Pit Boss Competition Series Pellet Smoker Full Review

This is episode number 273 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad you could join us for another live episode here in The Homeowner Show studios. How you doing, Kev?

Oh, it's a new year, a new day.

Happy New Year.

We're wearing the same shirts, though. No one will know the difference.

Trust me. Pay no attention to the seasonal attire we're wearing from last episode. For those of you watching the video, everyone listening to audio, you're none the wiser.

None the wiser.

Yeah.

Not at all. So But yes, it is today.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna zip up over this.

The day after the new year.

That way you, you just look like the bum.

Yeah, that's me. That's right.

There we go.

That's better. Oh, well, if you're, uh, listening to this, um, then you have no idea. But, um, man, it's, uh, it's been a good season.

Yeah. And, uh, we're excited for 2024.

Absolutely. There, I mean, there's, there's always so many, like, It's funny, like, I'm not a big— I'm not a big resolution type of guy. I am a goal person.

Sure, yeah.

I like goals, but I think goals can be a moving target. I'm okay with that.

Um, actually, there's a— there's a good chance that by the time this airs, I may not have a mustache anymore.

Oh, we can all hope for that day. No more than your wife. Yeah, that's for sure.

Well, she had— and the reason I say she had a goal that I told her that if she hit I'd shave my mustache.

And?

Well, I don't know, because the year's not up yet.

Right. But at the moment, you're on pace.

I'm on pace.

To make that happen.

Yeah. Together, we're going to try and make it happen. I'm actually trying to help her achieve this goal.

It's a positive thing.

It's a positive.

Yeah.

I totally support it. And so it was like, well, if you really hate the mustache, let's make it Let's make it worth your while. Let's make it interesting.

That's right. Well, I, I hope you hit— I hope you both hit your goals. Mhm. And, uh, that you can enjoy the fruit of the goal.

Yeah.

So, and, and that's, that's the whole point of goals, right? I mean, it's like, to me, it's like, you know what, because here's the problem with resolutions. Resolutions tend to be pass/fail.

Yeah.

For, for many people. And I think, I think goals are a lot more Like, because, because you never know. Like, a circumstance could happen that was beyond your control, and therefore the goal needs to change, right? And I think goals can change. So I don't know.

That's fair.

Anyway, that's my thought.

Well, yeah, because things— I mean, things happen throughout the year that might make the target different.

Yeah, I mean, and you may, you may like— your goal may be to do something in 3 months, and it might happen in the first 3 days, right? Well, at that point, what are you going to do? Just like slough off for the next, you know, what is that, 87 days after that? Are you just going to slough off? No, I don't think so. You got to change your goals at that point. Yeah. What— that's, that's the positive side of things.

I think, I think a lot of people that set reasonable goals often find that they achieve them much quicker than they thought originally possible.

Right.

And so, yeah, to your point, like, what are you going to do? You're just not going to do anything the rest of the year?

Right.

Or you're going to end up If it's like a health thing, I mean, you could just end up right back where you started.

Yes.

Having to go through it all again because you achieved the goal quicker than you thought that you could.

Right.

Because most of the time it's weight loss.

Of course.

And so you get that done, it's like, well, I've got 6 months to go. Yeah.

Tacos.

Do I do this right?

Yeah. So I don't know. One of the best things I've heard recently is breaking it up into 12-week goals and make it achievable, make it something that's not so far, like by the end of the year, I want to— okay, that's a long way away. Yeah.

So one of the things we wanted to get out of the way at the beginning of this one is we kind of had a video that blew up.

It's still blowing up.

Yeah, it's still going. And it was really just me telling my experience about getting a free pass to all the national parks because of my 4th grader.

Right.

Part of what made this video blow up is that I'm so handsome. The other part that made it blow up—

It's the mustache.

Yeah, that's right. It's the mustache. Is some people online that need to make a resolution to be less of an ass in 2024.

That they do need that.

Yeah.

But that's basically because we have decided as a culture, it's completely fine to say whatever you want to as long as it's in text form.

Right. Yeah. With zero accountability.

Exactly.

For what you've said.

Or repercussion, because at that point, whenever someone comes back at you, it's their fault.

Right.

Yeah.

And no one was mean to us by any stretch of the imagination. Some people just said some things that were like, wildly absurd and strange that elicited wild responses from other people. So just want to address a couple of them.

Please do.

The main one being from MrExtreme.Vapes, who— again, this was a post about how when you were in 4th grade, you can sign up for a program in which you and your entire family—

Everybody.

