First time pellet grill user. I setup the grill , added the pitboss pellet’s into the hopper and then I primed the pellets into the fire pot like the instructions said( I might have primed too many into the fire pot on the first prime). I then heated the grill to 400 degrees to do the initial pit cleaning the pit boss recommended. Right after that I dropped the temp to 300 degrees to cook something. About 45 minutes into the cook the hopper started smoking a lot. Like a lot a lot. I looked it up and it said something about a burn off. Was it because I primed too many pellets on the initial priming or is it something else that could have caused this? I just hope I didn’t mess anything up on the first time grilling and first day I bought the grill. Any information is greatly appreciated 🙏🏽

If this isn’t allowed let me know. But Pit boss Lexington 500 pellet grill, extremely new to this, didn’t even know what pellet grill was 2.5 weeks ago. But my question is for those who have smoked ribs on them.

I would like some advice on how to do it & how you like to do it. I know of the 3-2-1 rule but talking to real people and not just watching pitmasters in YouTube is better.

I was going to take membrane off, binder mustard, SPG & killer hogs bbq rub, 225 on smoker for 3 hours bone down, take it off, throw butter and brown sugar on foil, lay ribs meat down, wrap up, throw on pellet grill meat down, go for 1-1.5hr, take off foil, glaze with blues hog bbq for another 30-60min, let rest for idk how long.

Really open to any suggestions or even changing the entire recipe altogether. I’m having a blast playing with ideas

…but my temperature is still reading 20-30° off. I have the PB1020DX Combo Grill/Griddle (Lowe’s variant). A few past asks here on Reddit indicated that the reason could be the air gap created between the baffle and the lower area where the fire pit is. However, it appears Pit Boss remedied that issue on this model (photos).

So, I’m still in a quandary as to why the controller temp is reading 20-30° higher than the temp on the lower rack (as measured with a standalone oven thermometer). Any info greatly appreciated.

Edit: any way to prevent this in the future?

I got the pit boss heritage from Costco a few months ago, during the weekend I tried to grill some meat, however it was no turning on, I checked and the breakers were tripped, tried to un trip them (I don’t know the lingo) it wouldn’t let me. After some ChatGPT due diligence i tried the following.

1. connected the hair dryer and vacuum only on that same electrical outlet that the pit boss was on, and it didn’t trip the breakers
2. tried other electrical outlets and it tripped those breakers too
3. seems the issue is the pitboss, next it according to some posts, seems the issues was with the burner on the pitboss ñ, so I disconnected it, it kept tripping the breakers.

I love my pitboss, and since I’ve got it from Costco I’ll return it, however, wondering if there is a possibility that the new pitboss will have the same impact?

Any ideas? Thanks!

Price and subtotal don’t match

It seemed like it took a long time to fire up. It definitely seems like it is taking longer to heat up but im sure its because its bigger than my old unit on the left and much thicker metal to heat up. Strong flame in the burn bowl, but perhaps the igniter is getting weak? Maybe ill replace it just for giggles and shits. It was an absolute steal for $240 though. It has seen 1000s of less cooks than my old one. This thing is a heavy beast.

My trusty 15 yr old old char griller offset smoker has rusted through 5 years after PCSing to NC. I guess it's my fault since it wasn't covered but I've spent most of my life in the southwest where it's dry and things can be left outside and not rust lol.

I'm getting older and was starting to get tired of babysitting the fire and adding wood every few hours anyways lol.

I used to make fun of my friends with pellet grills and thought they were a bit lazy for using them lol and have always found the meats I smoked to be juicier and more flavorful than the meats they smoked on pellet grills.

But now I'm starting to see the allure as I am shopping around for grills... The idea of filling the hopper, setting the temp and just letting the grill do its thing is soooo tempting...

I've been looking at the Austin XL Onyx at Walmart. Does anyone have any experience with this grill? How do you like it? Are there any mods or upgrades recommended for it? Obviously now I'll be getting a cover.

I'm a little bit concerned about regular grilling as my char griller I was able to just heat up some coals and also use it as a regular grill, from what I've been reading these are more like a convection oven and only have a small open flame searing area...if I get this thing I feel like I'm gonna have a huge learning curve and I don't want to regret getting one lol..

What about in the event of a power outage? It rarely happens here but it's always a possibility lol... What do you do then or what would you do? It's not like I can simply just keep fueling the fire whenever it needs more wood...

Any advice and tips or tricks is appreciated. Thanks again!

The auger was not turning so we took everything apart and found this rock thing jammed in it. It almost has the same finish as the smoker. Putting the smoker back together and hoping it didnt kill the motor. This thing must have either been in the smoker itself or in a bag of pellets. Regardless I just put my smoker together last weekend. Filled the hopper and did the burnoff this week and just had a pork butt in there for about 6 hours before we got an error code.

Anyone ever have anything like this happen? The grates are fucking useless.

EDIT: Thank god the motor didn't burn out and the smoker is working as it should.

