Pitmaker Vaults

I have a little experience with a Vault. Fine piece of kit, Sir. It can/will do anything you ask of it. Before you say anything, we took care of Clemson for you in last years Orange bowl

I've owned a vault and now own a Backwoods.

The Pitmaker products are "heirloom" pits. If you don't bang, or scratch your Backwoods you could say that about them as well. However, the difference in the quality of construction is night and day.

the vault weighs in at 925 lbs, you have to go a bit up the food chain in Backwoods to find the same weight and also about 2k more in price.

The vault has plenty of cooking room and you can fit two full size pans on each rack.

My Backwoods is very, very easy to regulate and change temperatures up and down. The vault, was not so much, but I cook dry, I hear it is a different story if you use the water pan. I hear the Safe is much more manageable.

Both good cookers, just depends on your budget and what your trying to do. I had my Vault on a trailer but had intended to get a pop up camper for some comfort so I sold it.

RangerJ said:

I've owned a vault and now own a Backwoods.

The Pitmaker products are "heirloom" pits. If you don't bang, or scratch your Backwoods you could say that about them as well. However, the difference in the quality of construction is night and day.

the vault weighs in at 925 lbs, you have to go a bit up the food chain in Backwoods to find the same weight and also about 2k more in price.

The vault has plenty of cooking room and you can fit two full size pans on each rack.

My Backwoods is very, very easy to regulate and change temperatures up and down. The vault, was not so much, but I cook dry, I hear it is a different story if you use the water pan. I hear the Safe is much more manageable.

Both good cookers, just depends on your budget and what your trying to do. I had my Vault on a trailer but had intended to get a pop up camper for some comfort so I sold it.

Click to expand...

I will also echo this statement. Vaults are constructed magnificently, but you better be good at temp control, or good at not caring if you are cooking at +- 50f of your desired temp.

+- 50°F ! Wow, that's quite a temp swing. I seldom see a 5°F swing on my Vault. I guess my BBQ Guru (WiFi) does a fair job controlling temp. Cooking dry at 230°F, it's steady for 10 -14 hours on one loading of fuel. keeping in mind that the 10-14 hour cook time varies with meat loading.
I like the heck out of my Vault. It does seem like everyone has a different experience with theirs. It is different from every other smoker I've owned, and It took a little while to learn it. But the time spent was well worth it. Everyone loves the final product that comes off this smoker. I hear a lot of folks have won grand championships with them. As for me, I cook for my beautiful wife.....you know the old saying....if mamas not happy, no one is....well, she's very happy with the Q from this smoker. I plan on smoking a beef tenderloin this Chistmas, I'll try to post pics.

Merry Christmas!!

I will echo what Sheriff said. With the Guru our safe stays right where it is supposed to all day/night long. We also run with water pan. Without Guru and water we were all over the place in temp.

Also we had some serious issues with communication and shipping. May have just been real busy but I was very disappointed in that aspect.