850 Pro first cook and my thoughts.

[Prowler53]

First time using my 850 pro series.
2 boneless pork roasts.
Pit Boss Competition Pellets.
250 Degrees for 8 hours.
Weather was 43F and humid.

I got the boss fired up and to temperature in about 20-25 Minutes. Pork was injected and dry rubbed the night before so it was ready to go. I placed both roasts just left of center on the grill, one in front of the other. Inserted each with the meat probes that came with the unit, plus I put a third one in the roast up front. It's a digital that has been pretty accurate in the past. I checked on them in 1 hour and the probe in the rear was showing 14 Degrees hotter than the front. The front roast with 2 probes was pretty close (within 3 degrees) the whole way through the cook, so I'm pretty happy with that because I know my digital is spot on, and 3 degrees is nothing to worry about. Anyway....I left it go through the cook until my digital showed 190 on the front roast. Probe #2 was showing 204 degrees. I pulled my digital out of the front roast and inserted it into the roast in the back to get a more accurate temp. It also showed 190. So meat probe #2 is showing 14 degrees hotter than my digital, and Probe #1 is 3 Degrees Lower.
The grill had no mechanical issues and held 250 degrees very well the whole time.
The results were pretty good. The roasts had a good smoke ring, Pretty good bark but I would have liked a little more. Both Roasts were fairly moist and good flavor. Personally I would have liked a heavier smoke flavor, but my family all said it tasted great. Next time I'll use the smoke tube to get a little more smoke.
Shutting down and cleaning up was not too bad, but I wish the cooking grates were the normal type rather than those diamond shapes. they are a real pain to clean.
So other than the one probe being so far off and cleaning the grates I would say I'm pretty happy about my new 850.
By the way...my intention was to pull the roasts at 190 because I wanted to be able to slice it rather than having it fall apart. So I ended up with what I had planned for, and it all worked out well in the end

 

[t-roy]

do you have a lot of the probe wire hanging out of the grill? I have an 820sportsman and when I was cooking saturday the temp probes were way off! Im talking 50 to 90 degrees off. I had most of the wire to the probe hanging out of the grill, just enough in to go to the grill on each side to check side to side temp, but when I started fishing the wire into the grill to see what would happen the temp suddenly started to climb! It climbed a lot, almost reaching the smoker temp, I always thought that ONLY the metal tip end would register the temp, not the wire. Maybe these cheap one that come with the grill are different. Just wanted to know if you experience this or anybody else for that matter who reads this. From now on Im sticking as much wire as I can get into the smoker and putting a wire tie on the end.

 

[Redoctapus]

First time using my 850 pro series.
2 boneless pork roasts.
Pit Boss Competition Pellets.
250 Degrees for 8 hours.
Weather was 43F and humid.

I got the boss fired up and to temperature in about 20-25 Minutes. Pork was injected and dry rubbed the night before so it was ready to go. I placed both roasts just left of center on the grill, one in front of the other. Inserted each with the meat probes that came with the unit, plus I put a third one in the roast up front. It's a digital that has been pretty accurate in the past. I checked on them in 1 hour and the probe in the rear was showing 14 Degrees hotter than the front. The front roast with 2 probes was pretty close (within 3 degrees) the whole way through the cook, so I'm pretty happy with that because I know my digital is spot on, and 3 degrees is nothing to worry about. Anyway....I left it go through the cook until my digital showed 190 on the front roast. Probe #2 was showing 204 degrees. I pulled my digital out of the front roast and inserted it into the roast in the back to get a more accurate temp. It also showed 190. So meat probe #2 is showing 14 degrees hotter than my digital, and Probe #1 is 3 Degrees Lower.
The grill had no mechanical issues and held 250 degrees very well the whole time.
The results were pretty good. The roasts had a good smoke ring, Pretty good bark but I would have liked a little more. Both Roasts were fairly moist and good flavor. Personally I would have liked a heavier smoke flavor, but my family all said it tasted great. Next time I'll use the smoke tube to get a little more smoke.
Shutting down and cleaning up was not too bad, but I wish the cooking grates were the normal type rather than those diamond shapes. they are a real pain to clean.
So other than the one probe being so far off and cleaning the grates I would say I'm pretty happy about my new 850.
By the way...my intention was to pull the roasts at 190 because I wanted to be able to slice it rather than having it fall apart. So I ended up with what I had planned for, and it all worked out well in the end

