- Nov 17, 2018
- 19
- 12
Pit Boss 3-Series Vertical Electric Smoker
I asked around and read as much info on this smoker and Pit Boss as I could find. There really isn’t much info on this model, so now that I have one I’ll try to fill in that space a bit with my opinion.
I have over 10 years with a Bradley Original Smoker, it’s been a good dependable unit. I have a couple of months with a well used MES 30, it works as it’s supposed too. Both units struggled to get over 200F in winter, but were good for my needs, sausage, jerky, fish, and pork are my main uses.
I have been very happy with the size and vertical style of theses smokers, they suit my needs. The Pit Boss 3 Series Vertical Electric really caught my eye because of the design layout. The design has many of my wants in a manufactured smoker. So I pulled the trigger, and now have a Pit Boss smoker, here’s my first impressions.
First thing I noticed is how heavy the box is, I looked on the shipping label and found it weighs in at over 70 lbs. Upon opening the box and removing everything, I found that the smoker itself is similar in weight to the other units, most of the weight is the integrated stand that comes with the unit. That is the first of the design features I really like. Not only does it come with a stand, the stand contains all of the working parts, leaving the whole smoker space for food. From the bottom up the stand contains the grease tray, the 1600 WATT burner, the chip tray, the digital controls, and the water pan.
Assembly needed! The stand and working parts are all packaged neatly in boxes inside of the smoking unit. Assembly is easy, but it will take some time. The instructions are OK, but not terrific. You really don’t want to start a couple of hours before dinner time with a hungry family waiting for food. Put together it’s very solid, and seems well built. The final step of assembly is the four shelves, which are fully adjustable. This is the second great design feature. You can put the shelves individually at any height, the brackets can be moved up and down in about 1 inch steps, or removed altogether.
Now to plug it in. This smoker has some electric needs, no cheap extension cords are recommended. With everything powered up, I played a bit with the controls and the included meat probe. The panel has spots for two probes, but only one is included. Everything is working as it should and I’m ready for the necessary burn in. It’s well below freezing here, and I’m very surprised at how quickly it hits 250F no issue at all. I took it up to 300F with no trouble and left it there, it seemed locked in pretty good, the element came on as needed. I had my own probe in the unit too, the temperatures were within a few degrees of each other.
I let it go back to 250F, and added wood chips to the front load chip tray. This is another design feature I really like, it’s quite large, slides out of the front, and is heavily constructed. I also like that I can empty the ashes out and add more chips without opening the door, rather than just add more chips onto the old ashes. The smoke at this temperature started after about 5 minutes, at 10 minutes it was rolling pretty good. The smoke lasted about 2 hours, but was pretty light for the last half hour. I might experiment with wood chunks, or a mix of chips and chunks. I think with the lid off of the chip tray an A-MAZE-N might fit right in for low temperature smoking, as long as there is enough air flow.
Pit Boss says this unit works between 100 and 350F, I don’t know if it could make smoke at 100F, but I’ll try at some point.
The burn in went fine, temperatures were good, and I’m quite impressed with the build quality, design, and function. It’s price puts it in with the Bradley and MES smokers, I believe it competes very well in functionality. For me at least, it betters them on design features. Time will tell if it has durability, but my initial impression is very good. I have read that customer service is good, I called with a question about the warranty length, and was greeted by a friendly knowledgeable person. The Pit Boss vertical smokers bought after September 2018 have a 5 year warranty. Very nice.
My first smoke was pork tenderloin that turned out perfect. The time it took to get to the internal temperature I wanted was what I had estimated. Clean up was pretty easy as the racks are coated, another nice feature. The window is smoked up but I expected that.
My second smoke was a brined chicken, it may have been the juiciest bird I’ve ever had. I could have left it on a little longer, and not sure if hickory is the best wood for chicken. But the smoker did its job. The outside temperature was well below freezing with a good windchill, I was sheltered a bit, but it was cold to be out. It held temperature good, the element came on a lot to keep it up.
All in all I’m very satisfied. I’ll add some photos at the end.
Now, I can’t wait for the hard water to get some fresh trout in the smoker.