Gets to go to all the national parks for free.

Right.

Okay. MrExtreme.Vapes commented, the real question needs to be, why does our national parks want younger children there and not adults? Isn't that concerning to anyone? To which everyone responded—

Everyone.

Hey, did you not listen to the whole video? It's for kids and their families, right? So this person was implying that they— the national parks wants 4th graders wandering around the national parks by themselves, right? For some sort of nefarious purpose, right? I'm not really sure what.

My favorite part is the way people pounced on—

oh, big time.

And it was very much like, nobody thought about that but you. That was one of my favorite ones. Like, what are you thinking? Yeah. Anyway, that's one of my favorite things. Everybody was pounding on it. Sounds like you're the weirdo.

Yeah. So, and another one is from Calaveras32SPCL. My question is, why should citizens be required to pay to enter parks that are supported by our tax dollars? Which I think is a fair question.

It is.

But the obvious answer to that is they're their own department.

Yes.

It takes a lot of staff to operate those things.

They're not free.

No.

I mean, you— I mean, the, the things that you want to do in those places don't just get magically available to you in the way you want them.

Right.

You want bathrooms there? Right. You want, you want parking, you want places.

You want, you want clean bathrooms.

Right. Yeah, absolutely.

You know?

Yeah. And, and like all of the things that you actually want to be able to, to drive through those places, to, to stop and have safe overlooks so you can actually see the things that— those don't just happen. And, and yes, the tax dollars do, do help with that, but that doesn't cover everything. No. I mean, there's always stuff that needs to be done. And yeah, makes sense.

Yeah. So this other one, which didn't get any replies, but it was an interesting one. I think it's— I don't know how to pronounce his name anyway. He's not even wearing a shirt in his picture.

Oh, please.

Yeah. But he says, you mean the place where people are smuggled, lost, or kidnapped the most? Makes sense. Which, I mean, you can say that kind of stuff, but there's zero data, right?

Show me the evidence.

Show me. Yeah. And I actually looked it up because of another comment. I'm going to see if I can find it here.

It's like whenever people are like, yeah, people don't like it when that happens. It's like, who's people? When do you say people?

I'm actually going to invite Kevin to participate in this one because this one is from helm.collective23. in which they commented, Google how many kids go missing in state parks each year. Now, to be fair, I wasn't talking— we weren't talking about state parks in this particular video.

National parks.

Yeah, we're talking about national parks.

Right.

But I'd be interested to see the answer to that question if you want to Google that real quick.

I'm ready.

So let's see. This one's a fun one. This one is Sav the Bodyguard, all one word, in which he says, Homeowner Show, if you look it up, all our national parks belong to the United Nations, some World Heritage Site program. Okay. I don't think that's true. No, I actually looked it up. I see zero evidence. I don't think the United Nations owns are, uh, national parks. So good try though.

Yeah, it's okay. So there's a couple of interesting things, Emory. Again, it's the internet, so it's true, right? So yeah, um, the first thing that comes up on how many people go missing in state parks says since 2013, authorities in some of California's most visited parks.

Mhmm.

Okay. So this is one state.

Right.

Have responded to over 1,500 reports of missing people since 2013.

Mhmm.

Okay. So that's just one state.

Since 2013 or in 2013?

Since 2013.

Okay.

Okay. So, but in another place, Um, on greenmatters.com, um, this was a year ago. It says between 1958 and 2021. Okay, that's a long span.

It's a long span.

Okay, uh, there were only 29 open cold cases for missing individuals. Now those are cold, cold cases, right?

So ones that were never solved.

Yeah. So I, I don't know what the number actually winds up being. Yeah.

But I actually do have the numbers for the— I don't, I don't have them just yet, but I have them here somewhere. But I, I wanted to stop at this one because, again, I, I— this guy's name is Swartikus.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's kinda funny.

Uh, he says it's actually already free to everyone if you understand your rights. Just don't use the parking lots or facilities.

Well, so, so they're just gonna like drive through the gate? Like there's, there's like a guarded shack that you gotta like just drive through?

Okay, to a certain degree he's not wrong.

No, because there are places where you can go get through. Right.

Yeah. Where you're— so like, I go to the Sam Houston National Forest.

Yeah.

All the time.

Sure.

I don't have to pay to get in.

No.

But they do have designated areas where you can park.

Sure.

And trails.

Right.

But I can also just walk into the national forest anywhere. Yeah. Because as long as I have access to the property on the other side.

Right. Because there's not a fence around the entire place.

Right.

Right.

