Yoder Smokers YS640s Hands-On: A Pellet Smoker Like No Other - CNET

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This unique grill is designed to last a lifetime.

Thanks to its design and build, the Yoder YS640s is perfect for smoking, grilling, searing, baking, and more.

Grilling may not be on your mind this time of year, but with the weather cooling to bearable levels after a sweltering summer, it's a great time for outdoor cooking. While many excellent grills are on the market, from gas to charcoal and pellet to kamado, picking the right grill depends on your needs. But what if you could buy one grill that offers a cooking experience similar to all those options?

I have found that in the Yoder YS640s pellet smoker. From build quality to performance, a few things make this cooker stand out from others on the market. I will break down the three areas that make the Yoder YS640s the grill you want to use year-round.

Like vehicles, Yoder offers different levels of cookers to best fit your needs.

As a little background on the Yoder brand, the company began in Yoder, Kansas, in 2007, when President and owner Don Cary hand-designed and built the first offset smoker. But that was only for friends and family. In 2009, Yoder began making its cookers commercially and has continued to design and manufacture its products in Yoder, Kansas.

The company has expanded beyond the traditional-style offset smoker to offer pellet smokers, grills, flat tops, Santa Marias and even trailer-mounted smokers. But regardless of how the company has grown and added to its product line, Yoder continues to build products designed to last a lifetime.

I had the opportunity to visit All Things BBQ in Wichita, KS, which serves as the dedicated storefront for the cookers. While there, I spoke with some of the cooks from the Yoder test kitchen, including head chef Tom Jackson, to learn all about their pellet smokers.

Every cooker that Yoder Smokers makes is designed and built in Yoder, Kansas

While there are always exceptions to the rule, the phrase “you get what you pay for” is often true. This applies in many ways to the grills and smokers, whether the programming controls how much and when to add pellets to the materials used in making the cooker; not all are created equal.

Traeger is the most recognizable brand in pellet cookers, and for good reason. Traeger popularized the category with great products and innovative features. These are also typically some of the most expensive options on the market. However, as much as I enjoy using its products, like the Ironwood XL, compared to the Yoder YS640s, it falls short in build quality.

(top) Traeger Ironwood XL and (bottom) Yoder Smokers YS640s: Yoder uses heavy gauge steel for durability and better heat retention.

Most brands of grills use powder-coated steel for the bulk of the construction materials. That metal is generally around 1 to 1.5mm thick. Yoder uses solid 10-gauge steel, which is approximately 3.5mm thick and offers more than just durability to the cooker.

Aside from using thicker steel for construction, Yoder also uses high-temp paint instead of powder coating. When I asked why during my visit with the Yoder team, I was told it was a decision to increase the grill's longevity.

Every part of the Yoder Smokers YS640s is solidly built, from the cart to the wire racks, it's all sturdy.

If you scratch or dent something with a powder coating, it will typically crack and chip off. This leads to moisture getting under the coating, causing rust. Should the paint come off the Yoder -- or should it get scratched -- it can be sanded and touched up with paint. A small spray can is provided when you buy a grill.

Using a thermal camera, you can see how the heavy gauge steel is able to evenly distribute heat.

Another benefit of using thicker gauge steel is that it increases the cooker’s ability to maintain a consistent temperature, which is essential when cooking for longer periods and uses fewer pellets. Heavy-gauge steel isn’t relegated only to the outside of the grill. It's also used for the cart, cooking grates and heat diffuser.

Yoder allows for direct access to the flame for excellent searing.

You typically cook over direct fire on a gas or charcoal grill. This allows for better searing on your burgers and steaks and will enable you to char vegetables more quickly than you can with indirect cooking. But smokers, pellet or otherwise, don’t have direct access to the flames for cooking -- the Yoder YS640s does.

Modern smokers use a heat deflector to help distribute heat evenly across the grill. They can also direct smoke for reverse-flow smoking to add more flavor. These deflectors are generally solid pieces of metal that run the length of the cooker. The same is true for the Yoder, but aside from using heavier gauge steel than competitors, there is also a removable cover over the pellet burn pot.

Direct access to the burn pot means cooking your food over the direct fire for a perfect sear.

By removing this cover, you can cook your food directly over the fire, something other pellet grills don’t allow. The best way to use this feature is with the anodized aluminum grill rails sold separately. While this accessory isn’t necessary, it offers a better searing experience by focusing the heat on the top rail, where the food rests, and recirculating drippings as it drips to the lower areas of the grill rails.

Another feature unique to the Yoder YS640s is that the burn pot isn’t located in the center of the cooker as it is with other brands. The pellet hopper and controller are positioned on the left end of the grill, so Yoder decided to put the burn pot on the left end as well. This means there's a shorter distance between the pellets and the burn pot, reducing the number of pellets left in the auger. It allows for a broader range of temperatures across the grill's cooking area, so you can have more flexibility in how you cook your food.

The pizza oven accessory is built from the same heavy steel as the grill.

Yoder doesn’t just make a smoker capable of grilling an excellent steak and smoking a brisket for 15 hours. It offers accessories that are just as well made, and which are able to expand the capabilities of the YS640s.

Aside from the grill rails already mentioned, Yoder has grill covers, cast iron griddles, different rack sizes, shelves, drawers and even a pizza oven. All of these are built to a high standard and are intended to last a very long time.

Yoders accessories are just as durably built as the grills are.

The pizza oven is particularly impressive, not only in functionality but also in its construction. Yoder uses the same heavy-gauge steel from the grills to handle temperatures up to 1,000 degrees. While at the All Things BBQ store, I watched the team prep two pizzas from scratch and cook them using the pizza oven, and they turned out delicious -- much like the pizza made on my fire pit.

While it is called a pizza oven, the Yoder kitchen team said they have cooked pies, bread, lasagna and more. As a bonus feature, the top of the pizza oven also gets very hot, which makes for an excellent hot plate to cook something in a skillet while using the oven.

The All Things Barbecue store is located in Wichita, Kansas and sells all kinds of grills and grilling accessories.

Yoder doesn’t get the same press and recognition as many other grill brands, but make no mistake: they make some of the best grills we’ve tested. While you won’t find AI cooking features or flashy product displays at your local big box store, you will find that these grills offer highly consistent and excellent performance in many areas, including heat management, versatility, durability and more in a product designed and built in the USA.