We pick the Traeger Woodridge Wood Pellet Grill
Take the Woodridge, and take it for fuel rather than grate. The two cook areas are close, 823 sq in against 860, and the Westwood XL actually has the bigger main rack. What the extra $100 buys is a 24 lb hopper where the XL feeds a larger barrel from 18 lb. It also buys a 500 F ceiling over 450, ten years against rust-through instead of seven, and the grease and ash keg. Neither has Super Smoke. The XL keeps the $100 and two load-rated shelves.
What actually differs
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The bigger main rack is on the cheaper grill
540 sq in on the Westwood XL's lower rack against 520 on the Woodridge. All of the Woodridge's extra area sits on the upper rack, and our Woodridge review says to plan a big cook against 520, not 860.
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Six more pounds behind a smaller barrel
The XL feeds 823 sq in from the same 18 lb the 653 sq in Westwood carries, with no pellet sensor. The Woodridge holds 24 lb. Traeger publishes no burn rate for either, so on an overnight cook the bigger hopper is your margin.
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Seven years or ten, against the same single failure
The Woodridge runs its body cover three years longer, but that term only protects against rust-through. The parts that actually fail on a pellet grill, the electronics and the feed, sit on the same three-year term either way.
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Shelves on one, a keg on the other
The XL's frame carries a side shelf rated at 40 lb and a bottom shelf at 60; on the Woodridge, a side shelf is one of the things the Pro adds. The Woodridge answers with one keg for grease and ash, and hooks to hang the grates while you clean.
The scorecard, side by side
Both reviews are scored on the same six weighted categories, each bar on the same 0–10 scale, and every cell carries the reason that review gave. A row is marked won only where the two differ by a tenth or more. How we score →
The smaller Westwood's 180 to 450 F range and controller, with no Super Smoke and no added insulation, so the same score.
An RTD sensor and a 500 F ceiling serve patient cooking, but Super Smoke Mode is reserved for the Pro.
Traeger's table gives the 7 years to sheet metal against rusting through; the auger, fan and controller get 3.
The headline ten years protects sheet metal from rusting through, and nothing else on the grill is covered past three.
Shelves rated at 40 and 60 lb and a standard accessory rail, on a body whose material Traeger never names.
138 lbs reads as settled, but Traeger names no grate or body material and prints no size anywhere.
The full WiFIRE controller, app and probe support, held back only by a build the maker wants two people for.
A full-color display, WiFIRE control and a wired probe in the box, with nothing else to buy before the first cook.
$799.99 buys 823 sq in where $699.99 buys 653, though not one extra feature row comes with it.
$899.99 buys 860 sq in, but the ten years guards against rust and the smoke feature still costs $1,149.99.
A hopper clean-out door and lift-out internals, against a drip tray whose warping Traeger excludes from cover.
The grease and ash keg, hopper clean-out and staging hooks each answer a chore owners actually resent.
Published figures that differ
Quoted from each maker's own specifications, as each review records them. Figures the two products publish identically are left out — only the differences are listed.
Which one is for you
You cook big batches in daylight, want load-rated shelves on the frame, and would rather keep $100.
Check price →You run overnight cooks and want the bigger hopper, the 500 F ceiling and the longer rust cover.
Check price →More head-to-heads
Every score and figure on this page comes from our own reviews of these two products, linked above. We have not tested them side by side in one place; the comparison is between two full reviews, each built from the maker's published specifications and documentation. Prices move, and the ones quoted are the ones each review checked on its own date.