So, like, yeah, he's not wrong in the sense that you can access the national parks if you want to use the facilities.

Yes.

Sometimes you have to pay to use those facilities.

Right.

So, but this isn't a, if you understand your rights sort of situation.

No, the situation is, how cool is it that if you're a 4th grader, your whole family gets to go for free?

And use the facilities.

And use the facilities.

For free.

And, and, and there is a logical reason why it's that age.

Yeah.

Very logical. Because 4th graders learn about national parks in 4th grade.

Yes.

And so ergo, they are doing a really cool thing. And if you don't know about it, you should know about it because it's a really awesome opportunity.

Right.

There you go.

And so here's the answer to the question previously, and this was also asked by— and I'll read the question— uh, Henry Westerman 60 asked, and how many people disappear there? Question mark, question mark. But so yeah, I assume when you put 2 question marks that you're sort of sarcastically asking knowingly.

Yeah.

Or, and with some level of suspicion. I assume that's what 2 question marks mean.

That—

well, yeah, I don't have like an Urban Dictionary with me.

Well, or whatever you start assuming, Craig.

Or what the new English rules are on multiple punctuation marks. But I assume that's what he's insinuating.

Yes.

So I looked it up and I responded to him and I said, best I could find, was 1,600 people on average annually go missing in the national parks. Um, and I said, not too bad considering they report over 400 million visitors each year.

That the percentages are actually in their favor. Yeah. Yeah.

So just saying. So I mean, like, those, those are the numbers that we have.

And, and, and this isn't like Disney World where there's like gates and fences.

These are places like bears and wolves and stuff can happen.

Places you can wander.

Right.

Yeah.

Again, this is supposed to be a wonderful, beautiful thing, which most people did. Most people took it. I mean, it's been shared close to 30,000 times so far. And most of the people that are sharing it is like, oh my gosh, can you believe this? I checked it out. It's legit. And because we provided the links. And so, like, it's just a super cool program where 4th graders get to go to national parks for free with their families. Exactly.

Pretty cool.

Period. End of story.

Yep. All right.

Hopefully that, you know, makes some— makes some clarity on the video that people—

for the people that made those comments, it won't. It won't.

Yeah.

Let's just put it there.

Yeah. Because he didn't respond to my data.

Well, because it doesn't matter. Yeah, some people you just can't convince with facts.

Yeah, you know, those pesky facts.

Yeah, exactly. Well, uh, but we do have a pretty cool episode because you made a purchase.

I did.

And when we make purchases—

Episode—

It is sponsored by someone that purchased a sponsorship. Is that where you go?

I don't know. No, I just want to make sure that we get to get— we get to celebrate our sponsor.

Well, we do need to do that because our sponsor is Lone Star Appliance Repair. And, uh, man, they are just phenomenal people. If you are needing a repair on your appliance, don't just chunk that thing and buy a new one. Call up Lone Star Appliance Repair. Here's the cool thing, if you call them up and they can't repair it, Mm-hmm. they're gonna tell you. They're not gonna take your money. I mean, they might charge you for a service call because that's logical and the right thing to do. Yeah. Um, but I mean, they're not gonna just try to fix it and fix it and fix it and charge and charge it. These are good quality people. They know their stuff. They're— they know what their parameters

are. And you can contact them at 936-647-2364. Uh, you can find— what's their website again? LoneStarAppliance.us. That's exactly right.

So, and we'll, we'll have it linked up in the show notes for everybody that wants to go find them, right?

But, yeah. Give them a call. They're wonderful, wonderful people. And here's the other cool thing. At 936-647-2364, guess what else you can do? Text them.

Text them.

Just text them. They're— I mean, that's even better. It's even easier. You don't have to talk to anybody.

Yeah.

You can lay there. You can lay there at night going, oh, man. I forgot to do— and just text them.

It's appliance repair for the truly introverted.

Everybody—

That's right.

Can succeed at this.

Equal Access Appliance Repair.

That's exactly right. So give them a call today for all your appliance repair needs. And, uh, back to the, uh, purchase. I made a purchase.

I did make a purchase, but I was just thinking about something. I, I can't imagine how the communication ability for the deaf was transformed through text messages.

Oh, geez. No kidding. I—

because I was just thinking about it. I was like, I know it's not that big of a deal, you can text, but like if you're deaf and you need an appliance repair, what are you gonna do? Like most companies want you to call them, right? I was like, oh, that's actually really cool that you can text them.

Yeah, no, it's phenomenal.

Yeah, phenomenal. Anyway, or if like if you don't speak English, like you could utilize— you could use like Google Translate and text them.

