Qimmiit
New member
Since finding an email contact for Pit Boss has been impossible for us, I am taking my disappointment to this discussion forum.
We’ve been grilling and smoking with charcoal for many years using various versions of Weber kettles, the latest being our original Summit, with fantastic results. As there is just the two of us, we also bought a Char-Broil Grill2Go 200-SqIn Liquid Propane Grill for when we don’t have time to fire up the Weber. That grill has proven to also be handy and successful.
Early last summer we watched with awe the owner of a well know BBQ smoking website make chuck burnt ends using a Pit Boss Country Smoker. He sang its praises, made it appear flawless in performance. We were smitten by its size and performance and thought this would be perfect for the two of us.
On August 17, 2023 we ordered one from Pit Boss and upon arrival we went out and purchased three containers designed to keep the pellets nice and dry and then we bought three different Pit Boss pellet flavors.
We followed the directions as the manual described yet the first cook was a disaster. The temperature fluctuated wildly, by more than 400 F at times. A call to Pit Boss was not terribly helpful, their takeaways were: 1) your set oven temperature varies up and down too; 2) It takes a few cooks for the unit to settle down. 1) I’ve never checked but I seriously doubt my Jenn Aire oven varies to the degree that the Country Smoker did and 2) relative temperature stability during the four or five cooks that followed did not improve. The set-it-and-forget-it impression we got from the video and from Pit Boss is a myth. Several other calls to Pit Boss did not resolve the temperature fluctuation issue and an email to the chuck burnt ends smoking guy went unanswered. The Pit Boss forum was not enlightening either. Similar temperature stability complaints seen here should have been a big red flag.
Before the first snowfall of the season we boxed up the Country Smoker and put it in the garage where it remains undisturbed. The nearly full three containers of pellets are relegated to the basement.
So now what do we do? In good conscience we can’t sell it as a functional smoker. Us trying again after an uninterrupted string of failures is nothing short of the very definition of insanity (trying to do something over and over again expecting a better outcome). A boat anchor comes to mind, but we don’t own a boat. Perhaps a scrap metal dealer will take it and recoup a small portion of our several hundred dollar investment.
Pit Boss customer service....if you read this we'd like to hear from you.
We’ve been grilling and smoking with charcoal for many years using various versions of Weber kettles, the latest being our original Summit, with fantastic results. As there is just the two of us, we also bought a Char-Broil Grill2Go 200-SqIn Liquid Propane Grill for when we don’t have time to fire up the Weber. That grill has proven to also be handy and successful.
Early last summer we watched with awe the owner of a well know BBQ smoking website make chuck burnt ends using a Pit Boss Country Smoker. He sang its praises, made it appear flawless in performance. We were smitten by its size and performance and thought this would be perfect for the two of us.
On August 17, 2023 we ordered one from Pit Boss and upon arrival we went out and purchased three containers designed to keep the pellets nice and dry and then we bought three different Pit Boss pellet flavors.
We followed the directions as the manual described yet the first cook was a disaster. The temperature fluctuated wildly, by more than 400 F at times. A call to Pit Boss was not terribly helpful, their takeaways were: 1) your set oven temperature varies up and down too; 2) It takes a few cooks for the unit to settle down. 1) I’ve never checked but I seriously doubt my Jenn Aire oven varies to the degree that the Country Smoker did and 2) relative temperature stability during the four or five cooks that followed did not improve. The set-it-and-forget-it impression we got from the video and from Pit Boss is a myth. Several other calls to Pit Boss did not resolve the temperature fluctuation issue and an email to the chuck burnt ends smoking guy went unanswered. The Pit Boss forum was not enlightening either. Similar temperature stability complaints seen here should have been a big red flag.
Before the first snowfall of the season we boxed up the Country Smoker and put it in the garage where it remains undisturbed. The nearly full three containers of pellets are relegated to the basement.
So now what do we do? In good conscience we can’t sell it as a functional smoker. Us trying again after an uninterrupted string of failures is nothing short of the very definition of insanity (trying to do something over and over again expecting a better outcome). A boat anchor comes to mind, but we don’t own a boat. Perhaps a scrap metal dealer will take it and recoup a small portion of our several hundred dollar investment.
Pit Boss customer service....if you read this we'd like to hear from you.
