# New Pit Boss



## weev

Has anyone heard anything about these new smokers ??


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## crazzycajun

Not sure on the model but several members were displeased on the temps wide temp swings and several degrees off. As with any smoker get you a good thermometer. Do search on this site for the exact details but several members took them back good luck and report back on your experience if you decide to go that route


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## weev

Hey crazzy thanks for the reply  I know they have had issues with the other kinds of pit boss but I haven't seen this style before 
I researched for over a hour today and only found one review on it


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## crazzycajun

I wondered about that as I haven’t seen that model before if could return it in 30days or so if I was unhappy with it I would try it if not I would wait until more info is available  just curious what’s the price?


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## weev

The price was 399 which is cheaper than the grill style kind


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## yahoot

This is a new model. Saw the prototype last spring at a trade show. I really like the design better - no reason for a smoker to look like a barrel. 
On the one we saw, each level was big enough for a full rack of ribs, and you can slide the racks in (like a masterbuilt). We ate things prepared on it by the factory team and it was great!


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## fordman

I'm looking at the series 5 made for wally. I too only found the one review. Looking to get into pellet smoking and like the new design.


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## ab canuck

A friend of mine just bought one, I am waiting to see what he says with his, I am sure it will be a bit of a learning curve. As with all smokers, You need to figure out and learn its nuances. I have a couple pit boss's and I really enjoy them, It was not an overnight success, There was some trial and error as with all of ones I have used in the past. Good luck and let us know how they work out.


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## weev

I bought one last week mine is the Series 3, mine is a little bit smaller than the other ones but I just want it for when I want to throw something small in. If im going to be doing a big cook I can use my big stick burner. So I got it put together and seasoned it up on Saturday morning.
I let it run for a few hours  and it seemed to work real well the temp probe was a few degrees off from my thermo smoke probe but nothing to bad. One thing I did notice is that it is always cycling, but I believe  that is normal. I have a pellet heater inside my house and it does the same thing it drops in some pellets they start to burn so the temp goes up then they burn down the temp goes down and then it drops more pellets in its a constant cycle. 
It did average out to the temp that I had it set to and I thought that it did good.  It does have a smoke setting that you do get a good amount of smoke from and on a normal temp you get a nice thin blue smoke.
So after it seasoned I figured why waste a hot smoker and I threw in a pizza stone and cooked a couple bbq pulled pork pizzas and they came out great. 
On Sunday morning I fired it up at 730 went in to prep a pork butt to throw on drank a cup of coffee and it was heated up and ready to go by 800. So I threw it in at 250 degrees and it cooked all day, it took 12 hrs to hit 200 degrees where the bone fell out. The pork tasted really good but it did have a less noticeable bark then I get from my stick burner. But I was still happy with how it turned out. I will make some adjustments for the next time and we will see where it goes.

I have some pictures to add but I have to wait until I get home some dipstick forgot his phone sitting on the nightstand this morning


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## weev

Well I said I would add some pictures here are a few but I need to get better at remembering to take more  But here is the pizza I made


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## weev

Here I have a picture with my Smoke unit showing that the temps are about the same


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## weev

These are the pork butts I  was smoking


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## weev

And here is the Cb or back bacon that I smoked 
This was the first time I have attempted to make it  I used pops brine and smoked with 100% hickory and it is the best I have ever had I will be making more of this very soon


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## Jdub83

Any more updates from users? Wally has the 5 series for 396. Price is great but concerned because lack if reviews.


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## weev

Sorry not much new to update from me hopefully next weekend I will be able to use it again


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## Jdub83

The 5 series floor unit feels and looks very sturdy. Wally offers 4 year warranties for 50 bucks which seems to be a smart move. I'm hoping to pick one up very soon.


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## Jon Dickey

Just picked up the 7 series. I have played with it a little but not enough to give a full review. Hoping to get some more experience with it this weekend! FYI picked it up for $549


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## Rings Я Us

7 series is huge. :D

Nice !
I like those smokers as opposed to the grills.  I can't wait to see if it will stay at 150 or so to do jerky.  
Good luck!


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## Jon Dickey

Rings Я Us said:


> 7 series is huge. :D
> 
> Nice !
> I like those smokers as opposed to the grills.  I can't wait to see if it will stay at 150 or so to do jerky.
> Good luck!


My plan is to do jerky soon!!


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## Rings Я Us

I really hope that thing turns out to work great.. You will have something that does everything , AND get the smoke ring.:D
If you have problems keeping the fire going at 150 , You can try a new brand of pellets or another type of wood. Keep it dry and--------------

Best of luck!


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## rablack21

I have really been eyeballing the series 7 also. Really interested in hear y'alls reviews.


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## TulsaJeff

I have not used this one or this style yet( should have one soon), but I really enjoy pellet smoking and have learned that in this type of cooking, it's all about the average temperature. 

You have pellets dropping into a small burn pot which in turn smolder and then burn thereby creating smoke and heat. In order to get a good amount of smoke as well as the proper heat, it's almost impossible to not have some temperature swings in my opinion.

Once I got over the fact that swings was part of the process, I discovered that the food was amazing and that's what truly matters.

I use the Camp Chef Woodwind and just got the SG from them. I also use the Traeger and should have a RecTec soon. All of these units that I have used so far create better smoke and the food has better flavor when I give it an hour of low heat and then turn it up to my set temperature after that.

On the Woodwind, i always start out on "Lo Smoke" for about 1 hour then on to "Hi Smoke" to finish and the smoke flavor rivals most of my other smokers with the exception of my reverse flow stick burner.