Absolutely, I do that all the time actually. I love Google Translate. Yeah, sometimes I do it just to be funny. Text people weird things.

Curse people out in French.

Well, I know. Well, yeah, because I do know how to curse them out in Spanish. It's about all the Spanish I know. It's the only thing that stuck whenever I was a child. I was like, I heard that. I heard that word a lot. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mostly directed at me. That's a whole nother thing. Whole nother conversation.

But I did make a purchase. Yeah. Here we are. Alright. So here's, here's what happened. is my wife came home and informed me. She goes— and this, mind you, this was 3 days before Thanksgiving.

This is not abnormal. I love your wife. She's one of my favorite people.

Sure.

This is totally indicative of her.

Oh, yeah.

This is her to a T.

It didn't surprise me.

No.

So she informed me 3 days before Thanksgiving, hey, I'm going to need you to make 4 turkeys.

Yeah. Not, not one turkey.

Right.

4.

4.

That's a lot.

And I need 4 turkeys cooked before the day before Thanksgiving.

That's tomorrow or 2 days.

2 days from now. Okay.

And, okay.

And so I said, okay, how? And she goes, well, just use the oven. Now, Part of what I think some people need to understand about the relationship that I have with my wife is I do most of the cooking.

Yes. For our family. Sure.

I enjoy it.

It's not because she's not a good cook.

No, she's a fine cook.

But you're just better.

I—

and you enjoy it.

She would probably say that.

I, I think so. Um, I love you, Brandy.

Um, but anyway, so she wants me to make 4 turkeys, and I'm like, How?

Yeah, that's a lot.

And she's like, well, just use the oven. I was like, babe, at best I can fit 2 turkeys in the oven at one time.

Maybe small ones.

And it's like, there's no way I can get 4 turkeys done in 2 days.

Not possible.

It's just not gonna happen.

Nope.

And she's like, well, I have to have them. And I said, okay, what would you like me to do? Yeah. And she goes, I need you to figure it out. Okay. So I figured it out.

Yeah, because here's the thing, if you were to purchase 4 cooked, especially 4 smoked turkeys, you could make the purchase that you made.

Yeah.

This was actually a smart financial decision on your part.

Right. So what I found was the Pit Boss Competition Series, Pit Boss Pro Competition Series.

Okay.

I measured it, checked it out. It could fit 4 turkeys.

Wow.

I think it actually lists that it can— is it like 10 chickens that it can hold at one time? I think, I think it's 10 chickens. You could, you could do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 full racks of ribs. Um, it's got, it's got a lot of square footage in there.

You could probably— I mean, if you, if you're doing them like, you know, like stack, like stacking those rigs, you can probably do more than that.

You, yeah, if you put them on top of one another.

Yeah, yeah, like, I mean, like upright, you know?

Yeah.

But, but side by side. Yeah.

And so, so it is an electric pellet smoker.

Okay.

Um, has a lot of super cool features, but let me tell you I was able to knock out 4 turkeys in about 8 hours. Geez, that's incredible. And they were good. They weren't like my best turkeys.

Well, because you got to brine them overnight at minimum.

Right. So I didn't get to do everything that I like to do in order to make the turkey taste like I wanted it to taste, but they were good turkeys. I smoked them in pecan. So there's a lot of pluses that come with this thing. It's a fantastic smoker. I've actually used it more for finishing meats than I have for actually cooking them.

Okay.

And I've done it with pecan and I've done it with hickory so far.

All right.

And we can get into some of the technical aspects of it because I think those are some of the things that are really impressive about this smoker. I want to save those towards the end, but just the practical aspect of how much meat you can smoke at one time.

Right.

I mean, I have a large smoker. You—

yeah, it's pretty big.

Yeah, but there's no— like, and this is like a traditional wood smoker, um, but there's no way I could fit 4 turkeys.

I mean, I mean, that's a, that's a big barrel smoker. It is basically what you got. You— could you put 3 in there?

I might be able to put 3. The problem is, is I'd have to— so like, you know how you want to put a turkey in, like you want to put it kind of like in where the legs are up and facing out?

Right.

I would have to turn them sideways in order for it to fit with the lid down.

Yeah.

And so like, I might be able to fit 3.

And you definitely couldn't spatchcock them.

No, no, couldn't do that. And—

I just like saying spatchcock.

Well, I like cooking stuff spatchcocked.

Yeah, it's easy.

Um, and I would have to monitor that fire for—

That's the problem.

8 to 12 hours.

