Pit Boss 5 Series Vertical Pellet Smoker Review
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Most pellet grills on the market all share the same horizontal design.
These might look more “traditional” but there are some advantages to the vertical design of the Pit Boss 5 Series Vertical Pellet Smoker.
You can fit a lot more cooking space into a smaller footprint. This makes the
I put this review together based on my experience cooking with the
Pit Boss 5 Series Review Overview
Simply put, this smoker delivers.
The food cooked in the smoker has great flavor. It’s easy to use. Clean up is far easier than any other smoker I’ve used to date.
These pellet smokers are great because they don’t bellow loads of smoke.
They produce a perfect, ever so slightly blue smoke, almost constantly in just the right amount.
This is what most smoking enthusiasts are aiming for.
If you’ve never used a pellet smoker, they tend to deliver two great aspects that people love: great taste and ease of use.
This smoker is no exception. Just fill the hopper with pellets, turn it on, and Bam! You are smoking and on your way to great tasting food.
Note that
What I like:
- Capacity – With the 40 lb hopper capacity, you can smoke for up to 24 hours continuously without having to add more pellets. This, of course, depends on the temp you are cooking at. This smoker is huge with 1,659 square inches of porcelain coated cooking racks and a large cooking chamber, you can house about as much mammal flesh in this thing as your heart desires.
- Adjustability – Whether it be the adjustable racks or the wide range of temperature adjustment, there is not much you can’t accommodate for with this smoker.
- Prime Button – This button is a nice feature to have. You can use it for a temporary boost in smoke or use it just after you open the door to get the internal temperature back up faster.
What I don’t like:
- Internal Temperature Swings – If the temp control knob was set to 225°F, it wasn’t unusual to see the internal temp to drop to 215°F and then rise up to 250-260°F. Granted, these swings only occurred momentarily and didn’t seem to negatively affect the outcome of the meat.
- Water Pan Capacity – Sure, you can cook for up to 24 hours continuously with the massive 40 lb hopper, but you can only go about 4 hours or less without filling up the water pan. The water pan will hold up to a gallon of water, but it’s always close to empty by the 4 hour mark. It would have been nice to see this capacity match closer to the hopper size, even if it ended up being only 8 hours.
- Hopper Grate – I assume this was included for safety reasons but it is a bit annoying. It prevents you from sticking your arm down in the hopper which would be helpful when you are trying to clean out all the pellets! I typically use a broom handle to help me move the pellets toward the rear hopper shoot to remove them or to push them towards the auger system to burn them.
One final nit pick I have is with the meat probe accuracy.
I found the meat probe that came with this smoker to be around 12°F off. This is extremely common with probes that ship with smokers, so I tend to just use my Thermoworks Smoke to monitor temps instead.
Otherwise, the pros definitely outweigh any negatives. While the temperature swings might sound concerning, they don’t seem to effect the taste. I see the swings as being the same as what you would see on a manual wood smoker.
The
- Large Capacity
- Adjustable Racks
- Prime Button
- Water Pan Capacity
Setup & Core Features
The
But I’d rather they use extra packaging than have the product arrive damaged!
Let’s go over a few of the key features of the
Temperature Range
This smoker has the ability to smoke between 150°F – 450°F which is fairly standard.
You can adjust temperatures in 25°F increments.
Some pellet grills can get up to 550°F but I found the temperature range on the
I’ve made pork butts, briskets, and ribs on this.
You can use it like a wood oven for cooking pizzas, casseroles, or virtually anything else you can think of that would require higher temps.
Quick Removal Hopper Shoot
After mentioning above the hassles of unjamming the auger system, it’s nice to see that this smoker came with an easy way to empty the large 40lb hopper system.
I empty the hopper and burn out the remaining pellets through the auger system every time I cook with it.
Adjustable Food Rack Layout
I can’t express just how awesome I think this is.
These racks can be easily spaced out in the smoker box any way you desire. So if you are cooking a large turkey you can create extra height, or if you want to pack in several slabs of ribs you can do that too
This is definitely one of the main advantages of vertical smokers.
Digital LED Display
This unit utilizes one large simple display for relaying the smoker internal temperature and the meat probe temperature right next to the temperature control knob.
The controls are easy to read and easy to use.
Build Quality
I would give the build quality a 4 out of 5 stars. I have used this smoker quite a bit now, and it is holding up well. Most things seem to be well made, sturdy, and a bit on the heavy side.
I have two small gripes with the smoker that I received:
- The door was a bit crooked on the smoker box frame. So there was a place on the upper right side that the door was not contacting the rubber seal very well. Plus, it didn’t look real good either. (Could it have been bent down from poor handling during transportation? Possibly). I ended up fixing it by pulling on the outer right bottom edge of the door until the hinges bent up slightly.
- The 2nd meat probe port broke within a few days of using the product rendering it useless. (Maybe just bad luck? Could be).
Other than those two issues I’ve found the quality of the smoker to be very good.