I look forward to hearing more about the Pit Boss vertical unit.


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## weev

Mine is still going good I have used it every weekend with no problems except for a full tummy 
I have been surprised that it doesn't go threw more pellets but im ok with that


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## ab canuck

Very curious how these babies work.  I think pit boss has a great pellet grill as is. Be watching these now..


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## rablack21

I just went out and bought the copperhead 5 series this weekend! This is my first pellet fueled smoker or grill. So it has been interesting getting to know it and how it works. So far I have only smoked some bacon wrapped hot dogs and some chicken wings. Compared to the MES 40 that I had previously, this thing is huge. Due to the nature of how the pellet smoker works it does have some temperature swings, but I believe that is just the nature of the beast. When it feeds pellets, it creates quite a bit of smoke, the temp rises due to the added fuel. Then the temp drops back down to what it is set at. Then the cycle repeats itself over and over again. This part was a little hard to get used to as I wasn't expecting it. 
I will say this for Pit Boss though: they have awesome customer service, and they have someone available 7 days a week! I called and spoke to them Saturday and Sunday and I was trying to figure out what was normal and if something wasn't! 
Here is a few pics of me messing around with it.


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## weev

Awesome I hope it does good for you


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## ravenclan

i bought the PitBoss 700FB and no complaints yet


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## rablack21

ravenclan, does your temp also surge up and down a bit? Just curious.


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## ravenclan

I smoke at 225 degrees but during the dump of pellets i go up about 10 degrees. The pellet setting i was on is the factory set at "P4". i want a little more smokey taste so my next smoke i will change the smoke setting to "P3" and see how it goes from there.

I don't think the swing is to bad but this one my front porch with the wind gusting up to 10MPH.

I am very happy with the smokes so far but i still need to do some more smokes to fine tune what "flavor" the wife and I like.


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## weev

ravenclan said:


> i bought the PitBoss 700FB and no complaints yet
> View attachment 362454
> 
> View attachment 362455


Congrats on the new smoker  and I will definitely take a plate of that it looks awesome


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## weev

rablack21 said:


> ravenclan, does your temp also surge up and down a bit? Just curious.


Most all of the pellet smokers do because of the adding of more fuel every few min.   Stick burners do roughly  the same thing just over a longer time period every half hour or so you add another log and the temp goes up a bit but they both seem to average out


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## rablack21

weev said:


> most all of the pellet smokers do because of the adding of more fuel every few min. stick burners do roughly  the same thing just over a longer time period every half hour or so you add another log and the temp goes up a bit but the both seem to average out


This is my assessment as well. Thanks for confirming!


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## porknography

Has anyone had any trouble with the copperhead 5 or any verticle series door not adjusted properly so the cmgasket fits the opening?


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## yahoot

we picked up an upright 5 and an upright 7 earlier this month. WOW. Love them. SO much space! Easy to clean out, easy to change pellets.

we did have a problem with the door on the 7 (turned out it was a bent hinge pin), but easily fixed. Other than that, no issues getting them to seal

I love that the shelves are adjustable/removable. IIRC, we are able to get 6 briskets in the 7 series.

A quick word about temperature swings - virtually every heating appliance has temp swings. Even the oven in your kitchen will swing considerably (put your remote thermometer in it sometime and watch it swing +\- 20f.). Same with your furnace. Just the way thermostats work.  The controllers/thermometers/thermostats/etc. in most appliances are set to not report those swings at a fine level of granularity. They generally report an average temp over some period of time. If they didn't, people would be constantly freaking out because of the "inconsistency" of their appliances.  Unfortunately, too many of us have good thermometers and can see all that variability in our pellet smokers and but it is certainly not unique to pellet smokers.


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## TulsaJeff

My Pit Boss Copperhead 7 series did not close completely without applying some pressure when I got mine but I adjusted the latch to pull it really tight and now it seals perfectly all the way around.



 yahoot
 you are absolutely correct, in fact, I just finished testing my wife's Thermador after replacing the control board and it swings 25 or better in both directions.  Most ovens do this but you never know it because the thermometer reads a steady temperature and people think it is staying right on the money.

I love smokers like the Smokin-it 2D and the Rec-tec RT-700 that use a PID controller to hold a perfect temperature but I also don't mind cooking by the averages.


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## rablack21

porknography said:


> Has anyone had any trouble with the copperhead 5 or any verticle series door not adjusted properly so the cmgasket fits the opening?


Yes, I had an issue with the door on my copperhead 5 as well. My door drooped on the right side; so the gasket would not seal in the upper right corner. So I heated up the smoker, got some gloves, and lifted up on the lower right portion of the door in a counter clock wise twisting motion. The hinges bent ever so slightly, and now the door fits correctly on the frame. Now the gaskets seals all the way around. 

On a side note, has anyone else found the grate in the pellet hopper to be annoying and mostly useless? It is a bit of a pain and makes it more difficult to change out pellets. Sure you open the pellet door and most dump out, but it leaves a big mound of pellets on both sides of the hopper left over that won't move. And you can stick your hand down in there to push the rest of the pellets out. I have been using a broom handle stuck down in there to move the rest of the pellets out. Not complaining. I love my smoker! Just seems well intended but a bit of a hassle. Seems like it would be better to make the grate removable so you can get down in the hopper for pellet change out / cleaning the window.


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## Jon Dickey

Couple month update. I absolutely love my Pit Boss 7 series. I do have a couple complaints - the location of the temp probe for "actual" is in a horrible location. Right next to the firebox under the water pan, and it causes the readings to go crazy and give me heart attacks. I also wish their was a better place to route the external probes rather than through the deal seal.

