Wood Chips vs Pellets: Which Should You Smoke With?

Wood chips vs pellets is less a contest than a question of which cooker you own. Both are hardwood, and both make smoke, but they do different jobs. In a pellet grill, pellets are the fuel and the smoke at once, and they are the only fuel those grills are built to burn. Wood chips are a smoke add-on: they smolder in an electric smoker’s chip tray, a propane smoker’s wood pan, or over a charcoal or gas fire that supplies the real heat. So the short answer is to smoke with whatever your appliance was designed for, and no, wood chips do not belong in a pellet smoker’s hopper.

This comparison draws on Traeger’s wood pellet guide, pellet FAQ and Pro Series owner’s manual, the Pit Boss Navigator 850 manual, Camp Chef’s FAQ, Masterbuilt’s FAQ and MES 340G electric smoker manual, Weber’s charcoal smoking guide and wood chip product page, Oklahoma Joe’s offset smoker tips, A-MAZE-N and Pit Boss smoke tube pages, and CDC carbon monoxide guidance. It is general product information; your cooker’s manual has the final say.

Wood Chips vs Pellets at a Glance

What Each One Is

Wood chips

Chips are small, irregular pieces of hardwood sold by species: hickory, mesquite, pecan, cherry, apple and so on. Weber’s US site lists its hickory wood chips in a 192 cu in bag, alongside chunk versions of the same woods. Chips are not a fuel in the sense charcoal or propane is. You add a measured amount to something that is already hot, they smolder for a while, and you add more when the smoke stops.

Wood pellets

Pellets start from the same kind of raw material. Traeger’s wood pellet guide says that, like wood chips, pellets are made from sawmill byproducts; the wood is ground, dried and sent through a rotating forming die, and a knife cuts the strands into uniform pellets. That uniform size and dryness is what lets a pellet grill’s auger meter them into a fire pot steadily, which chips could never do.

How Each One Makes Smoke

Chips need a heat source under them. In Weber’s charcoal smoking guide, drained chips go evenly over the coals; Weber says the damp chips drop the fire’s temperature at first, and the heat recovers once they begin to smolder. In an electric smoker, the element heats a chip tray. Masterbuilt’s MES 340G manual notes that chips may not smoke on the low setting; its fix is to raise the smoker to 275° until the chips start to smolder, after 8 to 10 minutes, and then drop back to the setting you want. In a propane smoker, the burner heats the wood, and Camp Chef’s FAQ says the smoking and smoldering chips, together with wind through the side vents, can affect the burner flame and cause temperature swings.

Pellets in a pellet grill work the other way around: they are the heat source. Traeger’s pellet FAQ says hardwood pellets are the heat source inside the grill, that the grill cannot function without them, and that they also provide the wood-fired flavor. Camp Chef’s FAQ says the same about its pellet grills: the pellets are the only fuel, and without them you get no heat. That is the core difference in one line. With chips, you manage a fire and add smoke. With pellets in a pellet grill, the smoke and the fire are the same thing.

To Soak or Not to Soak

Soaking is the most argued-over step with chips, and the makers do not fully agree:

• Weber calls for a soak of 30 minutes or more, so the chips smolder instead of catching fire, and skips the soak for chunks.
• Masterbuilt, in both its FAQ and the MES 340G manual, says you may use dry or pre-soaked chips: dry chips burn faster and give more intense smoke, while chips soaked for about 30 minutes burn slower and give a less intense smoke.
• Traeger, which sells pellets, frames soaking as one of the hassles of chips in its pellet guide.

For pellets there is no debate. Traeger’s guide warns that pellets ruin quickly once they get wet, and its Pro Series owner’s manual warns that pellets expand greatly when wet and will jam the auger. If you are used to soaking chips, break the habit before you open a bag of pellets.

Can You Use Wood Chips in a Pellet Smoker?

Not as fuel. The grill makers are direct about it:

• Traeger: its pellet FAQ says the use of other wood pellets, wood chips, firebricks or heating pellets can damage your grill. The Pro Series manual says the grill is designed and approved only for all natural wood cooking pellets designed for pellet grills, and that burning other fuels voids the warranty and can jam the auger or create a safety hazard.
• Pit Boss: the Navigator 850 owner’s manual limits the grill to all natural hardwood in pellet form and says burning anything else in it voids both the warranty and the safety listing.
• Camp Chef: its FAQ allows other brands of pellets as long as they are 100% natural wood, free of additives, binders, glue, corn and oils, which still means pellets.

The practical reason is the feed system. A pellet grill meters fuel with an auger into a small fire pot, and Traeger’s manual names a jammed auger among the risks of using any other fuel. Chips vary in size and shape from piece to piece, so they are not the uniform fuel that system expects, and both the Traeger and Pit Boss manuals tie other fuels to a voided warranty.

If what you really want is more smoke than your pellet grill gives, the accessory built for that job is a pellet tube. On its page for the 12 inch tube, A-MAZE-N says the tube adds smoke at cooking temperatures whether or not the pellet grill is burning pellets at that moment, and lists pellet grills first among the cookers it performs well in. Pit Boss lists approximately 3 hours of smoke time for its expanding smoke tube. Both are sold as pellet tubes. None of the pellet grill makers we read describes setting chips on the grates in a box, so check your own manual before trying it.