This is where— okay, we can have this conversation, but before we do Let me just say this. There is this big thing, like this, this separation of people that are like offset, you know, real fire smokers, traditionalists versus pellet smokers. And I'm here to tell you, pellet smokers cook meat that taste delicious.

Yep.

The same as this other— I'll tell you, there is way, way, way, way, way more room for error in the traditional thing.

Oh, for sure.

And, and I think that's part of it is like, oh, it's just manly, like I know what I'm doing and drinking a beer while I'm doing it. And I was like, you know what, I went over here and I ran all the errands and I cleaned my house and I still ate the same good food you did at the end of the day. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm just saying, I, I love it. Love it.

I, I will say this, I, I still hold that the offset can make a better tasting piece of meat.

If, if done correctly, I completely agree with you.

Yeah, and, but not so much better that I'm willing to spend that amount of time now that I have this.

So what one of the biggest problems with with like an offset smoker is just the temperature regulation.

Yep.

That is the biggest problem that you have with this type of thing because you get it too hot and all of a sudden you're sunk, man.

Yeah.

And, and if you don't get it hot enough, you're never going to get it cooked. You can still work with it, but if you get that thing too hot, man, like, good luck.

Yeah.

You may have ruined, you know, however much— I mean, you go get a good brisket, I mean, it might cost you $75, $80 or more.

And you can get a pretty good one now for about $50. You can.

Yeah, you can.

They've come down a little bit.

But you could be in one of those positions where you've spent that much money and it's like, it's just wasted.

Yeah, it's not good.

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, so I mean, one, just the volume.

Yes.

The volume that you can put in there, and there's multiple ways you can do it. It comes with 4 racks, so there's just a lot of space.

That is a lot of space.

And I mean, like, you know, you start looking at doing other things like smoking fish, smoking pork, smoking chicken, poultry, all those kind of things. I mean, like, you're gonna have a lot more versatility, and to your point, a lot more control. Yeah. To get those meats smoked properly.

Right. So it's, it's got almost 1,700 square inches of cooking space. Yeah.

So that's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. So it also, to me, it also gives you the opportunity to try out other wood flavors more readily.

Yeah. Pellets are very easy to—

And just go buy a bag at the store.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And, and one of the other things I think is beautiful about so many of us, you get these cool blends that people have already kind of formulated that, like, this produces a really good that, right?

You know, and a lot of the bags, you know, kind of like your seasonings at the store, it'll have the picture of the animal that you're cooking with that that seasoning's intended for.

It's dummy-proof.

Yeah, and so like the wood will actually have the pictures of the kinds of meats that it goes good for, that it's good for. Yeah, so, and I'm pretty familiar with that kind of stuff, but I also like to experiment. Yeah, um, cherry is one of my ones I like to smoke with a lot, although fruit— it can, it can be difficult, very difficult, and can make stuff taste kind of funky.

Yep.

Uh, applewood is another one I really like, especially for like pork.

Yes. Yeah, pork, especially hams.

Yeah, but like the traditional ones are great. I, you know, like, like if I had to pick one to go with for like the rest of my life, I would probably pick pecan.

Interesting.

I wouldn't. So it's, it's just so versatile.

I mean, I love pecan. I just grew up with mesquite.

Mesquite.

Yeah. I mean, that's where I grew up.

Yeah.

So that's what I love.

Yeah. And so a lot of people go, go back to the flavors that they grew up with. That is true. I mean, a lot of people. So, and I, I did grow up with pecan.

Yeah. Well, and we did too, but mesquite was so readily available. But like, if you're in Central Texas, you're going to get post oak probably. And, you know, it's just interesting. It's, I, everybody I love—

I do, I love post oak on cheeses.

Oh yeah, yeah.

So, and I'm actually, I, I am interested to see if it can handle lower temperatures. I haven't played around with it too much to see if I could like smoke some cheeses, like a cold smoke.

What do you need, what do you need that at, like below 200? Oh yeah, like 150.

Oh no, it has to be cooler than that.

Really interesting. I, yeah, I have no idea. I mean, I, I wonder if it tells me Um, it probably does. Keep, keep talking. I'll, I'll try to see if I can find the, the temperature range.

So the other thing I want people to know is I was able to pick this up on sale.

Yeah.

It, uh, I paid $499 for it. I think it's going for just like $550 or whatever. Yeah, in that neighborhood. You can buy them at Academy. I think you can buy them— I don't— can you get them on Amazon?

I don't know.

I would assume you can. Probably.

Um, you can get everything on Amazon.

