Time for a change

[lugnutz]

Hi all! I have been a long time user of the UDS, but I am ready for a change. I am interested in a Pit Boss series 5 or a Masterbuilt 40 inch digital charcoal. Pit Boss is in the lead for it's ability to be set at 150. The Masterbuilt is tempting because I still love charcoal and wood chunks.
What are your thoughts and experiences with these type of smokers? I am interested in what you have to say.

 

[kilo charlie]

I have a Pit Boss Copperhead 5 ... exclusive to Walmart but that's only the door and rain cap color.

I adore it! First, the 60 pound hopper on the back will provide 30 ish hours of smoking time. That's figured at an average burn rate of 1.5 to 2 pounds of pellets per hour. Obviously the weather will affect that.

The water pan only needs to be topped off about every 3 hours so it's nearly set it and forget it.

The racks are porcelain coated which makes it a breeze to clean them.

The window in the front makes it easy to see what's happening without opening the door and wasting energy. I've hung an oven thermometer on the top rack that I can see through the window and use that instead of the digital gauge.

I've done 8 pork shoulders at once, 4 chickens (Spatchcocked) etc so it can handle a LOT or you could fire it up to smoke a single ribeye. You can lay a whole rack of ribs flat without cutting them like you would on the smaller 3 models.

Pit Boss does NOT make a PID controller for the vertical smokers which is a bummer but it's been worth every penny to me.

 

[bigfurmn]

I have a pellet grill just for full disclosure. You can get charcoal pellets to add in with the wood pellets if you miss the flavor.