The perfect beer was pictured in this post :)
I asked around and read as much info on this smoker and Pit Boss as I could find. There really isn’t much info on this model, so now that I have one I’ll try to fill in that space a bit with my opinion.
I have over 10 years with a Bradley Original Smoker, it’s been a good dependable unit. I have a couple of months with a well used MES 30, it works as it’s supposed too. Both units struggled to get over 200F in winter, but were good for my needs, sausage, jerky, fish, and pork are my main uses.
I have been very happy with the size and vertical style of theses smokers, they suit my needs. The Pit Boss 3 Series Vertical Electric really caught my eye because of the design layout. The design has many of my wants in a manufactured smoker. So I pulled the trigger, and now have a Pit Boss smoker, here’s my first impressions.
First thing I noticed is how heavy the box is, I looked on the shipping label and found it weighs in at over 70 lbs. Upon opening the box and removing everything, I found that the smoker itself is similar in weight to the other units, most of the weight is the integrated stand that comes with the unit. That is the first of the design features I really like. Not only does it come with a stand, the stand contains all of the working parts, leaving the whole smoker space for food. From the bottom up the stand contains the grease tray, the 1600 WATT burner, the chip tray, the digital controls, and the water pan.
Assembly needed! The stand and working parts are all packaged neatly in boxes inside of the smoking unit. Assembly is easy, but it will take some time. The instructions are OK, but not terrific. You really don’t want to start a couple of hours before dinner time with a hungry family waiting for food. Put together it’s very solid, and seems well built. The final step of assembly is the four shelves, which are fully adjustable. This is the second great design feature. You can put the shelves individually at any height, the brackets can be moved up and down in about 1 inch steps, or removed altogether.
Now to plug it in. This smoker has some electric needs, no cheap extension cords are recommended. With everything powered up, I played a bit with the controls and the included meat probe. The panel has spots for two probes, but only one is included. Everything is working as it should and I’m ready for the necessary burn in. It’s well below freezing here, and I’m very surprised at how quickly it hits 250F no issue at all. I took it up to 300F with no trouble and left it there, it seemed locked in pretty good, the element came on as needed. I had my own probe in the unit too, the temperatures were within a few degrees of each other.
I let it go back to 250F, and added wood chips to the front load chip tray. This is another design feature I really like, it’s quite large, slides out of the front, and is heavily constructed. I also like that I can empty the ashes out and add more chips without opening the door, rather than just add more chips onto the old ashes. The smoke at this temperature started after about 5 minutes, at 10 minutes it was rolling pretty good. The smoke lasted about 2 hours, but was pretty light for the last half hour. I might experiment with wood chunks, or a mix of chips and chunks. I think with the lid off of the chip tray an A-MAZE-N might fit right in for low temperature smoking, as long as there is enough air flow.
Pit Boss says this unit works between 100 and 350F, I don’t know if it could make smoke at 100F, but I’ll try at some point.
The burn in went fine, temperatures were good, and I’m quite impressed with the build quality, design, and function. It’s price puts it in with the Bradley and MES smokers, I believe it competes very well in functionality. For me at least, it betters them on design features. Time will tell if it has durability, but my initial impression is very good. I have read that customer service is good, I called with a question about the warranty length, and was greeted by a friendly knowledgeable person. The Pit Boss vertical smokers bought after September 2018 have a 5 year warranty. Very nice.
My first smoke was pork tenderloin that turned out perfect. The time it took to get to the internal temperature I wanted was what I had estimated. Clean up was pretty easy as the racks are coated, another nice feature. The window is smoked up but I expected that.
My second smoke was a brined chicken, it may have been the juiciest bird I’ve ever had. I could have left it on a little longer, and not sure if hickory is the best wood for chicken. But the smoker did its job. The outside temperature was well below freezing with a good windchill, I was sheltered a bit, but it was cold to be out. It held temperature good, the element came on a lot to keep it up.
All in all I’m very satisfied. I’ll add some photos at the end.
Now, I can’t wait for the hard water to get some fresh trout in the smoker.
The perfect beer was pictured in this post :)