Happy New Year Prower!
Quick question. I have a PBV5 COMP, a GMG and I just retired a Masterbuilt verticle,, I have always started my smokes at less than 200F around 180F mostly sometimes 165F. Have you tried these low temps with your 850?
The reason I ask is because the higher pellet smoker internal temps I run the more my smoker acts like an oven not a smoker. I run the lowest temps I can for first 2-4 hours then I raise my smoker temps usually about the time I crutch just before the stall.
Using the analytics helps determine when approaching the stall. The higher the pellet smoker temps I run the cleaner the burn is (less smoke) and the lesser the stall time is, The stall is evaporative cooling so at higher temps the stall becomes more and more negligent.
I find that the lower I can maintain a constant temp with my pellet rig the better the smoke flavor and ring. Without using the Smoke-it app I can get low temps out of my PB. My GMG app allows to program steps by time or internal temperature. So I can set smoker temp to 165F until internal temp reaches 145 F just at the stall. Then while I'm crutching the smoker control enters step #2 which is 235 until internal remp is 203F.. The 3rd step is HOLD cycle until I go to shut down.
My PBV5 set at 250 gives a very steady temp but is more "oven like" than smoker.
Have you tried any temps lower than 200F with your rig?

 

[Prowler53]

do you have a lot of the probe wire hanging out of the grill? I have an 820sportsman and when I was cooking saturday the temp probes were way off! Im talking 50 to 90 degrees off. I had most of the wire to the probe hanging out of the grill, just enough in to go to the grill on each side to check side to side temp, but when I started fishing the wire into the grill to see what would happen the temp suddenly started to climb! It climbed a lot, almost reaching the smoker temp, I always thought that ONLY the metal tip end would register the temp, not the wire. Maybe these cheap one that come with the grill are different. Just wanted to know if you experience this or anybody else for that matter who reads this. From now on Im sticking as much wire as I can get into the smoker and putting a wire tie on the end.

Actually I did. Just pulled enough thru to reach. I'll keep that in mind for the next cook. Thanks!

 

[Prowler53]

Happy New Year Prower!
Quick question. I have a PBV5 COMP, a GMG and I just retired a Masterbuilt verticle,, I have always started my smokes at less than 200F around 180F mostly sometimes 165F. Have you tried these low temps with your 850?
The reason I ask is because the higher pellet smoker internal temps I run the more my smoker acts like an oven not a smoker. I run the lowest temps I can for first 2-4 hours then I raise my smoker temps usually about the time I crutch just before the stall.
Using the analytics helps determine when approaching the stall. The higher the pellet smoker temps I run the cleaner the burn is (less smoke) and the lesser the stall time is, The stall is evaporative cooling so at higher temps the stall becomes more and more negligent.
I find that the lower I can maintain a constant temp with my pellet rig the better the smoke flavor and ring. Without using the Smoke-it app I can get low temps out of my PB. My GMG app allows to program steps by time or internal temperature. So I can set smoker temp to 165F until internal temp reaches 145 F just at the stall. Then while I'm crutching the smoker control enters step #2 which is 235 until internal remp is 203F.. The 3rd step is HOLD cycle until I go to shut down.
My PBV5 set at 250 gives a very steady temp but is more "oven like" than smoker.
Have you tried any temps lower than 200F with your rig?

Happy New Year! Since this was my first cook on the grill I have not experimented with lower temps. I'll be sure to give it a try because I'm just learning this pellet grill. Thanks for the info!