Like I said, it seems to be well made, and it has held up quite well.
Alternatives to consider
Another smoker I spent a lot of time using was a Masterbuilt 40” Series electric smoker. I was excited for it’s convenience, but found it a bit tiresome.
The wood chips would only smoke for about 20-30 minutes. So it would constantly need more wood. It was also extremely difficult to clean as many of the components were permanently mounted in the smoker and it was difficult to clean in all the crevices.
I consider this
The
Don’t get me wrong, the Masterbuilt electric smoker has its place, especially from a price standpoint. If you are just dabbling in the idea of smoking foods and don’t want to dole out much money, consider the Masterbuilt.
I believe they have addressed some of these issues in the new versions.
But for now, my preference goes to the
Should you buy the Pit Boss 5 Series?
And now for the cold, raw truth. Would I buy this smoker again?
Dang sure would.
I really like this smoker. It’s easy to use. It produces great flavor (along with that coveted smoke ring appearance).
It has a very large food smoking capacity. It requires minimal effort to use and only slightly more effort to clean.
If you are a purist wanting to stoke your own fires, meticulously enforce your will on the smoker box temperatures, and sit and drink beer while enjoying your man vs smoker battle, then this smoker is probably not for you.
However, if you want a great smoking experience by producing salivating flavor with minimal effort and don’t mind spending a little dough for the pellets for fuel, then this smoker is for you. ( And yes, you can still sit and drink beer while admiring your pellet smoker doing all the work. I do!)
- Large Capacity
- Adjustable Racks
- Prime Button
- Water Pan Capacity
A couple of final take points:
Don’t leave your pellets in the smoker for more than a few days without using it! ( Have I mentioned how bad it sucks to unjam the auger?)
I hope you heed my warning or you will hate life. Ok,ok, enough joking. Yes, this hazard is no fun, but don’t let it detract you from getting a pellet smoker.
The good news is if you can work out how to assemble this smoker, you will also have the ability to unjam the auger system if, God forbid, you happen to leave pellets in there.
Pit Boss customer service was excellent when it came to helping me with this. They are open 7 days a weeks and emailed me detailed instructions on how to unjam the auger.
If you want to know more about the brand we have a full guide with all the best Pit Boss grills.
If you have decided on getting a
They have a 3,5,7, and a new 4 series size smokers. Pick one that matches your needs and budget.
If you cook for large groups, you may need a 5 or a 7 series. If it is only a few of you, check out the 3 or the 4 series. I will say this, I have yet to fill up my 5 series.
I have cooked 6 pork butts at once, which equated to about 48 lbs, and STILL had room for more.
I have a series 5 smoker and like it for the most part. Pit Boss’ other brand, Louisiana Grills puts two clamps on the door which helps seal better. Don’t know they didn’t put this design on their series 5 PB Smokers. Also, I have had the same experience with the temp swings. Sometimes they can got as high as 75 degrees higher. PB was to able to give me a suitable reason for this. Thanks for pointing out the probe discrepancy. I will check mine more closely. My son uses a wireless probe in his smoker so he can read temps from inside his house. I don’t like the hopper design. It does not feed the auger properly and will cause my smoker to shut down as no pellets get to the auger. I use an old golf club handle to make sure this doesn’t happen often. It happens when the hopper is full or getting close to empty.
Hey John,
Thanks for your comment. Interesting, I didn’t know they did that on their other brand.
I am amazed no one has complained about the controls being on the bottom of the smoker. I have an old Masterbuilt 40″ and have notices every time I pull out a rack to baste it I dribble down the front of the smoker. This would make a mess of the control panel on this model and yet no one has mentioned this.
What was the reason they gave you for the temperature swing? I have the series 5 and when I set it to 225 the internal temperature sometimes goes as high as 400 . That might have a negative effect on the cooking. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I bought one in June 2019.
Worked great. Easy to use and clean. Food always came out awesome with little work on my part. But, after about 6-7 uses, an ERL code began to appear. Called Pit Boss team and after some troubleshooting they offered to send a new control board and said the error was rare.
I opted to return it to Lowes for a new one vs. Attempting to replace the control board myself.
Got the new one back from Lowes on Sunday 1 Sept. Smoked some chicken and ribs and they came out great as well.
Went to fire it up a few minutes ago and smoke a London Broil for Labor Day, and the ERL code immediately came on. Called Pit Boss and received the same news about the control board. And, again, they said it was rare.
I may just have bad luck. But, I wont be giving them a third try. Too bad as it is a good smoker when the control board isn’t failing.
ERL (error low temp) code could be from an auger jam, from a bad auger motor or pellets not getting to the auger.
I have a Series 4 Pro. My last cook was 80 meatballs, 5 meat loaves, 3 racks of ribs, 2 large chicken breasts and a pork tenderloin (Missed the partridge in a pear tree).
Smoked brisket, turkey and ribs at the same time and all came out perfectly.