So, and I think they sell them some other places, but I mean, you're, you're looking in the neighborhood of $500. to, to get one of these. I think it's totally worth it. Um, to, to Kevin's point, I mean, you can, you can set the temperature and then just walk away. The other— so this is probably a good opportunity to kind of get into the technical aspect. Technical aspect of it is there is an app that you can put on your phone that you can use to control the smoker.

That— I love this feature. Yeah, because what it allows for is it allows you not just to set it and forget it, because I really think that's a bad idea for most things, but you can leave.

Yep.

If you need to and know exactly what's happening. Yep.

Yeah. And because it's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, you can access the smoker when you're not on the property.

Uh, it's so wonderful.

Yeah. And, um, as you— so what you want to do And this, I'm gonna get into this later, but there is a meat thermometer and there's actually 3 ports for meat thermometers.

3?

Yes.

Okay.

It will give you a graph for each thermometer and the temperature and give you a graph to see how, if the temperature changed, when the temperature and the meat changed, everything. which is actually really helpful. And you can save that data for— you can go back and look and see how your cooks have done, what temperature you did them at, what kind of— what kind of— I mean, it's every— all that data that you want if you're that kind of a meticulous smoker. The 3 ports are different. There's one that's a control port, and there's the other 2 that are just monitor ports.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

So in the app, one of the things that you can do is you can actually set a temperature for the control temp, the control thermometer, to actually turn the smoker off when that meat that's in the control port hits that temperature.

That's cool. So you don't— you literally don't even have to be home when it's time to pull it, right? That's, that's actually incredible.

Now, I mean, like, you're—

It's almost like a sous vide type of opportunity.

It is, yeah. But I mean, like, obviously you're still going to have some heat continuing to do some cooking, but you're just not going to have as warm as a temperature, and it's not going to cook it further more than what the temperature of the meat is, right?

Which is, which is really what a sous vide is so perfect at. Yeah, you can keep a piece of meat or whatever you're cooking at a certain temperature until you're ready, right? Yeah.

So, and, and the other thing is, like, you know, say, say you pull up that graph and you're like, man, the internal temp of that meat is going up really really fast.

Yeah, yeah.

You can actually, you know, from the app on your phone, like, you know, say I'm over in the house and the smoker's over here in the guest house, well, I can then just turn the temp down on the, on the smoker right there and just be like, okay, like, settle down, right?

Chill out. Yeah, I don't have to go out there.

So, so, I mean, it just has a lot of really, really cool features, um, that you just, you just don't get, right?

Uh, well, and at that price point, um, it's, uh, you, you can got a large cooking surface at a really reasonable price point.

Yes.

I will tell you the temperature range is 150 to 420.

Oh, in the smoker?

In the smoker.

Okay.

So there's, there's a couple things you have to recognize. I mean, so it's not gonna be— apparently not gonna get cool enough to do like cheeses and stuff, but what, what you got to recognize, and this is something that is is a challenge for a lot of people is they want to buy something that'll do everything. So I want to be able to grill steaks, and I also want to be able to smoke a brisket. Well, there are almost— I mean, there are a few products, and Pit Boss actually has some, that you can do both, right? You're giving something up somewhere along the line. You're giving something up.

Yeah.

If you want to be able to, you know, sear a steak at you know, 700, 800 degrees.

This is not your toy.

This is not your toy. So just, just know that, you know, I mean, this is to do what it is created to do, and you can do a lot of meat in it. Yeah, but I, I mean, you can also cook one piece of meat in there too if you want.

Oh yeah, you know, yeah. And, and like I said before, I've actually used it just to finish meat. Okay, uh, we've, we've taken, uh, like pork butt and cooked it in the crock pot with the seasonings that we wanted gotten it to almost finished and then pulled it and then stuck it in the smoker for like 3 or 4 hours. Perfect. And just let it get that smoky goodness on the outside. And some people are like, well, it's not going to taste like a fully smoked pork butt. And I was like, yeah, that—

But I didn't want that.

That's not what I wanted. I wanted that crust on the outside.

Have you done a queso yet?

No, I haven't done a queso yet. Yeah, I love some smoked. I've done, uh, turkeys, I've done pork butt, uh, what else have I done?

I'll tell you what, I've done some other stuff. If you're— let me just say this, if you have not traditionally been someone who has smoked a lot of meat, first of all, I think a pellet is for you. Pellet smoker is for you at that point because you don't have to be an expert and start off with a pork butt.

That's probably not a bad idea.