I have had most luck running at 200 or 250+, the 225 setting seems to have most fluctuations. I recently changed pellet brands from Cabelas to Lumberjack and it did make a world of difference in temp and taste.

I did however, place an external probe at the top, middle, and bottom racks to compare it to the actual and it will calm a lot of nerves. 

So far I have done a brisket, ribs, turkey and pork shoulder. If I had to do it over again, I would buy the same one. I absolutely love it. I just recently did my first 12+ hour smoke and it performed great. Would definitely recommend.


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## ross77

I believe Cabelas pellets are made by Lumberjack.  Did you also change the type of wood?


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## yahoot

I haven't looked in a while, but Cabelas used to source pellets regionally, like Traeger does. Its one of the "dirty little secrets" of the name-brand pellet suppliers - they don't make pellets, so they shift their sourcing a lot.

That means the pellets you buy might be made by Great Lakes Renewable Energy (who make lumberjacks) some years in some regions in some flavors, and they also might be from Bear Mountain Forest Products (in Oregon - Alder based pellets) in other years in other regions or flavors, or by Omalley in Virginia, or any of the dozens of other pellet manufacturers around the country. 

It is much cheaper for the company to source/ship regionally, but it makes it hard for users to rely on any level of consistency because they never know what they are getting from year to year or even from flavor to flavor. 

We regularly pick up samples of a lot of brands at trade shows and events (both "name" brands and direct from manufacturers) because we are always looking for better pellets at lower prices. Currently, we source lumberjacks (through group buys) for our regular smoking. There are other very good brands out there, but we don't like Alder-based pellets (which rules out most pellets made in the pacific NW) and we get the best delivered price to California for lumberjacks.


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## hinds90

Hmmmm these are very interesting and based off of the reviews in this thread I may have to try one out.


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## David Maita

yahoot said:


> we picked up an upright 5 and an upright 7 earlier this month. WOW. Love them. SO much space! Easy to clean out, easy to change pellets.
> 
> we did have a problem with the door on the 7 (turned out it was a bent hinge pin), but easily fixed. Other than that, no issues getting them to seal
> 
> I love that the shelves are adjustable/removable. IIRC, we are able to get 6 briskets in the 7 series.
> 
> A quick word about temperature swings - virtually every heating appliance has temp swings. Even the oven in your kitchen will swing considerably (put your remote thermometer in it sometime and watch it swing +\- 20f.). Same with your furnace. Just the way thermostats work.  The controllers/thermometers/thermostats/etc. in most appliances are set to not report those swings at a fine level of granularity. They generally report an average temp over some period of time. If they didn't, people would be constantly freaking out because of the "inconsistency" of their appliances.  Unfortunately, too many of us have good thermometers and can see all that variability in our pellet smokers and but it is certainly not unique to pellet smokers.



What is the difference between the 5 and 7?


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## yahoot

David Maita said:


> What is the difference between the 5 and 7?



Mostly size. 
the 7= 0.16 m3 / 5.6 ft3. Cooking area- 11,715 cm² / 1,815 sq. in.
the 5= 0.13 m3 / 4.6 ft3. Cooking area - 9,762 cm² / 1,513 sq. in.
the 3= 0.08 m3 / 2.8 ft3 Cooking area  - 4,650 cm² / 721 sq. in.

We can smoke 6 briskets at a time in the 7. 
The 3 is good, but not quite wide enough to fit a rack of ribs without cutting them - about the same width as a masterbuilt electric.

I keep a 5 at my house as my "go to" unit. nice size. footprint is reasonable, but it's big enough to cook anything for the extended family (prime rib, brisket, hams, butts, at least 10 racks of ribs, more chicken than I would want to think about, or probably 4 turkeys)....


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## hinds90

There is a brand new 5 still in the box for sale on Facebook marketplace in my area for 280$. So tempted


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## yahoot

hinds90 said:


> There is a brand new 5 still in the box for sale on Facebook marketplace in my area for 280$. So tempted


That is below wholesale.


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## David Maita

yahoot said:


> Mostly size.
> the 7= 0.16 m3 / 5.6 ft3. Cooking area- 11,715 cm² / 1,815 sq. in.
> the 5= 0.13 m3 / 4.6 ft3. Cooking area - 9,762 cm² / 1,513 sq. in.
> the 3= 0.08 m3 / 2.8 ft3 Cooking area  - 4,650 cm² / 721 sq. in.
> 
> We can smoke 6 briskets at a time in the 7.
> The 3 is good, but not quite wide enough to fit a rack of ribs without cutting them - about the same width as a masterbuilt electric.
> 
> I keep a 5 at my house as my "go to" unit. nice size. footprint is reasonable, but it's big enough to cook anything for the extended family (prime rib, brisket, hams, butts, at least 10 racks of ribs, more chicken than I would want to think about, or probably 4 turkeys)....



Great!! I want to pick up the 5 soon. Don't need the 7. 
Sounds like you have used electric before? I currently have a propane smoker and wanted to get an electric... until I saw these. I have read the difference between electric and wood but wanted to get your take on it, since it sounds like you own an electric also? Thanks again for the info!!


