Ok, I did it... I'm officially a member of the "Pooper Patrol" now

[dward51]

I finally gave in and joined the "Pooper Patrol". I bought a pellet pooper smoker!

For some time I've been watching with envy all the posts here and other places of smokes with a Pit Boss Copperhead 3/4/5/7 vertical pellet smoker (also known as the Louisiana Grills 7 at Costco). I just could not bring myself to drop $500 to $700 on another smoker for an already full smoking porch. Then back in January Walmart ran the 5 on clearance for $103. I searched all over 3 states and was usually 30 minutes behind the last one being sold so I missed out on that. I almost bought one at full price when they dropped them to $396 at my local store. I finally lucked out and found one on summer clearance (the last one they had) for $223 this week. I did not think twice and snapped it up.

I got it put together last night, and man this thing is huge. It's the Cooperhead 5 and after seeing this one assembled, I can't even imagine needing the 7. But the 5 holds a full hotel pan so I'm very happy. I'm still tweaking the door fitment, which seems to be a fairly common issue, but from what I have read, if I can't tweak it into alignment, the warranty service is excellent on these (they have extended the warranties to 5 years now).

Here is a photo of the assembled unit. Bottom photo has a full disposable hotel pan on the lower rack for size reference. Going to do the burn in later today, but first I have to cull the heard to make room. I think the Orion smoker and my MES SS will get cleaned and shuffled to the basement for now. The WSM will still have a place though.

 

[drdon]

Nice looking unit. Like the fact that it claims a 450 degree ability!!!! Only one problem, it's too clean. Looking forward to pictures of it being used. Congratulations on scoring the discount.

 

[cmayna]

Isn't your room there going to start smelling a little smokey with that thing sitting there? Hopefully you have a strong fan up in the ceiling above the pellet pooper.

 

[dward51]

Heck, I'm in Georgia which is part of the "sweat belt". July, so high 90's with 185% humidity is normal here. Thankfully I'm above the "gnat line" so I don't have to deal with that. But I much prefer to do my assembly and fitment adjustments inside in the air conditioned house!

Actually I had to move 2 smokers on the covered back porch to make room to move it out there so I can do the burn in. That GA heat is why we like those 10-15' deep porches with 10-13' ceilings (mine is 10' deep x 35' wide and has 13' ceilings with dual Hunter outdoor fans). For those of you in more upscale areas, think Lanai with a higher ceiling.

As to which smoker to cull? The Orion "cooker" is first pick as I generally just use it to hold the lid for my WSM when I'm using the WSM. Unfortunately that also means the MES SS (my highly modified MES manual) that I made for sticks and sausage is going to probably get moved to storage for now. I don't want to get rid of it as it is a specialty smoker. I think the Copperhead may be able to replace it, but time will tell. If it does, I'll offer the MES SS to my son-in-law as he is just starting to collect his grill/smoker stable. I'm keeping the Weber Summit S-670 gasser, the 18" WSM and my 28" Blackstone griddle on the "smoking porch" with the Copperhead 5.

I did have to fiddle with the door fitment a bit. It wanted to sag a little low on the right side, and the right bottom corner metal inside the gasket tended to hit the door frame on the body. I tweaked the hinge pins, and after reading another post (sorry I did not recall whose it was for credit), they just grabbed the bottom right corner of the door and tweaked the door on the hinge pins upward to slightly bend the pin. So I opened the door and bent the assembly upwards ever so carefully counter-clockwise. That seems to have done the trick. A burn in will show if I have any meaningful smoke gaps in the gasket seal.

Next is the initial burn in. I picked up a couple of bags of Pit Boss Hickory pellets when I bought the smoker as they were on sale also. I'm saving my stash of Lumberjack for real smokes. About to head out for the burn in now.

 

[tropics]

Dave good luck I was playing with mine again today.
Richie

 

[radio]

good luck, and keep us posted! I looked at one last fall and wal mart never clearanced them in my neck of the woods.

 

[dward51]

Doing the 350* burn in now. No snags so far. Using Pit Boss hickory for the burn in. Once the smoker was up to temp and stable, it had a slow swing between 340* and 360* when set for 350*. I'll take a 20* band any day. It takes nearly 4 minutes for the swing cycle. It's been stable in this band for about 30 minutes, so I'm going to let it run another 30 minutes for the burn-in.

One thing I did notice is the smoke at temp is not exactly what I expected. It's the glorious thin blue, nearly invisible smoke like what I get out of my WSM running charcoal and wood chunks. I sort of expected more visible smoke from some of the videos I've seen, but thin blue is awesome. I suspect the 350* temp has a lot to do with this. I'll dial it back down to 225 when the burn in is done and see how it runs there. I'm also interested to see how the temp band goes at 225*. A 20 degree swing is just fine, but it may tighten up a little also. So far I'm running the water pan dry in the burn in - but it may help moderate the swing with a full pan.

So far, I'm very happy with what I see.

Now I need to figure out what I can plunder from the freezer for the first smoke!

To give you some idea of the size of the Copperhead 5, this is it sitting next to my 18.5" WSM and my Blackstone griddle. If I took the legs and top handle off the WSM, I think it would fit inside the chamber of the Copperhead 5. This smoker is HUGE!!!!!!

First hint of fire!!!!

 

[Bearcarver]

Very Cool Dave!!
I'm sure it won't take you long to teach it to Talk!!
Like.

Bear

 

[dward51]

Dialed it down to 225*. Once the temp dropped below 305* I started to see more smoke. Not too much, but more like I expected and still thin and blue, but more visible. I think the fire in the pellet pot is basically burning off more of the smoke at the higher temps.

I thought I had a 3lb chuckie in the freezer, but I guess the wife cooked it as it is no longer where it was. So I guess the first smoke will be some jalapeno & cheddar sausage from Sam's Club I had vac packed. Well at least I don't need to "doctor" them and they will be a good judge for the "as is" smoke flavor.

 

[drdon]

This write up may convince me to look into them too. But I'm patient enough to find a deal like yours.