It is really difficult to screw up a pork butt.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, just saying.

So, well, so there are some things about it that do require some attention. Okay, there is a water tray in the bottom that you have, and it doesn't hold a whole lot of water. Okay, and I will say that that's probably one of the things I dislike about the smoker the most. Okay, if, if I had to point out something negative, is like the water tray And I think that's why you have to fill it up pretty regular is like it's so shallow.

Yeah.

And so it just uses a lot of water and you want to keep that water in there because that's what's going to help keep your meat moist.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, and the other thing is, is like it, you do have to clean it.

Sure.

I mean, because just juices and smoke and crust just go everywhere and eventually it'll cake up that smoker and You know, and you want to clean it just because you, like, you're going to be smoking different flavors and you don't want burnt flavors of things that wouldn't taste good on other stuff.

That's right.

You just don't want it. So you just need to clean it from time to time.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, does it have a cleaning mode on it?

No. Okay, because some of these smokers, and this isn't obviously one of them, you can just burn some of that stuff out.

Yeah, no, not, not really. I mean, like, what it recommends is just getting there and scrubbing it.

That's no big deal.

Yeah, I mean, and you just have to do it from time to time. Yeah, so it makes sense.

There's a couple of things that are really cool. It's got a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

That is huge.

That's a long time.

That is a long time. I mean, but I mean, it makes sense if you like— I mean, like, if you start messing around with it, like, the thing is sturdy.

Sure.

And there's not— there's actually not a lot to it other than just the brain of that electronic.

Yep.

That's, that's controlling the temperature. Well, and then the auger.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and it, you know, it— and I actually like the loading system for the pellets.

Yeah, it's kind of on the side.

Well, it's in the back.

The back. Okay.

But there's a window on the side that is an indicator as to how many pellets you already— how many pounds of pellets you got in there. And it'll hold 60 pounds of pellets.

Yeah, that's a lot.

It's a lot. That's a lot of pellets.

That's a lot of pellets. I mean, typically a bag's—

One, one bag is plenty.

Yeah, and a bag is not 60 pounds most of the time.

I think they are 20, 25. Okay.

Got it.

Yeah, yeah, they're not, they're not very big. Yeah, which again also makes them easy to just pick up at the store.

Sure. So, and, and you can most of the time you can buy pellets at grocery store, Academy, you know, any of these like sporting goods stores, and buy them at Home Depot.

Okay, I'm gonna, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna try and word it properly. All pellets will work in this smoker. Okay, that does not mean that all pellets are good, right? Or that are going to give you the best flavor.

Sure.

But, and it also doesn't mean that you only have to use the Pit Boss pellets, right? Which are not super easy to find, by the way.

Okay.

You know, you can get them at Academy, but like, um, I think the only ones I could find when I was there last time, and this is probably like Academy's problem, it was like a, uh, um, a turkey brining kit.

Oh, interesting.

For Pit Boss, and it was like a bucket and some brining seasonings and then a bag of pellets for the smoker.

If you need that.

Yeah, I didn't need the bucket or the seasonings, and it was like— and I was like, I know how much the pellets cost, and this was like twice as much as another bag of pellets, right? So I just went with another bag.

Sure.

And there's— they are— there are different size bags of pellets. But any size pellet, whether it be like Traeger or— okay, but they're all the same size.

They are, they're all the same.

That doesn't mean that they're the same quality.

Sure.

But, you know, if you're just looking to try something different, any of them will work in there.

Right, so that's good to know. So any other features you want to talk about?

No, I think I kind of, I kind of hit all of the stuff I'm excited about. I mean, I do think It is misleading in the description when it says that it only has 2 meat thermometer ports. That is true because it does only have 2 true meat thermometer ports.

The other's ambient.

The— no, no, the other one's a control.

Oh, it's a control. Okay.

Right. And so it's also a meat thermometer, but it's a control thermometer that you can use to set a temp.

That makes sense.

And so it really has 3.

Right.

But when you read the description, it says, well, this one only has 2.

Yeah.

So it's true, but like, it really has 3.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Now it only comes with 1.

Oh, okay.

The one that it comes with will work in any of the 3 ports.

Okay.

But you need to purchase the additional ones, additional ones, if you want to use that.

Well, I, I, I've got a meat thermometer that I've got— I can do 4 in it, and it— man, those, they're invaluable, right? They're invaluable. So really, really helpful. I just— we like to talk about 1-star reviews.

Absolutely.

And I've got one here. We're not gonna— we're not gonna waste time too much. It's already late here. But I gotta read this one. 1 star from Vinnie02126.