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## yahoot

I think electrics are OK, with modifications. I have never seen an electric that generated enough smoke "out of the box". Their little smolder trays just can't produce enough smoke to be worthwhile. 
We have an MES that I had relegated to our place in the mountains (one step from tossing it). I had tried using a smoke maze (OK, but hard to light/keep lit), a Smoke chief with a custom adapter (good smoke, but requires a lot of attention). Then I found the masterbuilt cold smoking attachment for the MES. Burns chips, and wow - it produces a lot of smoke, so our MES is finally a functional smoker - and I kind of wish it were closer to home, at times. Ours is a smaller MES, so I have to cut racks of ribs to get them to fit (I hate that), but a bigger electric would be fine. 

With that said, I love the convenience of pellet smokers. We own a bunch and use them constantly (home, business, catering...). Easy to use, huge capacity. turn it on and it just works. Pellets are easy to handle/store/switch. We literally buy them by the ton. I always smoke low and slow (rare to see our rigs above 200 degrees), so no issues with too little smoke. 
There is an inverse relationship between smoke and heat in a pellet burner (they burn "cleaner" at higher temps instead of producing smoke), so pellet burners struggle to produce enough smoke at high temperatures. Trying to smoke at higher temps is why (IMHO), people sometimes complain about the amount of smoke they get with their pellet smokers and resort to adding things like smoke tubes. I recognize that everyone has their own view of how to use a smoker, and a pellet burner can be very versatile (you can get one hot enough for pizza, or to sear steaks, etc.), but they just won't produce good smoke at high temps. 

Note that I probably don't use smokers like most people. We use a smoker to smoke food - and don't expect it to cook most things all the way through or to sear food. We are happy to grill/broil ribs/steaks/chops as a last step after smoking to crisp them up. I foil up ribs to roast them, but don't use the smoker for that (once you foil up, the smoker is just an oven that is expensive to run).


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## David Maita

Thanks for the info!!


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## jedoran

Jon Dickey said:


> I did however, place an external probe at the top, middle, and bottom racks to compare it to the actual and it will calm a lot of nerves.



What was the temp variation? I've got a week old 7 Series (the big one, 7.1 cu. ft.) and I've been having huge problems with temp variation. I know I shouldn't trust the meat probe, but I stuck it in there dangling between the racks and was reading between 50 and 150(!!!!) degrees short of the "actual" temp on the board. I'm trying to smoke 40 lbs. of wings on it at a time at a restaurant and I've put out some garbage trying to get this thing straightened out. Not going to be happy if I need a new fan or thermostat.


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## yahoot

jedoran said:


> What was the temp variation? I've got a week old 7 Series (the big one, 7.1 cu. ft.) and I've been having huge problems with temp variation.



What did you have it set at? If you set it at lowest smoke, it runs at the lowest temp it can to not go out, so you will get pretty wide swings. Try bumping it up to 150 to get more temp consistency. 

See my may 29 post and Tulsa Jeff's in this thread about temp swings. 100 is a little wide, but 50 is not unusual, even on a commercial oven. Try testing the ovens in your kitchen with an accurate electronic thermometer. You will be surprised (we certainly were, first time we did it). 

Remember that a pellet smoker takes longer to react than an electric or gas burner. On electric or gas, when the thermostat signals for more heat, the heat response is almost instant. On a pellet rig, the signal tells the auger to turn, which drops pellets, which have to catch fire/smolder before they actually start producing heat. That takes a minute or two. Also, at very low temp, adding pellets actually causes the temp to drop a little until they catch (new fuel has to heat up) - just like it does in a stick burner burning very small. 

Also, are you trying to finish wings in the smoker (serve from the smoker)? That is not easy at volume. We tried it on several types of smokers and gave up. We now smoke things like chicken (esp. wings) for flavor, then finish on the grill or broiler (tighten them up and crisp the skin). Much more consistent product - but that is just our experience.


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## jedoran

yahoot said:


> What did you have it set at? If you set it at lowest smoke, it runs at the lowest temp it can to not go out, so you will get pretty wide swings. Try bumping it up to 150 to get more temp consistency.
> 
> See my may 29 post and Tulsa Jeff's in this thread about temp swings. 100 is a little wide, but 50 is not unusual, even on a commercial oven. Try testing the ovens in your kitchen with an accurate electronic thermometer. You will be surprised (we certainly were, first time we did it).
> 
> Remember that a pellet smoker takes longer to react than an electric or gas burner. On electric or gas, when the thermostat signals for more heat, the heat response is almost instant. On a pellet rig, the signal tells the auger to turn, which drops pellets, which have to catch fire/smolder before they actually start producing heat. That takes a minute or two. Also, at very low temp, adding pellets actually causes the temp to drop a little until they catch (new fuel has to heat up) - just like it does in a stick burner burning very small.
> 
> Also, are you trying to finish wings in the smoker (serve from the smoker)? That is not easy at volume. We tried it on several types of smokers and gave up. We now smoke things like chicken (esp. wings) for flavor, then finish on the grill or broiler (tighten them up and crisp the skin). Much more consistent product - but that is just our experience.



I just got off my second half-hour call with pellet boss. Their only explanation is that I am overloading the racks and restricting airflow. I am upgrading from a 40" electric Masterbuilt that I'd smoke 20 lbs. of wings on no prob (approx. 1000 sq. in. rack space.) The large 7 series has close to 2000 sq. inches of rack space, so I've mistakenly assumed that I could cook twice as many wings at a time. In theory, if blocking air flow is the case, I should be cranking very hot air circulating around below the bottom rack, but I'm still only reading in the low 200s on their own probe a good 4 inches above the water pan while it's reading 350 on the front. 

I won't know if that diagnosis is currect until I run a test with 20 lbs of product instead of 40 tomorrow with my own thermometer to moniter temps. Will update then with results.

