Outdoor kitchen island for Traeger
Traeger pellet grills are great for several reasons, but their versatility is next to none, so it makes sense to make your Traeger grill the centerpiece of your outdoor cooking area.
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One way you could be considering doing that is by making an outdoor kitchen island.
Can you build your own outdoor kitchen island? Should you do so? How would you go about doing that?
What is the size of a Traeger grill? Can you build your Traeger grill into a kitchen island?
Can you build an outdoor kitchen island for Traegers?
Yes, you can build an outdoor kitchen island for your Traeger grill. You need to keep in mind the weight of your grill, airflow, and the heat generated by your grill.
That means any outdoor kitchen island needs to be able to withstand the heat put off by your Traeger grill when you crank it up for searing burgers or steaks and support the weight as well.
If you are feeling particularly bold, you can even look into building a rolling island for your Traeger grill so you can maintain the ability to move your grill while adding all the bonuses of a kitchen island.
Should you build an outdoor kitchen island for Traegers?
If you spend a lot of time cooking outside and have amassed a number of tools for your grill, an outdoor kitchen island built around your Traeger grill can have a lot of advantages.
Being able to prepare slabs of ribs right next to your grill can mean less of a chance of dropping precious meat while walking around.
You can also have additional rubs, paper towels, butcher paper, or aluminum foil easily at hand without cluttering up every available inch of area.
How do you build outdoor kitchen islands for Traegers?
The most important thing to keep in mind when you want to build an outdoor kitchen island for your Traeger grill is managing clearances for airflow.
There are two ways to build an outdoor kitchen for your grill. If you have a new Timberline series grill, you can build the grill directly into an outdoor kitchen island.
There still needs to be a minimum of two inches separating the grill from the backsplash of the counter in order to provide proper exhaust.
The new Timberline grills also have an induction cooktop that can be installed into the kitchen island, and it needs to be a minimum of three inches from every edge of the countertop.
All the countertops must be a minimum depth of 24 inches to provide that necessary exhaust room.
You also need to keep in mind that the backsplash cannot be too high which could prevent the lid from opening properly.
If you are wanting to take any other Traeger grill and make it part of an outdoor kitchen, you will remove the legs of the unit and have it sitting on a strong enough surface to hold its weight and be able to resist the heat.
You need to accommodate the hopper plus the necessary clearances for airflow and exhaust.
While you can put a Traeger onto a kitchen island, it will not deliver the same built-in look that the new Timberline series grills will because of the difference in designs.
Traeger dimensions
Different Traeger grills boast different dimensions, all of which can be found on Traeger’s website.
Each series has its own dimensions and different-sized grills in each series.
If you are wanting to build an outdoor kitchen island for a Traeger grill, you will want to consult the specifications page for your desired grill.
The last thing you want to do is go through the process of designing and building an outdoor kitchen island only to discover that the space for your grill is too small or that the island is incapable of withstanding the weight of the grill.
Built-in Traeger grill
With the new Timberline series that debuted in 2022, Traeger made it possible for the grills to be officially built into outdoor kitchens.
They added a built-in trim kit to help with the process of building the grill into your kitchen island.
It replaces the wheels on the bottom of the cart with leveling feet to help keep the grill level with the rest of the outdoor kitchen and then covers the area with a powder-coated kick plate to make it look nice and clean.
The kickplate also offers airflow for proper ventilation around the grill.
Final Thoughts
If you are serious about cooking outdoors, building an outdoor kitchen island around your Traeger grill can be a viable way to boost your abilities.
With time, the proper tools and supplies, and hard work, you can build your own homemade outdoor kitchen island. It can give you more storage and preparation area than your grill normally comes with.
With the launch of the new Timberline series in early 2022, Traeger made it even easier for you to put one of their newest grills into an outdoor kitchen island.
This article was written by Robert McCall, the founder of bbqdropout.com. Robert also owns and operates the BBQ dropout YouTube channel where he demonstrates his first-hand experience cooking all kinds of meats and strives to provide helpful, authoritative content for people looking how to barbecue.
He primarily hand writes the bulk of the content but occasionally will leverage AI assisted tools, such as chatGPT, to properly edit and format each blog post on this website. This ensures a pleasurable reading experience for visitors. Read more about our editorial policies here. If there are any improvements that can be made to this article, reach out to us directly at staff@bbqdropout.com