New Pit Boss Model at Walmart

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I will be receiving my Laredo 1000 tomorrow. I will post what my thoughts are. This is my first pellet grill and will be learning.
 
I will be receiving my Laredo 1000 tomorrow. I will post what my thoughts are. This is my first pellet grill and will be learning.

One thing I wonder about is the overall size of the lower cooking grate. It looks like, to get to 1000, Pit Boss is using three racks instead of two used on the Austin XL.

Is the bottom rack big enough to take a packer brisket and maybe a pot of beans? Or is there enough space between each rack to set the brisket on the bottom and beans above?

Also, the built-in grilling light looks like a nice touch.
 
I see on Facebook that some people are having problems with the new Lowe's model holding temps. Also some complaint about the new ash clean-out system.
 
Just so we're clear, this has no probe that the PID uses to monitor and adjust temperature? I see nothing in the specs that would discredit this claim and everything I read says something about an algorithm guessing game of sorts? Can anyone extrapolate on this because it sounds terrible compared to the units I've used that have an actual physical probe that senses temperature to give a real time reading on what's going on. If this is the case with this unit, I'm out unless someone can convince me it's better somehow.
 
Just so we're clear, this has no probe that the PID uses to monitor and adjust temperature? I see nothing in the specs that would discredit this claim and everything I read says something about an algorithm guessing game of sorts? Can anyone extrapolate on this because it sounds terrible compared to the units I've used that have an actual physical probe that senses temperature to give a real time reading on what's going on. If this is the case with this unit, I'm out unless someone can convince me it's better somehow.

This is the Pit Boss LockHart Platinum Grills Owners Manual. It has the exact same PID Controller as the PB Laredo 1000 Platinum Grill. Hopefully, it’ll answer all your questions... and if in doubt, you can always reach out to there costumer service for clarity.

https://dj4htnsq11to6.cloudfront.net/catalog/manuel/10500_PB2180LK_manualUSA_EN_FR_ES.pdf

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... In SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
 
One thing I wonder about is the overall size of the lower cooking grate. It looks like, to get to 1000, Pit Boss is using three racks instead of two used on the Austin XL.

Is the bottom rack big enough to take a packer brisket and maybe a pot of beans? Or is there enough space between each rack to set the brisket on the bottom and beans above?

Also, the built-in grilling light looks like a nice touch.
I was able to put a 16 pound pork shoulder on the bottom grate with room to spare. The bottom grate size is 19.5x 24.5 inches. Also, the app is not working for me at all now. The grill is not longer sending out a bluetooth signal to setup the grill. I have talk with the developer. I am sure they will get this working eventually. I think Covid hurt their development efforts on the app.
 
This is the Pit Boss LockHart Platinum Grills Owners Manual. It has the exact same PID Controller as the PB Laredo 1000 Platinum Grill. Hopefully, it’ll answer all your questions... and if in doubt, you can always reach out to there costumer service for clarity.

https://dj4htnsq11to6.cloudfront.net/catalog/manuel/10500_PB2180LK_manualUSA_EN_FR_ES.pdf

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... In SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
From the link:

"TEMPERATURE PROBE
Located inside the pellet side of the grill, on the left side wall. It is a small, vertical piece of stainless steel. The temperature probe
measures the internal temperature of the grill. The temperature that we get from this probe is displayed as ACT on the LCD screen."

Does this mean that this particular unit uses an traditional temperature probe like most other pellet smokers? I've just heard some horror stories about Pit Boss smokers eliminating these in the name of some weird software of time and temperature to "guess" the temperature of the smoker and does so pretty horribly from what I've read. If this (or the one from Lowe's) used this I would be out entirely. Since it seems to have this(?) then I may still be interested.

I did read something about 13 preset temperature settings that you select from rather than just dialing the knob up. This could be a good thing (easier to access the temp you want w/o dialing for what seems like 2 minutes) or a bad thing (the temp you want isn't an option) but it's certainly different than the other smokers I've used that give you a range and allow you to select a more granular temperature anywhere between those limits.
 
I was able to put a 16 pound pork shoulder on the bottom grate with room to spare. The bottom grate size is 19.5x 24.5 inches. Also, the app is not working for me at all now. The grill is not longer sending out a bluetooth signal to setup the grill. I have talk with the developer. I am sure they will get this working eventually. I think Covid hurt their development efforts on the app.
Didn't seem to hurt them getting it to market though. I despise when companies make the customer the beta tester as it shows a significant gap in quality control in their business model. It's one thing to have little wrinkles to iron out that end-users discover but how a company ships devices that basically don't work is lazy.
 
Didn't seem to hurt them getting it to market though. I despise when companies make the customer the beta tester as it shows a significant gap in quality control in their business model. It's one thing to have little wrinkles to iron out that end-users discover but how a company ships devices that basically don't work is lazy.
Tech support is sending me a new controller board to fix the app issue since not broadcasting bluetooth signal.
 
Just so we're clear, this has no probe that the PID uses to monitor and adjust temperature? I see nothing in the specs that would discredit this claim and everything I read says something about an algorithm guessing game of sorts? Can anyone extrapolate on this because it sounds terrible compared to the units I've used that have an actual physical probe that senses temperature to give a real time reading on what's going on. If this is the case with this unit, I'm out unless someone can convince me it's better somehow.

You seem very confused. Right on the Pit Boss website it mentions PID temperature control on all of the newer models, both the Platinum line at Walmart and the Pro line at Lowes have the same new controller that is PID regulated.
 