In regards to how I'm finishing my wings, I was doing them about 3:15 at 225 on my masterbuilt elctric until I had a super easy bone pull on the flats, chilling down, then finishing in a pizza oven for about 5 mins til I hit 165 again. Got a good sizzle and okay skin crisp while maintaining great juiciness that way. With soaked chips and a bit of water in the Masterbuilt pan, the wings were ideal for finishing in the oven, since the skin had some give, the juices were retained. I do worry that when the Pit Boss is working correctly it will actually dry out my skin too much (as it has been so far.)


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## yahoot

I am anxious to hear what the Danson guys say. 

A couple of thoughts - 
In a masterbuilt, you basically have an electric oven with a smolder tray, so you are really baking the wings for 3:15. In a pellet smoker, there is a fan circulating the air, so it is more like a convection oven and can dry the skin more. 
What temp are you running the pit boss? same 225? 

For chicken, we brine, then toss in a touch of oil to keep the skin from drying too much (and makes them crisp up nice when they hit the broiler/grill). We usually smoke at about 175 for 60-90 min, then move to the oven at 225-250 (shooting for the same kind of bone pull you mention), chill (if not immediate use), then broil or grill to finish. Its a few extra steps (one reason I don't like doing chicken!), but incredible chicken. We do a pork chop essentially the same way (without the oven step). 

If you want to try tinkering with your masterbuilt while you work out the pit boss situation, you can get the masterbuilt cold smoke attachment for about $60-70. It fits most masterbuilt electrics. You can see it here https://masterbuilt.com/product/20070112-electric-slow-smoker-2 . Secret is - it works as a hot smoker, not just as a cold smoker. It runs on chips (not pellets). Fill it up, turn it on, and it puts out a TON of smoke (smoke quality is better if you run it for a while, then turn it off and let it smolder). Make sure you open the top vents to let the smoke out (don't want the creosote to condense in the oven). VASTLY better than the little smolder tray.


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## jedoran

So after another long chat with customer service after the door nearly blew off the 7 series on me, the nice lady in support determined that I likely had a fan issue. I had noticed the smoke wasn't really circulating even with no product in there. They went ahead and sent me a new fan and a whole new control board for the unit. I installed yesterday (NOT a quick swap by the way) and will be firing it up tomorrow with a 20 lb load of wings to see if the performance has improved. Hopefully it does, if not I'm stuck with a pretty useless $700 door stop for my needs. 

Will update once it's fired up tomorrow!



yahoot said:


> I am anxious to hear what the Danson guys say.
> 
> A couple of thoughts -
> In a masterbuilt, you basically have an electric oven with a smolder tray, so you are really baking the wings for 3:15. In a pellet smoker, there is a fan circulating the air, so it is more like a convection oven and can dry the skin more.
> What temp are you running the pit boss? same 225?
> 
> For chicken, we brine, then toss in a touch of oil to keep the skin from drying too much (and makes them crisp up nice when they hit the broiler/grill). We usually smoke at about 175 for 60-90 min, then move to the oven at 225-250 (shooting for the same kind of bone pull you mention), chill (if not immediate use), then broil or grill to finish. Its a few extra steps (one reason I don't like doing chicken!), but incredible chicken. We do a pork chop essentially the same way (without the oven step).
> 
> If you want to try tinkering with your masterbuilt while you work out the pit boss situation, you can get the masterbuilt cold smoke attachment for about $60-70. It fits most masterbuilt electrics. You can see it here https://masterbuilt.com/product/20070112-electric-slow-smoker-2 . Secret is - it works as a hot smoker, not just as a cold smoker. It runs on chips (not pellets). Fill it up, turn it on, and it puts out a TON of smoke (smoke quality is better if you run it for a while, then turn it off and let it smolder). Make sure you open the top vents to let the smoke out (don't want the creosote to condense in the oven). VASTLY better than the little smolder tray.


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## big nut brewer

What do you folks think about smoking bacon in these rigs?  What temp does the smoke setting run at?


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## weev

big nut brewer said:


> What do you folks think about smoking bacon in these rigs?  What temp does the smoke setting run at?


In mine it runs around 140  but I haven't smoked regular bacon. I have made Canadian bacon a few times and it turns out great


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## jedoran

jedoran said:


> So after another long chat with customer service after the door nearly blew off the 7 series on me, the nice lady in support determined that I likely had a fan issue. I had noticed the smoke wasn't really circulating even with no product in there. They went ahead and sent me a new fan and a whole new control board for the unit. I installed yesterday (NOT a quick swap by the way) and will be firing it up tomorrow with a 20 lb load of wings to see if the performance has improved. Hopefully it does, if not I'm stuck with a pretty useless $700 door stop for my needs.
> 
> Will update once it's fired up tomorrow!




Update: 

After swapping out the fan and control board, my 7 series (7.1 cu. ft) still performed exactly as it did before with a 20 lb. load of wings, an amount that should not be restricting air flow at all. I was at the $700 doorstop stage at that point.

After looking at the water pan for a while, I started wondering if that was the issue, the combination of that huge amount of restriction combined with the restriction of 6 racks of wings.

I swapped out the huge waterpan for a stainless steel bowl filled with water sitting on top of the flame tamer, and sure enough, my problems went away. Oven thermometer sitting just above the halfway point in the cabinet was reading only about 10 degrees short of the grill's thermostat probe. It sure looks like the problem with smoking anything that covers serious square inches in the smoker lies with the air restriction from the water pan, the fan just doesn't blow hard enough to circulate the air with both those restricting factors.

