Iam surprised that pit boss wouldn’t exchange it. You should have asked to talk to their supervisor, surprising the results you might have got. In fact if you weren’t happy Lowes should have taken it back. Anyways I had mine for about 4 years with a few problems that bit boss looked after right away.
I use a tinfoil roasting pan from the Dollar Store on everything except jerky. It’s way easier taking it out full of water than the awkward pan in the bottom. You can put more water in it and it seems to control the temperature very good. Another thing I did was rivet a L shaped piece of tin on each side a couple of inches down from the top to make a running bracket to hang sticks on when making sausage.
I use a tinfoil roasting pan from the Dollar Store on everything except jerky. It’s way easier taking it out full of water than the awkward pan in the bottom. You can put more water in it and it seems to control the temperature very good. Another thing I did was rivet a L shaped piece of tin on each side a couple of inches down from the top to make a running bracket to hang sticks on when making sausage.
