hello all, from Ft Lauderdale Florida

Fxsales1959 · 2024-10-28T11:55:00-0400

Greetings all and thank you for the opportunity to join.
I am a seasoned (pun intended) smoker with "many" smokers including and Egg, Masterbuilt gravity, Weber Smokey Mountain (my favorite) and two dysfunctional Masterbuilt MES 30's, and a retired OK Joe highland reverse flow. My main reason for joining is to get the honest 411 on the PB : PBV4PS2 Lowes Exclusive. I use the MES30's for what I call "short smokes" for things like pork belly for bacon, tri-tip or thick steaks for reverse sear. My MES30 is 6 years old and about ready to go toes up. I've been researching the PB: PBV4PS2 from lowes and am concerned about all the negative reviews. i am inherently lazy and would appreciate the ability to turn a pellet smoker on and place meat for short 1-2 hour cooks. FWIW I am not concerned about the issues I have read about the inaccurate meat probes. I use an @inkbird I-BBQ-4T to monitor all meat and ambient temps with alarms. I'm looking at verticals for patio foot print.
Once again,
Thankyou for having me.

Steve In Pa · 2024-10-28T12:41:45-0400

I have that model and am quite happy with it. But you have to know your machine. What are it’s quirks and possibilities. For me the only way to know that is by using it for different cooks and in all sorts of weather conditions.

Shelf level is important, the temps can vary within the chamber from bottom to top. So I use oven thermometers to help with that.

So for starters I think you need to keep a close eye on the progress of the cook. After a while you’ll know what to expect and can ease up on the babysitting.

Cowboy1955 · 2024-10-28T13:00:09-0400

Welcome from Texas to the group !
Don’t own that model but I do have the 820D and it’s served me well

Fxsales1959 · 2024-10-28T13:10:42-0400

Steve In Pa said:
I have that model and am quite happy with it. But you have to know your machine. What are it’s quirks and possibilities. For me the only way to know that is by using it for different cooks and in all sorts of weather conditions.

Shelf level is important, the temps can vary within the chamber from bottom to top. So I use oven thermometers to help with that.

So for starters I think you need to keep a close eye on the progress of the cook. After a while you’ll know what to expect and can ease up on the babysitting.

thank you. so like any smoking aparatus, you need to learn it and follow it.