something that should be added to this thread.
one,pellet grills are great !! but,charcoal grills have a flavor all of their own that will never be duplicated.
two,pellet grills will never duplicate real wood smoke flavor but they come close.
three,pellet grills,at least my two GMG’s need cleaned every twenty five hours of use and its recommended in the owners manual.
why??? the ash build up in the burn pot slows ignition time and the amount of room for pellets that you need to make good consistent smoke and heat,trust me on that one.
the element is for ignition only,not making heat,the less pellets in there the more pellets you will actually burn or spill over to make heat.
four,all of the ash in the bottom of the barrel is a moisture trap that will set up rusting/pitting of the barrel.
a sixteen hour smoke on a brisket uses about sixteen pounds of pellets,thats a lot of ash laying around in the burn pot and barrel,not sixteen pounds of ash mind you but enough to cause problems.
five,yes,clean the grates as well,you dont want brisket fat that doesnt make it to the drip tray/bucket stinking up a chicken,ham,etc and vice versa.
on mine,I turn it up to five hundred to burn a lot of this unwanted flavor out of it just like the self clean feature in an oven will do.
six,and very important,GET YOURSELF A GOOD REMOTE TEMP PROBE !!!
( I can hear you laughing Denny O )
I have two maverick et733 probes,cheap enough at 60 bucks each,dual probe programmable thermometers.
this way you can use the grills probe to monitor the at the grate temps which is a must!!!!
and finally a warning that superdave and denny o will tell you and I have learned the hard way,this hobby will become addicting,very addicting.
and yes,I have three grills,I have two GMGS and a kingsford charcoal smoker/grill 
