Beast or bust? Does the Reqtec Backyard Beast live up to its name? Is it worth your hard earned money? Let’s find out.
Over the last few months, I’ve cooked tons of food on this grill. Everything from frozen burgers and hot dogs, (Costco hot dogs, no less), to chicken thighs and ribs. Lots of ribs. But we’ll come back to that. Before we dive in, let us know in the comments if there’s another Reqtec grill you’d like to see us review.
If you watched our Deck Boss review, you already know what I’m going to say. This thing is a sexy beast. Reqtec has the aesthetics absolutely dialed in on their grills with the black on stainless, clean lines, and stout construction. The polished horn handles are next level and they dab.
Plus, with the chrome emblem on the lid, embossed name on the lower shelf, and red accented control knob, this grill is a complete showstopper. Finally, the drip bucket hangs underneath and really improves the overall look of the grill. She’s a beaut, Clark.
The Backyard Beast comes with a second shelf, which keeps the food away from the radiant heat of the fire pot, which is critical for an excellent brisket. Overall, this grill has a huge cooking capacity. I cooked eight racks of ribs at once with no issue, and I had room for a ninth.
The grill grates are really high quality and super heavy duty. And the Backyard Beast ships with the great hook for removing hot grates, which is awesome. The Backyard Beast has a cast iron heat deflector, which doesn’t warp like the old sheet metal ones did. Plus, it has a ton of thermal mass, which helps regulate temperatures inside the grill.
The Backyard Beast is a smart grill that ships with dual band Wi-Fi, plus an app, blah blah blah. Don’t they all at this point? On each of my three Reqtec grills, I’ve struggled to connect to Wi-Fi, but none of my other Wi-Fi connected grills have had issues. I’m sure it’s just me.
It has a large 30 lb hopper, which is plenty of capacity for a bunch of grilling sessions or longer smoking sessions. This grill comes standard with two wired meat probes. Plus, you can calibrate them.
I have to mention the power cord wrap. I actually think this is a completely underrated and under-included feature on pellet grills. So, props to Reqtec. Please continue to put this on every one of your grills.
I’d also like to mention Reqtec’s outstanding customer service. On a prior Reqtec grill, I had a grease fire that completely destroyed the lid. I reached out to Reqtec and they replaced the lid free of charge.
Here are some accessories, upgrades, and add-ons that we think would be helpful. Reqtec does offer a front folding shelf. It’s about $100. And without an extra shelf over here, there just isn’t a ton of space for extra things like rubs, sauces, trays, food, or cooking utensils.
I always use drip bucket liners. They’re like a buck a piece and make cleanup super convenient. Nitrile gloves are a must, and cotton gloves to go under them are the real OG Pit Master move. They work just like oven mitts, but give you much greater dexterity. Last but not least, you need a decent instant read thermometer. I’m not kidding when I say this is the single most important tool in barbecue. So, get yourself a decent one.
I don’t have many gripes about this grill. It has a crappy wire grid in the hopper that stands out compared to the quality of the rest of the grill, but I do love that it’s not attached. There’s no pellet dump, which I think is a big miss. And there’s no convenient place to store the grate hook.
Lastly, the smoke flavor is somewhat muted. If you’re really looking for a convenient pellet grill to cook delicious low and slow barbecue that really packs a smoky punch, I’d recommend the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro. You can check out our review of that pellet grill here.
Now, let’s talk about grilling. It does not have Reqtec Riot mode, but has no trouble grilling. Reqtec claims temps up to 700° Fahrenheit. I’ve been able to get mine up to low to mid 600°s. Still plenty hot for grilling. Running at those temps, there are some definite hot spots over the firepot, and my grill seems to run hotter on the drip bucket side, but nothing crazy.
Now, I’m going to show you how good at searing the backyard beast truly is. I’ve got a delicious looking New York strip and a ribeye. They’re both seasoned with Meat Church Holy Voodoo. I’ve got my instant read thermometer so I will know exactly when these are done. Let’s go ahead and get these on the grill. I’m going to put them right over where the fire pot is. You can practically hear that thing sizzling away.
I’ve got my grill running on full and right now it’s at about 580° F. Holy smokes, that thing is cooking. What’s it at? Temping right around 60° internal. I’m going to go ahead and get these flipped. Look at those grill marks.
I’d say this baby can sear. It’s hot out here today. Now we’re temping about 90° internal.
I’m going to flip these again and try to get some crosshatch grill marks on here. So, now we’re temping about 105°. Going to flip these one last time. We’re going to let these go to about 120°. Pull them off. Let them carry over cook. We’re at about 117° on the ribeye, low 120°s on the New York strip. So, we’re going to pull these off, let them rest for a few minutes before we slice in.
All right, so let’s cut into this New York strip and see how we did. Looks pretty good to me.
Look how crispy this fat got. And this thing was on for maybe 10 minutes total. This thing really seared these steaks.
All things considered, this grill truly is a beast. And honestly, I can’t say anything bad about the Reqtec company or brand. They build a high quality product at a reasonable price, and they stand behind it with outstanding customer service. If you’re looking for a jack-of-trades pellet grill that can smoke and sear, look no further than the Backyard Beast.
Thanks for reading and grill on.