After making the swap, the unit is definitely cranking away, I'm actually trying my wing cook at 200 as going at 225 combined with the increased convection effect cooked them wayyyyy faster than my masterbuilt unit at 225.

I'm going to go ahead and say the fan on this unit is underpowered for the cabinet size due to that water pan. It may be just fine for a couple large cuts of meat, but it can't handle 20 lbs. of chicken wings used as instructed out of the box. That water pan seriously needs to be redesigned/the fan upgraded.


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## CooterQ

Just bought the 5 series this past weekend.  When assembling I did have trouble squaring up the door, but shimmed it with some small washers and it’s ok now.  On the first cook the control screen wrapped from the heat (225-275) and got grease between the screen. I contacted customer support on a Sunday afternoon and the call lasted about 5 minutes and they shipped me out a new control panel on Monday morning. It is apparently a common issue because they never hesitated to send a new panel or questioned me me at all. I’ve done 3 cooks so far.  I agree with jedoran that the water pan is too big and restricts air flow. When I smoked 3 racks of babybacks they turned out perfect. But when I smoked 40 chicken quarters it seemed like it was almost too much for it. So I made the mistake of turning up the temp to try to get the quarters done quicker and caught the smoker on fire because of all the grease from the chicken. Luckily I was standing right there and nothing was damaged. So with all that being said, I’m overall satisfied with the smoker, especially with their customer service. Just need to use it more to master how it cooks.


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## yahoot

jedoran said:


> Update:
> 
> After swapping out the fan and control board, my 7 series (7.1 cu. ft) still performed exactly as it did before with a 20 lb. load of wings, an amount that should not be restricting air flow at all. I was at the $700 doorstop stage at that point.
> 
> After looking at the water pan for a while, I started wondering if that was the issue, the combination of that huge amount of restriction combined with the restriction of 6 racks of wings.
> 
> I swapped out the huge waterpan for a stainless steel bowl filled with water sitting on top of the flame tamer, and sure enough, my problems went away. Oven thermometer sitting just above the halfway point in the cabinet was reading only about 10 degrees short of the grill's thermostat probe. It sure looks like the problem with smoking anything that covers serious square inches in the smoker lies with the air restriction from the water pan, the fan just doesn't blow hard enough to circulate the air with both those restricting factors.
> 
> After making the swap, the unit is definitely cranking away, I'm actually trying my wing cook at 200 as going at 225 combined with the increased convection effect cooked them wayyyyy faster than my masterbuilt unit at 225.
> 
> I'm going to go ahead and say the fan on this unit is underpowered for the cabinet size due to that water pan. It may be just fine for a couple large cuts of meat, but it can't handle 20 lbs. of chicken wings used as instructed out of the box. That water pan seriously needs to be redesigned/the fan upgraded.




Sorry to have taken so long to get back to this. I wanted to see how far we could push it, so we did 40 pounds of chicken breasts on a 5 series. Smoking at about 180, vent wide open. Started having the exact same problems you mentioned with temperature differential. Pulled the water tray and replaced with a little metal baking pan (from the dollar store) and things worked much better. 

Other issue I noticed was that with that much chicken (and associated grease), I had to wipe off the ceiling of the unit after a couple of hours because grease was condensing and picking up black residue (ash?). Didn't want it dripping on the chicken, so I just wiped it off with a paper towel. Only time we have seen that problem - so I am assuming it was due to the huge load.


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## jedoran

yahoot said:


> Sorry to have taken so long to get back to this. I wanted to see how far we could push it, so we did 40 pounds of chicken breasts on a 5 series. Smoking at about 180, vent wide open. Started having the exact same problems you mentioned with temperature differential. Pulled the water tray and replaced with a little metal baking pan (from the dollar store) and things worked much better.
> 
> Other issue I noticed was that with that much chicken (and associated grease), I had to wipe off the ceiling of the unit after a couple of hours because grease was condensing and picking up black residue (ash?). Didn't want it dripping on the chicken, so I just wiped it off with a paper towel. Only time we have seen that problem - so I am assuming it was due to the huge load.



Yeah, it just can’t handle that much product on the racks. I was getting better airflow with a smaller pan, but had one too many grease fires for the same reason. I put the factory pan back in, smoke on a lower temp for an hour or so, then have to crank it up to 300+ and do a lot of rack rotation to get any effective cooking done. It’s a shame it can’t match the quality of my MES when I cook like that, but sometimes I just need the volume.


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## Novice1

So I'm going to ask a potentially stupid question. I just got a Copperhead 3 series in September. Never smoked anything before in my life, so fairly clueless, but can obviously read up about what to do. Once I finally got it put together and started trying a few things out, I'm confused on what's going on. The first thing I smoked was a pork loin. Since the 3 is small I cut it in half. Used one half for chops and pulled the other half. Overall was pretty easy and the smoker worked as expected. It was a coolish day and a little windy. It took longer than I expected at 225 but attributed it to the wind. However, the next thing I smoked (again at 225) was a couple whole chickens. From everything I've seen, it should have been somewhere around a 3 hour cook. It took 7-8 hours!! It turned out perfectly good, but what I thought I was having for a late dinner, I was dealing with at 1-2am. Obviously with this kind of pellet smoker there's only so much I can screw up. I know they have a temperature fluctuation but have never heard of them affecting cook time since it should average out. Anyone have that kind of experience where the overall cook time was drastically longer than it should have been? I'm afraid to even smoke something else because I don't know how long it's going to take.  Thanks.