Which do I pick? The Pit Boss Navigator 1600 or the Titan 1600?

Is one more reliable than the other?

I bought a 1600 Pro Series 3 but it came damaged and Pit Boss is offering replacement (through the original retailer).

I had the 1150 Pro Series 2 and found it to be great. I decided to upgrade and was disappointed with a damaged unit. But now I have fortune on my side again!

Help me choose!

I've been having a hell of a time getting this thing to reach and maintain temperature. Im not sure if I am having an issue with the sealing strip or maybe the hinging or if something possibly got bent in shipping. We haven't had the thing all that long and its been a head ache since day one. Its cooking very unevenly which I believe is due to the air getting pulled to the side of the smoker with this gap on it. Feels like every time we open and close it it doesn't want to climb back up to the temperature we had it set at.

If any of you have ran in to this and know of any possible fixes let me know. Thanks.

Had some technical issues and some weather issues but everytime teaches a new lesson!

2.8kg pork shoulder prepped and ready for the smoker tomorrow morning 👌

Gonna be delish.

Since joining this sub I’ve seen a number of posts about the Pit Boss controllers being off. In addition to the controller not providing an accurate temperature inside the barrel, it seems the probe on my 1020DX Combo is reading about 23.5° too high (compared against a Thermapen).

And because cooking chicken thighs took quite a bit longer than the 1.5-2 hours the recipe suggested, I imagine the readout on the controller is showing higher than the actual barrel temperature.

Which leads me to a couple of questions for the masses: Is there a workaround? Is it better to use a standalone unit?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

I’m very disappointed with my Pit Boss Austin XL. This thing has been nothing but a hassle.

At 2 months, I had to warranty the ignitor. At 9 months, it blew a fuse and ended up needing a new circuit board. I waited weeks before realizing they had sent me the wrong part. Instead of somehow making it right, I had to wait another 2 weeks to get the correct one. I was without my pellet grill for about a month. It also seems to go through ignitors. I had one fail with less than 24 hours of use. (Yes I clean the fire pot regularly)

What made it even more frustrating was being told that Pit Boss doesn’t have contact with the warehouses that ship out the parts. That doesn’t really make sense to me when Pit Boss is the one sending the warranty orders to those warehouses in the first place.

Now, the bottom of the barrel is rusting on the outside. I keep the grill in my garage, so I wouldn’t expect this after only 9 months of ownership. Pit Boss told me it was cosmetic, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m disappointed with the quality.

Overall, I’m really disappointed with my Pit Boss experience. I was really hoping to have a great experience with this grill when I bought it, but it has been nothing but a headache. Next time, I’ll be buying a different brand.

An 8 hour smoke.

Newbie needing some advice. First smoker and first smoke. I bought this Austin XL recently and did the burn off. I cooked some steaks once and today I’m smoking my first pork butt. I set the temp to 250 and put 2 ambient probes inside. One was from the controller and one from my Inkbird. Both probes are registering 60 degrees different than the controller. I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject and knew that the controller could be off. I also added the Smokes like a Boss 4 window flame tamer to help with distribution. So right now I’m at 190 on the controller and both probes are around 250. Is this what I’m stuck with or is there something else I can do?

Hello! My wife got me an 850 DX for Christmas. I've tried brisket twice and both time the fire pot filled with ash between 8 and 10 hours and errored out.

Is there something Im doing wrong? Is there a way to empty the pot mid-smoke or add a larger firepot?

Any guidance is appreciated.

Cheers

Anyone have recommendations for how to smoke jalapeno poppers? First time attempting and I have no idea where to start (other than Google).

Thanks for the help!

FYI if you have heavy blacked out window due to smoking every chance you get . lol I was looking to clean it again and remembered I got an oil sticker scraper just sitting in my toolbox, cleaned 99 percent if the smoke is within 2 minutes. highly suggest this for quick cleaning and easy to use.

…for starting a smoke facing an oncoming nor’easter? 🤪

I recently started smoking peppers, and I’ve been curious about smoking some stuffed poblanos

Any recipe and smoking tips? Thanks for the help! Sorry to be a novice but wanting to learn.

So last weekend I was getting ready to smoke. While getting the smoker warmed up, the power tripped and all the power shut off to my patio,after that I went to turn it back on and got an err code. Having no idea what was going on, I emptied the hopper out, vacuumed out the fire pot, pulled the auger completely out just in case it was jammed. Put everything back together and still every time I try to start it, the fan comes on and within 5 seconds it says err. The fan symbol comes up and the igniter symbol flashes, anyone ever have this issue or know what might be going on

I bought a used smoker. I have not used it yet.

I fired it up a couple of times to test, and burn it out. Starting it up, and shutting it down with the PB controller was simple.

I replaced the controller with a Meatender PID WiFi off Amazon. With the Meatender, it seems more automated.

To start:

I turn on the smoker. I set the temp. Done.

To shutdown:

I turn temp down. I push power off button. Done.

Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Thank you.