Can You Use Pellets Where Chips Go?

Sometimes, and the answer again comes from the cooker:

• Electric smokers: generally no. Masterbuilt says its electric smokers and cold smoker attachment are designed for wood chips only, and the MES 340G manual says never to use wood chunks or wood pellets in the chip loader. Its MES 400 is an exception for chunks, not pellets.
• Propane smokers: Masterbuilt says its propane smokers take wood chunks or chips, and it reserves food grade pellets for its pellet smokers and grills.
• Gas grills: Traeger’s wood pellet guide says a smoke box lets you add chips or pellets to a gas or charcoal grill, and the A-MAZE-N and Pit Boss tubes list gas grills.
• Charcoal grills: pellets can go on top of a lit charcoal fire as a smoke source, while chips and chunks are what Weber’s charcoal guide is written around.

How Much You Use and How Long It Lasts

Chips are added in small, repeated doses. Masterbuilt’s MES 340G manual says never to add more than 1/2 cup at a time, which is one full chip loader, and not to add more until the previous chips have stopped producing smoke. Its pre-season routine adds that 1/2 cup during the last 45 minutes of a 3-hour burn at 275°F. On a long smoke, that means checking the tray periodically and reloading, and the manual says to keep the door closed while you do.

Pellets are loaded by the hopper and burned by the hour. Traeger puts an 18 to 20 lb bag at roughly 6 hours of hot grilling up to 20 hours of low smoking, depending on grill and temperature. You top up the hopper rather than tending a tray. A pellet tube in a gas grill sits between the two: Pit Boss puts its expanding tube at about 3 hours of smoke per fill.

Storage

Pellets need more care. Traeger’s pellet FAQ advises against keeping pellets outdoors, since moisture can leave them unusable, and recommends indoor storage in an airtight container. The Pit Boss manual says hardwood pellets are highly susceptible to moisture and should always be kept in an airtight container. The chip makers we read do not give storage rules; keeping an opened bag dry and closed is a sensible default.

Which Should You Smoke With?

Use pellets if you

• Own a pellet grill or pellet smoker. They are the only fuel it is approved to burn.
• Want extra smoke in a gas grill and like the idea of a tube that runs for a few hours per fill.
• Prefer filling a hopper to reloading a chip tray every so often.

Use wood chips if you

• Own an electric smoker built around a chip tray or loader.
• Smoke on a propane smoker, a gas grill with a smoker box, or a charcoal kettle and want to choose the smoke separately from the heat.
• Want to set the smoke strength yourself: Masterbuilt says dry chips give more intense smoke and soaked chips a less intense one.

Consider chunks instead if you

• Run an offset or a charcoal smoker for long cooks. Weber says chunks need no soaking, and Oklahoma Joe’s pro tips for its offsets start with about 10 lb of charcoal and add small logs or wood chunks once the charcoal has ashed over, refueling about every two hours.

Safety: Both Make Carbon Monoxide

Whichever wood you burn, the smoke carries carbon monoxide. Masterbuilt’s MES 340G manual warns that smoldering wood chips release odorless carbon monoxide that can kill, and limits the smoker to well-ventilated outdoor spaces. Traeger’s Pro Series manual puts a carbon monoxide danger notice for burning pellets on its first safety page and limits the grill to outdoor use. CDC’s carbon monoxide guidance for clinicians says grills should never be used in a home, basement, garage or camper. Smoke flavor says nothing about doneness, so confirm it with a food thermometer and the USDA FSIS safe minimum internal temperature chart.

FAQ

Are wood pellets better than wood chips?

Neither is better in general; they fit different cookers. Pellets are the required fuel in a pellet grill and a handy smoke source in a tube or smoke box. Chips are the standard smoke source for electric smokers, propane smokers and grills with a separate heat source.

Can you use wood chips in a pellet smoker?

Not in the hopper. Traeger says wood chips can damage its grills, and Pit Boss says fuel other than all natural hardwood pellets voids the warranty and safety listing. For extra smoke, use a pellet tube made for pellet grills.

Can you put pellets in an electric smoker?

Not in a chip tray designed for chips. Masterbuilt’s MES 340G manual says never to use wood pellets in its chip loader, and Masterbuilt’s FAQ limits food grade pellets to its pellet smokers and grills. Check your own smoker’s manual.

Do you soak wood pellets like wood chips?

No. Weber’s soaking advice is for chips. Traeger says wet pellets quickly ruin, and its manual says they expand when wet and can jam the auger.

Wood pellets vs wood chunks: what is the difference?

Chunks are larger pieces of wood used for long smokes on charcoal and offsets; Weber says they do not need soaking, and Oklahoma Joe’s adds them to an offset’s charcoal fire. Pellets are compressed, uniform and meant to be fed by an auger, so they suit pellet grills and smoke tubes rather than a firebox.

The Bottom Line

In the wood chips vs pellets choice, the cooker decides. Pellets are the fuel for pellet grills and nothing else should go in that hopper, chips included. Chips are the smoke source for electric and propane smokers and for grills that already have a fire. Soak chips if your maker suggests it, never soak pellets, store pellets dry and indoors, and burn either one outdoors only.

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