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## Winterrider

I was wondering if there was any insulation in the 5 or 7? The doors and sides seem like just 2 separate pieces of sheeting.  I may be totally wrong. They do look like nice units.


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## yahoot

Novice1 said:


> So I'm going to ask a potentially stupid question. I just got a Copperhead 3 series in September. Never smoked anything before in my life, so fairly clueless, but can obviously read up about what to do. Once I finally got it put together and started trying a few things out, I'm confused on what's going on. The first thing I smoked was a pork loin. Since the 3 is small I cut it in half. Used one half for chops and pulled the other half. Overall was pretty easy and the smoker worked as expected. It was a coolish day and a little windy. It took longer than I expected at 225 but attributed it to the wind. However, the next thing I smoked (again at 225) was a couple whole chickens. From everything I've seen, it should have been somewhere around a 3 hour cook. It took 7-8 hours!! It turned out perfectly good, but what I thought I was having for a late dinner, I was dealing with at 1-2am. Obviously with this kind of pellet smoker there's only so much I can screw up. I know they have a temperature fluctuation but have never heard of them affecting cook time since it should average out. Anyone have that kind of experience where the overall cook time was drastically longer than it should have been? I'm afraid to even smoke something else because I don't know how long it's going to take.  Thanks.



I have never used a 3 series, but we have several 5s and 7s and love them. We actually smoke less time in them than in our previous smokers, but we also finish most things (ribs, steaks, brisket, chicken parts, tri-tip, etc.) on a grill/broiler/hot oven to brown them up.

The fact that your pork worked OK makes me think it isn't your smoker. The temperature swing in your smoker should not be dramatically different from the swing in the oven in your kitchen. I think a lot of folks get all excited about "swing" because they use digital thermometers in their smokers and can see the temp going up and down. However, as is discussed in a bunch of threads in this forum, if they will put their thermometers in their kitchen ovens, they will see similar swings - but oven manufacturers are smart enough not to show it on the oven's readouts.

How long does it take a couple of whole chickens (prepped the way you do for your smoker) to cook in your kitchen oven at 225? Maybe try cooking one to see? Your smoker really won't cook faster than your oven at the same temp (there is a slight boost from the moving air - like a convection oven, but its not huge). 
FWIW - the manual for the 3 series smoker says it should take 5-6 hours to cook a whole chicken https://images.pitboss-grills.com/catalog/manuel/77350_20171005.pdf

Also, how are you measuring "done"? By internal temp with a thermometer? by look? These vertical smokers are excellent at adding smoke flavor, but they don't produce direct heat like a grill, so they don't brown/render as well (they aren't supposed to). Especially with poultry, the food can be quite done, but can look underdone (pale).


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## yahoot

Winterrider said:


> I was wondering if there was any insulation in the 5 or 7? The doors and sides seem like just 2 separate pieces of sheeting.  I may be totally wrong. They do look like nice units.



The cabinet comes from the manufacturer as a unit, so I can't tell. You may want to contact the manufacturer to find out - then let us all know.


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## G_funk3

Does the glass stay see thru after a handful of times smoking in it?


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## weev

G_funk3 said:


> Does the glass stay see thru after a handful of times smoking in it?


Nope  you have to clean it  off. But it's easy enough to wipe down


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## weev

Well I thought I would post a update and a warning on My smoker    Up until last weekend it had been working great for over a year no problems and probably would be if it wasn't for operator error. So last weekend I was doing a awesome looking prime brisket that I had picked up at Costco got it trimmed nice and smoke was just a chugging got to about 170 and the bark was looking almost perfect and then I wrapped it. Not that wrapping is bad or wrong I do it all the time and I love that Pink butcher paper but the problem was when I put the brisket back in the smoker I didn't notice that probe hole was right on the very side of the brisket  and directly on the back wall. Well when that brisket started melting down it started running out the hole and down the side of the smoker and into the bottom missing the catch pan that sits off the wall by a 1/4 in. Well we will just say that the inferno that erupted did not help the bark any.  
So the oil soaked into the bottom around the fire pot and the temp probe hole and anywhere it could so I haven't totally torn it apart yet to see if it can be saved but im not thinking it will be a positive outcome


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## FSUguy

Has anyone found a good thermal blanket (or other option) to fit around the smoker for winter?


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## jrapps

Can anyone who owns the series 5 or 7 Pit Boss measure the Width and Depth and let me know the dimensions of the smoker body, AND the dimensions at the base? The numbers on their website are misleading and my local store only has it in a box, not assembled for me to measure. The pictures make it look like the Width and Depth are wider at the base where the wheels are, just curious if it will fit where I want it to in my backyard.


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## Chuck Breen

Got a Series 5 from Wally in the first part of February for *$199.99 * what a SHOCK! Did my first Boneless Pork Shoulders 2 at 13.2 lbs total.  Took about 13 hrs. Had a hard time to get internal temp to 200 deg.  Bark was GREAT and the flavor was great also. Can’t wait to do some more smoking. Rain on the mid Atlantic has BEEN TERRIBLE.  Started at 10:00 pm and took off at around 11:00 AM.


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## skidog

The base where the legs are flares out from the rest of the cooker. 28 1/4" deep by 29" wide. That's a 5 series.




jrapps said:


> Can anyone who owns the series 5 or 7 Pit Boss measure the Width and Depth and let me know the dimensions of the smoker body, AND the dimensions at the base? The numbers on their website are misleading and my local store only has it in a box, not assembled for me to measure. The pictures make it look like the Width and Depth are wider at the base where the wheels are, just curious if it will fit where I want it to in my backyard.


