grill?
A pellet grill is a type of outdoor cooker that uses wood pellets as its fuel source for creating stable heat and smoke. Typically they run on electricity to produce a heat source to ignite the pellets and regulate temperature. They are a super simple way to put a smoke flavor on your food without having to manage a fire like on a stick burner.
Pellet grills are an extremely convenient way to cook barbecue because they are truly set it and forget it. Turn the grill on, set the temperature and start cooking. It’s really that easy…when you have a quality smoker like the Recteq Deck Boss 590!
What Makes High Quality Pellet Grill?
Typically, when looking at smokers and grills, the type of metal and paint are the biggest tells for the quality of the product. The reason for this is they are the main drivers for regulating temperature efficiently and having a long-lasting product. The Recteq Deck Boss 590 is made completely out of stainless steel and any “painted,” areas are a high temperature-resistant powder coat. These materials cover everything including the grates, drip pan, hopper, lid, handles, you name it.
Another indicator of a quality pellet grill is the evenness of temperature across the grill grates. On cheaper grills, you typically see hot spots speckled around the grill grates. With the Recteq Deck Boss 590, that is not the case. Front to back and left to right, the surface performs very similarly. A large part of that is the substantial cast iron heal deflector that sits just above the fire pot. It helps disburse the heat across the grill and holds heat well.
Because the Recteq Deck Boss 590 does these 2 critical things so well, you are able to fire up the grill in 5 degree increments from 180-700F and will see unwavering temperatures for the entire duration of the cook. In the time I have owned the grill, I have had ZERO temperature spikes, consistent start-up times, and feel 100% confident knowing the grill will hold temp for any length of cook, regardless of ambient or cooking temperature.
Recteq Deck Boss 590 Hopper Size
The hopper on the Recteq Deck Boss 590 is 30 pounds. That is enough room to store about 30 hours worth of cooking fuel if you primarily cook low and slow. Typically, pellet grills burn about 1lb of pellets per hour cooking this way in reasonable ambient temperature. This burn rate increases significantly when increasing cooking temperature or decreasing ambient temperature. Regardless, 30 pounds is plenty of storage to not have to worry about replenishing pellets every cook or running out overnight, for example.
In our area, a 20lb bag of pellets runs about $10, so you can expect to spend about $0.50 per hour in fuel cooking on the grill. We are typically able to to run the grill for about 20-30 hours of operating time on a full hopper. The grill burns pellet during the warm-up and cool-down, so cook time is probably closer to the 20 hour side of things. We fill it up so infrequently that it is tough to remember exactly how many cooks we run between topping it up.
As far as which pellets to use, Recteq makes their own pellets, which are a quality product, but you are able to burn whatever kind of pellet you like. Some popular brands are Recteq, Bear Mountain, and Lumberjack. We have used all 3 of these brands pretty much interchangeably and recommend them all.
The one caveat when selecting a pellet is you need to make sure they are pellets graded for cooking with. Otherwise, there is a safety concern for both the grill and food.
Recteq Deck Boss 590 Cooking Area
The cooking area on the Recteq Deck Boss 590 is 590sq in. The Recteq website states that is enough for:
In our experience, this estimate is pretty accurate. Below, you can see how 4 racks of St. Louis cut ribs set on the grates. Looking at the image, there appears to me more empty room than there actually is. When cooking near max capacity, you have to be carful not to have the food extending past the drip pan. If you do, you wind up with grease and drippings in the bottom of the cooker. That is a potential fire hazard, creates dirty smoke and is just nasty to clean up as it mixes with pellet dust.
So, the real limiting factor here is how big the drip pan is. For most situations, this cooker is the perfect size. But, if you need to cook more than what is listed above, it’s better to plan for that with the initial grill purchase than try to make a smaller grill work.
It is possible you could squeeze some more space out of the cook area with an extra shelf or being more efficient with your food placement. A rib rack or something similar may be helpful to get more food on the grill, but if you are looking at a cooker this size, this likely won’t ever be a concern. To cook ribs like these, check out our recipe. It was written for a charcoal smoker, but can easily be applied to a pellet grill.
This is plenty of space to cook for a family of 4 or to host small parties. We always recommend to get the biggest grill you can afford for your situation. If you know you host a 50-person party every year, buy a grill to suit that. pellet consumption will not be much different from a larger grill to a grill of this size.
Recteq Deck Boss 590 Operation
Operating the Recteq Deck Boss 590 is so incredibly easy. All you have to do is turn the power on, dial up the temperature and wait. In our experience, it takes about 20-30 minutes for the Recteq Deck Boss 590 to come up to temperature. Once the Recteq Deck Boss 590 is on, you can control the unit with the Recteq app as pictured below. The user interface is incredibly intuitive and the app has worked as expect for us every time we have used it. You even get to name your grill whatever you want, hence ours listed as Bill the grill!
Once you have your grill connected to the app, you can adjust the temperature, turn the grill off and compare your cooks to others. It is a great way to manage your cook without having to stand by the grill. This is incredibly handy if the weather is bad or you are prepping other stuff indoors.
When you put your food on the Recteq Deck Boss 590, you will likely never have to manage the temperature on the grill until it is time to finish up the cook. In our experience, the temperature has stayed rock solid for every cook within 1 degree of out set-point for the full duration of the cooks.
The software in the Recteqs do a great job of managing temperatures and we think that is where the value of a pellet grill really shines. They are perfect for people who want to barbecue or smoke food, but don’t want to be managing a fire for hours on end. Don’t get us wrong, we do it from time to time and there’s nothing wrong with that, but some folks just want a less involved experience.
The smoke flavor from a pellet grill tends to be more subtle than other cookers. For us, that is actually a plus. You will definitely be able to tell the food way smoked, but overall smoke flavor will be subdued. We see that as an opportunity for the rubs, sauces and met to shine a bit brighter. Plus, there is minimal chance of applying too much smoke or dirty smoke to a meal and that goes a long ways, especially when cooking for multiple people so you can please a wider array of tastes.
Recteq Customer Support
Thankfully, we have never had a need to call customer support. However, from our involvement in the BBQ community, it is obvious that Recteq provides the best service in the business. They are available via phone, email or direct message on social media. We have seen instances of people asking for help and the owner of the company stepping in to resolve the issues.
We have never seen another company willing to provide that level of service to their customers. They clearly stand behind their product and want to give people the best experience possible. In the off chance that someone does have a problem with their grill, the vast majority can be solved over the phone. If not, we have seen several parts or whole new units overnighted to folks to resolve their issue.
Conclusion
The Recteq Deck Boss 590 is perfect in our opinion. For what you get at the price of $899 (or cheaper on sale), it is tough to beat the Deck Boss. Rock solid temps, easy to operate, great customer service, quality materials. The grill performs with the best of them and punches above its class in our opinion. In the 70+ cooks we have done, we have never had a single issue and do not expect any to arise.
