1st smoke with my new Copperhead – thoughts/observation

[doughboysigep]

finished my 1st smoke with my Pit Boss Copperhead. Did 10# of brisket. I've been smoking for nearly 20 years - all with electric (primarily MES). I have mostly "cons" but overall I am happy with the new grill and meat came out pretty good, just need to get used to it. Biggest pro is the size - lots of room. Other big plus it no heat loss when opened - temp didn't go down much at all. Cons: big temp flux - set at 225, at one point it was 345! Bothered me at first and it happen occasionally but the flux was short (minute or two) and didn't seem to affect the cook; also had an inconsistent smoke, again not used to that and don't think it affected the cook; there is no "no smoke" option so when your meat is wrapped you have to waste pellets - again, not that big of a deal; probes seemed off - about 8-10 degrees from my instant read probe (need to see which is right and go by it); also it is a bit of a pain making sure probe cables are ok coming out of the door - need a couple slot for cables or some way to hold them in place; be nice to have a removable grate on the pellet hopper - needed to push pellets to center; it has a big water pan but I still had to add water numerous times - sort of defeats the "set it an forget it" bonus of a pellets smoker.
Again, not bashing the new smoker, just some observations. I was psyched to get my first smoke ring (not possible with electric). Looking forward to more cooks.

 

[doughboysigep]

Anybody have any Pit Boss (Copperhead) experience, observations, thoughts (same or different than mine)???

 

[keithd]

I have a Pit Boss Copperhead 5.

I too see the ridiculous temperature swings that you've seen. It's not a rise to 350 for a brief moment, but like it held there for a while, then it got too low. I'm seriously thinking of getting a Rec Tec controller as it will fit where the current Pit Boss controller is, and I don't really want to get a totally new smoker.

As far as the water pan goes, I am thinking of doing what I did on the MES - put sand in the pan and cover that with foil. I've never really had a need to keep the pan full of water on my old MES.

I had my igniter rod burn out, but I left the smoker sitting outside covered over the winter - so I can't really blame the equipment. The replacement rod seems to have developed a short on the 2nd time I fired it up, so I get to take it apart again.

 

[SneakyBlackDog]

I got a pitboss series 5, I was having temp swings so I stuck a probe by the meat and swings were small, doesn't bother me. Adding water in the pan, that's part of cooking. Put in a probe you can watch remotely and go sit in your easy chair. I had a smoke build up on my interior temp sensor and it caused the smoker to give false readings, I wiped it clean and it was good to go. If you place the meat in so you have good clearance on all sides swing won't be to bad

 

[SneakyBlackDog]

Hey Keithd. If you do the Rec Tec controller let me know how it worked out

 

[keithd]

Well, I just got permission from SWMBO to get the controller, so I'll order it tomorrow.

The temp swings on mine weren't small. The fire pot was shooting flames out everywhere and was glowing red, and the smoker itself felt blisteringly hot when I opened it. This didn't always happen, but sometimes the smoker just seemed to run away with the heat. I also noticed a large auger speed difference between the 200 and 225 degrees settings. I think the controller is not working well. I can't blame Pit Boss on this - I let it sit outside. My fault.

I don't really think that adding water is necessary - I never did on my MES30 and never had issues. The only thing water seems to do with the Pit Boss Copperhead is to moderate temperature swings - but with the blast furnace my firepot has become, it's not really effective. I might be wrong, however, and I'll need to adjust my methods. It's all a part of learning.

That's a good point about cleaning the temp probe - I did not think of that, and something that I will try this weekend.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

It looks like the same bad designed water pan as the Louisiana grill smoker. What I did to fix the swings is replace the water pan with a much larger aluminum pan. It holds 10x the amount of water which stabilizes the temperature and lets a better airflow thru the smoker.

 

[SneakyBlackDog]

@90 Beater looking at your photo I'm wondering if just moving the water pan up a couple of positions would work or would it block the temp sensor, after I have my morning coffee and do some chores I'm going to take a look

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

The problem is the louvers in the original pan doesn't let enough of the air/smoke to get past the pan. The aluminum one has about an inch all the way around it so there is no restriction. Give it a try, the pans are very cheap.

You can see in that pic where the original pan was left in place at first then after it was removed it made a world of difference. The lower brackets are still there.

The LG is a series 7 so it's a little larger than the series 5 so you would have to get the appropriate size pan.

 

[SneakyBlackDog]

I didn't have a full size pan but two half size fit, so I'm doing a test run, I'll post when I'm done

 

[SneakyBlackDog]

Did my test run, when I went up to 350 it overheated and shutdown at lower temps still had temp swings ,test is over

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Yeah, it sounds like you have a bad controller.