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## jjaekk

Hi

Long time lurker and post very rarely. I have about 100 hours of smoke time with this smoker. I purchased it in March of 2019. Bought from walmart.ca so I paid 550 Canadian for it. Here is my attempt at a comprehensive review.

Pros;
easy to use, fairly easy to assemble (I did it with my six year old son), lots of room and produces a variety of good BBQ. Space is amazing

Cons;
temperature control (not great)
I have had to replace two parts (internal temp probe and control panel)
takes some monkeying around to get it stabilised
definitely less work than my stick burner but not set and for get by any means.
if precise temp control is your thing this is not the smoker for you.
no P setting like other pit boss grills which would solve many of the temp control problem in my opinion, but I guess you get what you pay for.

the biggest problem with this smoker is that it is a set cycle time. so when it dumps pellest at say240 (when you have it set at 250) it drops another 15 degrees before the pellets light, it then swings up to say 280 and the cycle continues. It seems to do this at 225 which is thetarget smoking temp for most BBQ. which sucks. it does better at 250 and at 275 and above it will hold withing 10 degree, great for chicken lol. At low temps like the smoke setting it does great holding at 150 to 170 depending on weather conditions.

I have tried many work arounds like placing a piece of heavy duty foil over the back of the water pan to trap heat and get the fire probe to register higher heat quicker and turn the damn pellet auger off. This was somewhat successful, but not really. The best solution I have found is to use Camp Chef charwood pellets (and I have tried over 10 different brands) they ignite quicker and take that nasty pellet swing out some what.

it would be awesome if pit boss or someone could provide a PID controller for it. That being said it does produce decent food. My advice is drink enough beer to forget about the temp swings and just let it ride. I can say that i would have rather spent a grand on something that was more precise (I use a stand alone grate and meat probe, maverick ET-733). I was looking for something that was less work than my offset charcoal/stick burner. It is less messy than that and is nice that it will cook a pizza but.........


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## Sethwt

I just got a pit boss 5 and tried to use it for the first time today. I did do the burn in. When running it today, it was set at 275 and it went into erH, it over heated. I had the water pan in it and filled with water setting 1 hole above the bottom. The top was open almost all the way. I was using the pit boss pellets.


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## TulsaJeff

Sethwt said:


> I just got a pit boss 5 and tried to use it for the first time today. I did do the burn in. When running it today, it was set at 275 and it went into erH, it over heated. I had the water pan in it and filled with water setting 1 hole above the bottom. The top was open almost all the way. I was using the pit boss pellets.




I have seen this happen a few times when people put the heat deflector in wrong.. this is the metal box at the very bottom that sits over the top of the burn pot. If you look at it you'll notice it has notches on two sides. 

These notches should be on the sides rather than in the front and back as this allows the probe to overheat.

It may still be ok and if not, the company is pretty good about replacing those internal probes.

Check and see that this is sitting correctly.


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## Sethwt

TulsaJeff said:


> I have seen this happen a few times when people put the heat deflector in wrong.. this is the metal box at the very bottom that sits over the top of the burn pot. If you look at it you'll notice it has notches on two sides.
> 
> These notches should be on the sides rather than in the front and back as this allows the probe to overheat.
> 
> It may still be ok and if not, the company is pretty good about replacing those internal probes.
> 
> Check and see that this is sitting correctly.


It is sitting correctly. Do you think it is the probe or the controller board? It kept feeding in pellets the when then temp was going up. I had flames coming out of the heat deflector.


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## TulsaJeff

Sethwt said:


> It is sitting correctly. Do you think it is the probe or the controller board? It kept feeding in pellets the when then temp was going up. I had flames coming out of the heat deflector.



My guess that is that it's the probe.. I would call Pit Boss customer service listed in your manual and they will likely come to the same conclusion and send you a replacement part.

So sorry you are having issues with it.. very frustrating to get a new smoker and not be able to use it due to a problem.


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## Sethwt

TulsaJeff said:


> My guess that is that it's the probe.. I would call Pit Boss customer service listed in your manual and they will likely come to the same conclusion and send you a replacement part.
> 
> So sorry you are having issues with it.. very frustrating to get a new smoker and not be able to use it due to a problem.


Can I ask why you think it is the probe? I don't think this model has a pid controller. It is the coppertone 5 from Walmart.


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## TulsaJeff

Sethwt said:


> Can I ask why you think it is the probe? I don't think this model has a pid controller. It is the coppertone 5 from Walmart.



I just went and double checked the error message erH in the manual and that one simply means the grill has overheated which, in my experience, normally means the probe is sending the wrong message to the controller because it has been damaged.

Damaged probes tend to send incorrect temperature messages to the controller and thus the error code pops up.

I'm just going off of past experience however, I could be wrong. It could be the controller.

Not sure where you purchased this but it might be easier to take it back to the store and ask for a replacement. Pit Boss will likely also send you the replacement parts once they talk to you about what it's doing.


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## bigfurmn

Ok I have to ask. Through all of this have you even tried to call Pit Boss?


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## olecrosseyes

Sorry for digging up bones, But,,,

 I just brought home a series 7 copperhead, it was purchased on 10/11/2019 assembled and never plugged in! He paid $500 plus tax = $534.99 and I paid less than that.

Only 2 things that I see it is missing. one shelf slider cleat and the meat probe.

Has any one figured out is an other brand of probe will work in it? Like maybe ThermoWorks, Maverick or Holland Grill?


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