All right, Vinnie.

Great, unless it catches itself on fire. And I mean, literally—

Fair point, Vinny.

Yeah, it said, would be nice if there were safeties in place to prevent something like this. Thank God I don't keep it in a place where it could catch my house on fire, or it would— or this would be the least of my problems. No, I do not recommend this product.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Vinny didn't fill up the water tray.

Yeah.

Um, but also There's fire in it.

Right. What do you think it—

I mean, just like, it, it is electric, right? Okay. That doesn't mean that there's not fire involved.

Sure.

It's—

no, it, it's still electric heat.

Yeah.

And it's produced by fire, which is the way that works. So I don't know that. I, I wonder if there's— I didn't even really search too much for it because I, uh, I just, I don't know. Oh, this is— all right, I'm gonna read one more. These are the types of things I'm like, come on. Uh, Matt F. Terrible is the title.

Mm-hmm.

I bought this 2 weeks ago and it was missing screws and parts. This was assembled at academy. The door looks crooked and the Wi-Fi does not work. I tried multiple times to contact Pit Boss. All they do is troubleshoot, but nothing is working. I would not recommend this item or brand.

Uh, okay.

If you— I will say this. If you pay a store to assemble something and it comes not assembled, yeah. I don't know if it deserves a 1-star, but—

Yeah, I don't know that this is, like, indicative of the brand or anything that they do.

It's indicative of Academy, maybe, that you purchased it from.

So I mean, like, they— when I bought mine, they like had several of them already assembled on the floor. I didn't— it didn't come in a box. Like, they just put the smoker in the back of my truck and I tied it down.

Sure.

I mean, like, there was nothing—

it was already put together. Yeah, yeah, easy. Well, uh, I don't know if you're looking for, uh— I'll tell you this, I mean, there's a lot of smokers out there that are really good. I will tell you this one, um, obviously it's been been really good for you. Search, like, search brand models.

Well, so, okay, so here's, here's a 1-star review by Tracy B.

Oh, I saw that one.

Um, it's further down from—

I think it's like—

okay, it's— she says, I bought it a week ago, don't smoke hardly at all, the pan of water only lasts 40 minutes, you have to suck the ash out with a shop vacuum, big waste of money. Okay, so I will agree with her, the pan of water doesn't last long. Sure. Like, that is absolutely true. I don't know about what she means by you have to suck the ash out.

40 minutes is probably not accurate.

If you put enough water in, yeah, 40 minutes probably isn't accurate. But like, it is difficult to put water in.

Sure.

Um, so like, I, I understand that one.

Sure.

I also understand her first complaint when it says, I bought it a week ago, don't, don't smoke hardly at all. I think what she was trying to say is there's hardly any smoke coming out of the stack.

Well, um, that, that, that's pretty subjective anyway, because a lot of times the smoke that you want's a white smoke, So maybe you don't even see it.

Yeah, that's the thing is just because you're not seeing smoke come out of the stack doesn't mean that it's not smoking the meat, right? And because I was actually kind of surprised as to how little smoke comes out of the stack.

Sure, but if it's still smoking your meat—

But if you have the smokestack tampered down all the way, yeah, you're gonna have less smoke And people do that, which is great for these kinds of smokers because you can tamp that thing down and actually hold a lot of the smoke in the smoker without it coming out.

Sure.

Which is kind of what you want.

Sure.

So if not a lot's coming out and that's something that you're looking for, maybe just— there's a— you just screw the cap on top.

Oh, okay.

And it's not like, it's not like on the, the easy, the other ones where you slide it. This one's a screw. Okay. And it's never like all that hot.

Yeah, I see that. It's very— makes sense.

So I mean, that could be the issue, but also it just doesn't put out— it's more clean burning.

Yeah.

Than like traditional wood, and so there's not going to be as much smoke.

Right.

So yeah, all that, you know, my question would be like, did what you cooked in it taste okay?

Yeah, that's that's ultimately the thing that matters, right?

Yeah.

So cool. Well, excellent. Uh, if you want to learn more, uh, there's a link in the show notes, and so you definitely help— um, definitely can help yourself out by checking that out. And, uh, yeah, I think that's all we got.

That's all we got. No, that's it.

Cool. Well, thank you for listening to the episode or watching it online, even though We may or may not be wearing the same things we were last time. Thank you for joining us. And if you've not already, go ahead and make your goal in 2024 to like and subscribe and send us a 5-star rating review on Apple Podcasts. That would be fantastic.

Lovely.

And until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.