You seem very confused. Right on the Pit Boss website it mentions PID temperature control on all of the newer models, both the Platinum line at Walmart and the Pro line at Lowes have the same new controller that is PID regulated.
I was confused because at the time I posted this there was no data or specifics on this particular unit and Pit Boss appears to make both styles. There literally wasn't a product page on the Pit Boss website for this model and the bullet points on Walmart were basic at best. So, if you are now confirming 100% that this model uses an actual temperature probe to monitor and adjust the smoker temperature then we're good to go on that question.
 


Not the exact same thing as the WM grill in question, but I purchased the Lowes exclusive Pro 1150 that I think is functionally the same. I’ve run it 5 times now (a burn in to clean up whatever factory oils were on it, another to sort of season it with some oil, a chicken and some steaks, a pork loin, and now a couple of chuck roasts). I have been happy so far, but today I have noticed I can’t get it to run at low temps (225-250º gets me into the 170-180º range). If I set it to 300º, it’ll run there just fine, but you might be able to appreciate that essentially not having an option between 180 and 300 is less than ideal. One item to note is that it’s not even remarkably cold today, about 40º.

Anyway, I’m not super concerned, but I did call and they’re sending me a new I think control board? I’m not sure what it is, exactly but the dude said 3-4 weeks. The grill is usable as is, but if there’s some way to make it better/more accurate, I’m interested in that.

Temp options from the app and grill are limited, which I think is BS. 225, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500. I think. There might be others, but the primary point is that you most certainly don’t get the option to dial in temps by 5º increments or anything like that.
 
Not the exact same thing as the WM grill in question, but I purchased the Lowes exclusive Pro 1150 that I think is functionally the same. I’ve run it 5 times now (a burn in to clean up whatever factory oils were on it, another to sort of season it with some oil, a chicken and some steaks, a pork loin, and now a couple of chuck roasts). I have been happy so far, but today I have noticed I can’t get it to run at low temps (225-250º gets me into the 170-180º range). If I set it to 300º, it’ll run there just fine, but you might be able to appreciate that essentially not having an option between 180 and 300 is less than ideal. One item to note is that it’s not even remarkably cold today, about 40º.

Anyway, I’m not super concerned, but I did call and they’re sending me a new I think control board? I’m not sure what it is, exactly but the dude said 3-4 weeks. The grill is usable as is, but if there’s some way to make it better/more accurate, I’m interested in that.

Temp options from the app and grill are limited, which I think is BS. 225, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500. I think. There might be others, but the primary point is that you most certainly don’t get the option to dial in temps by 5º increments or anything like that.
I still have not received a new controller board. The tech support people can't get a status. I called the regular support, they are ordering another board for me. They are saying 4-6 weeks now. The original time estimate was 10 business days. 4-6 weeks is a long time.
 
That’s disappointing for you.

Unfortunately, I’ve written off this option with too many growing pains, and going with a RecTeq.
 
Tech support is sending me a new controller board to fix the app issue since not broadcasting bluetooth signal.
UPDATE

I called to check the status of my new controller board. They don't see where it was ordered and that a supervisor was trying to determine the correct part number. It has been 3 weeks since I the problem began. I still do not have and answer from PitBoss support. I have decided to order another Laredo from Walmart and return this one. Walmart waived the shipping fee on the new one. Only bad thing is that I now get to assemble another grill.
 
I picked one of the Pro 1150s up about three weeks ago here in Florida.

This is my first time using a pellet grill; so I am not sure how it stacks up to any other pellet grills/smokers. I had been using a homemade vertical drum smoker, but decided I wanted something that held temps a bit better.

So far I'm pretty pleased. I've done burgers, jerky, and chicken drumsticks. Would have been more but the storms from the hurricane kind of slowed me down...

Temps seem to hold pretty well, it's easy to get going, and the cooks have all gone great. There is definitely a decent temp gradient between the left and right side; so have to bear that in mind.

My only complaints so far are the app and the removable burn pot.

The app is totally useless in my opinion; no persistent temp readings in notifications, the temp setting 'dial' is atrocious, and the temp notification was not working properly for me. I also had the app change my temp down to the Smoke setting once. All I can think is that I may have accidentally touched the on-screen 'dial' and changed it on accident. Since you don't see both your set temp unless changing it, I had no idea it was changed until I noticed my temps dropping. This was the last time I used the app. Won't use it again until it gets a heavy re-do. Also, I saw someone asked about turning the grill on while on your way home from the app, which you cannot do. You can turn the grill off on the app, but not on. My assumption is this is a safety thing.

The removable burn pot is a good idea, but the implementation could have been better. It comes out fine, but I have to basically beat it back into place. I've tried it with the grill warm still and totally cooled off and same issue both times. It's a minor inconvenience and I could, and most likely will, fix it with a dremel but still annoying.


All in all I'd recommend the grill with those two caveats. If having a good app to control your grill remotely is extremely important Pit Boss may not be one to look at until they get the app figured out. Luckily for me it was just a nice little bonus when buying it, so I don't feel like I am losing much there.
 
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My 1150 is now not even able to turn on. Crazy. It actually quit working the day after my last post ITT (so I had owned it like 4 or 5 days before it totally quit). I am going to be returning it hopefully tomorrow and I’m not sure what I’ll replace it with (perhaps even the exact same thing).
 
UPDATE

I called to check the status of my new controller board. They don't see where it was ordered and that a supervisor was trying to determine the correct part number. It has been 3 weeks since I the problem began. I still do not have and answer from PitBoss support. I have decided to order another Laredo from Walmart and return this one. Walmart waived the shipping fee on the new one. Only bad thing is that I now get to assemble another grill.
PitBoss actually sent me a new controller board. I installed it and now everything seems to be working alright. I am not going to assemble the new one from Walmart. I will just return it to the store when I get it.
 
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