Not happy with pit boss - switch smokers?

[Steve J]

I know I'm almost two years late to this party and I'm sure all parties have moved on, but I just wanted to chime in. While I've never owned a Pit Boss pellet smoker, I do own a Pit Boss kamado, and have had to reach out to their customer service on a couple of occasions and I have to say, they're not the most responsive, nor do they try their best to assist customers with issues. Having said that, I'll say this, I am considering a pellet smoker simply for convenience, and I think the Grill Grills Silverbac is a a really good choice. Not only are there a lot of good videos and reviews of it, but their pitmaster (Shane Draper) and their designer (Mark Graham) are very active in responding to customers inquiries.

So my husband and I have a Pit Boss pellet smoker we have had a year. Before this we had another pellet smoker as well as a WSM (we had the WSM for 5 years). Needless to say we know how to own and operate a pellet smoker so its not like what happened here was user error. To make a long story short we were going to use our smoker last night. We did the normal procedures to get the smoker warmed up etc. Once it had finished the initial smoke/warmup process we set to 350 and closed the lid as we always do. We happen to glance outside and noticed huge amounts of smoke billowing out and flames shooting out of a section of the front bottom of the barrel - literally out of the barrel like a section had become weak and split or something? We ran and turned it off and opened the lid and the entire inside was just engulfed with flames and had already pretty much destroyed the inside that quick. Flames were shooting out the section of the front as well as the grease drip and the paint was just falling off. My husband finally got the fire subsided after about 15 minutes of this.
This is the 2nd time something like this has happened with this smoker. The 1st time we had a pork butt on in the middle of the night and heard an explosion and it had blown the lid open and the inside was in flames. We never figured this out. As the smoker was clean, the butt was not omitting much grease or anything at all.
Keep in mind yesterdays incident - we had just cleaned the smoker Saturday - completely. We use this smoker 2 times a week. We are extremely well seasoned on using it and operating it. The auger had been working normally and properly. The barrel of the smoker is missing more than half the paint now and seems to have a compromised weak point at the front and side.
Our other short lived Pellet smoker we never had this issue and our WSM NEVER ever had one problem. We are getting ready to start some backyard comps and smoking more and more with warm weather upon us. We are kind of scared to even use this sucker now. We contacted PB and they are just not offering a lot of help!

Would you get another smoker? Or just stick with this and deal with it (hoping that PB offers something to replace at least the barrel)?

If so what would you get?

 

[RCAlan]

I know I'm almost two years late to this party and I'm sure all parties have moved on, but I just wanted to chime in. While I've never owned a Pit Boss pellet smoker, I do own a Pit Boss kamado, and have had to reach out to their customer service on a couple of occasions and I have to say, they're not the most responsive, nor do they try their best to assist customers with issues. Having said that, I'll say this, I am considering a pellet smoker simply for convenience, and I think the Grill Grills Silverbac is a a really good choice. Not only are there a lot of good videos and reviews of it, but their pitmaster (Shane Draper) and their designer (Mark Graham) are very active in responding to customers inquiries.

It was not a Customer Service issue, it was User error by not folllwing the directions in the Owners Manual about using the Pellet Grill in rain/water. Read the postings on page 3 of this thread. Rain and Water is a Pellet Grills worst enemy. And no brand of Pellet Grill is water proof. The Owners Manual was clear about its warnings... Also, I believe the OP’s grill may have been out of warranty for something that was clearly user error. Accidents do happen... That’s why it’s so important to read, research and follow the owners manual instructions, especially when it comes to preventing damage and Ones safety.

PB Austin XL in SoCal and Always... Semper Fi

 

[timlaw27]

I'll put something together and send it to you tomorrow:thumb:

Hi Smoke Ninja, I just bought a PB 820D and was thinking of getting the RecTec PID. Did you ever happen to find any information on how to mod the RecTec Pid to the Pit Boss? Appreciate any info you have.

Thanks!!!

 

[viking72]