Update - So my new PB 1100 was delivered Saturday morning and as planned, I did the burn in Saturday afternoon.
I did the first cook straight after the burn in with a 2.5 LB Tri Tip rubbed down with a nice steak rub. I put it on the top rack on the hopper side with a foil pan underneath with beef broth and a little bit of the rub for flavor. I wanted to try the unit bone stock first before any mods and I definitely saw that the side next to the hopper was a little bit cooler and the side next to the smoke stack was much hotter. Not too big of a deal though. Temp swings weren't too bad, about +/- 20 degrees as it cycled. I set it at 225 and cooked to 140 IT then turned up to 300 and opened the searing section to reverse sear. It came out really good!
Second smoke on Sunday was an epic fail.. but totally my fault. I threw on a 2.5 LB chuck roast (never cooked one before), also rubbed down with the same steak rub. This time I pulled the flimsy heat diffuser out, set to 225 and cooked to 145 IT, then opened up the sear section and reverse seared and also cooked some veggies at my GF's request. This time I put the meat directly on the lower grates, on the cooler smoke stack side to get more smoke on it. I noticed that without the heat diffuser, the hopper side is now pretty even with the center, and the smoke stack side is a bit cooler. Left to right the temp difference at lower temps 200-250 is within 30 degrees which is not bad at all and I will use to my advantage moving things around inside depending if I want to speed the cook up or slow it down while leaving the temp setting alone. Everything worked perfectly as expected, but the epic fail which again was my fault, was that it was just to tough a peace of meat and really needed to be a longer smoke up to 200 IT like a brisket. For this cook it was too late... already 9:00PM on a work night. Oh well... live and learn.
Third smoke. My GF wanted some shrimp and I wanted another tri tip. So this time after the preheat I left it at 350, opened up the searing section and cooked the shrimp which came out great, then lowered it back down to 225 and threw the tri tip on. This one was a bit smaller at just over 2.0 LB. This time I put it on the lower grate right in the center set at 225, cooked to 150 IT (my GF wanted it a little more done), then reverse seared again. It came out amazing! Even taking it up to 150 before the sear it was still nice and pink inside, super juicy with a nice mild smoke flavor.
Since I'm only three cooks in, I want to continue experimenting before I do anything like add a smoke tube or do any mods. Before adding a smoke tube, I want to try Lumberjack 100% Hickory pellets and leave on the smoke setting for 1-2 hours to get as much smoke on as possible at a lower temp to see if that improves smoke flavor. Nobody had the Lumberjack pellets or any 100% Hickory pellets locally so I was stuck using the Pit Boss Hickory Pellets in the blue bag from Walmart, which I understand are a blend, 70% Alder/ 30% Hickory. I would think that could easily be the reason for the more mild smoke flavor, plus the fact that a tri tip isn't exactly a long smoke at only 2 - 2.5 hours. If I still want more smoke after trying the lumberjack pellets, I have an old AMAZN tray smoker I used in my MES 30 and I will try that to see if it helps. Also, I will say that I'm a little OCD so I have been and will continue to clean it after each use (it has it's own brand new dedicated shop vac lol).
This weekend I plan on trying something with a longer smoke time, but not too long since it's still in my garage... probably a rack of St. Luis spare ribs and maybe some chicken.
Overall, I am really happy so far and loving my new Pit Boss!