Great product. Easy to use, easy to clean.
I have a 5 series that I absolutely adore. However I have been through 3 grills and 2 control panels and I still get the erl message plus jammed auger. Also
the ends of temp probe break off easily and temperature is in accurate. I am at
a bypass. I can keep it and have to replace control panels every 6 to 8 months or do i just try a different type grill all-to-gather.I wished they could have put a
little more emphasis on quality because the innovation is definitely there.
That control panel appears to be some real garbage.
Hey Gerald,
Sounds suspicious if the problem keeps happening. I can say that wasn’t an issue on the grill we used so you might just be getting unlucky. Your best bet would be to talk to Pit Boss and see if they can help work out why issue keeps occuring.
As for the temp probes, I”m afraid most smokers on the budget side (and even lots of expensive ones) cut corners with cheap probes. That’s why I always prefer to use a good third party one (although with a Pellet there are often good reasons to use the one that was included of course).
I buy 2 pork butt shoulder packs from Costco (1 pack = 17 lbs).
Each pack is cut in half. So I cook 4 halves.
How many pork butt shoulders can each smoker series/size hold?
Which series/size is the ideal? I don’t want to overcrowd or have heating issues (i.e. more volume needs more power).
I just purchased the pro series 4 in October so far I love it I hope I don’t have to deal with the control panel issues I’ve been ready about but I did buy the cover and use it all the time but it does have a 5 year warranty if I remember right
That may be the difference right there, Jeff. I always use a cover for mine as well and have never had any control panel issues.
I have a masterbuilt and I can smoke summer sausage in it because I can hol the temp between 160 and 170 degrees , would I beable to do this with this smoker?
My question is- why can you not leave your pellets in the hopper?
I own a traeger and a Rec Tec. I always leave my pellets in the hopper and I have never had a problem.
Is this just an issue with this brand because I am really thinking about buying one.
Thank you
Hey Marty,
Thanks for your question. There are two main reasons you would want to empty the hopper. 1) if you want to change out the pellet to try a different wood type, and 2) Depending on your climate and the level of humidity and moisture leaving pellets can cause them to swell and jam up.
If the 5 series isn’t electric or propane how does it work?
It’s electric.
I just started dancing… “it’s electric…” lol
The heat and smoke come from the burning of the pellets. Electricity is used to initially ignite the pellets, to monitor the temperatures, and to feed the pellets as required to maintain the temperature.
My Pro series 4 temperature dial is different than the display. when the dial is at off the digital display shows “S”. Is there a way to get it to match.
Sounds like the plastic knob on yours may be broken internally. I would check that first. Then call customer service to remedy.
This is my first smoker and I really like it. After on year it is still working great. Being “set it and forget it”, which when talking to competitors at our local competition a couple years ago claimed there was no such thing, this was the primary feature for me.
I also mistakenly thought the glass door for viewing was a “must have” feature. Wrong! First, you can’t see through the smoke, and secondly, the window becomes sooted up so it’s totally opaque, and it’s hard to clean. So I have to open the door far more than I want to.
Use a magic eraser to clean the glass. It works great. I use glass pans in my smoker all the time they clean up easy.
Awesome tip, Bradley! I had thought about that myself, but never actually tried it.
The glass door is easy to clean. I clean mine after every couple of uses. Just lift it off the hinges and take it out in the yard and clean it with a mild degreaser such as Fast Orange. If needed for tough areas, using a single edge razor blade to scrape the glass works wonders.
SMOKE ON!
Use fireplace glass spray and a razor blade. Cleaning view window is a snap!
I have a question can I use my smoker out on my porch in the winter time without breaking the glass door from the heat and cold
Yes you will be fine. Don’t let the smoker touch the glass but even a small gap will be plenty.
Worst grill ever had can’t cook on it temperature won’t regulate burns food won’t replace grill
I have the series 4 from Lowe’s. Have it for a month now, and use it a lot. Quality built, easy to use, perfect size even for a single guy!! Five stars!!
I bought a pit boss pro series 4 last week. There were so many problems with the build quality, after calling Pit Boss three times the day after I bought it, they gave up and told me to return it. I never even got to try it out, it was that bad. The pro series 4 and the series 5 are built the same way, which is much worse than the previous series smokers. I really wanted a vertical, but no one makes a good one anymore.
I’ve bought two Pit boss verticle smokers in the past month. Took them both back without even using them. The first, a pro-series 4, was so badly built, tech support said they could never send enough parts to make it work, and just return it.
The second, a Series 3 wasn’t much better. I had to use a hammer to pount the hinges back into alignment on the door to try to line it up on the body. The control panel flopped around in the faceplate, and the inside surface didn’t line up with the outside surface so much that the grease drain would never have worked.
I realize everything is made in Communist China, but this stuff looks like it was designed there as well. It’s just terrible. Wasn’t till after I bought them, that people on Social media started telling me of all the problems they’ve had with theirs.
There’s nothing I hate worse, than overpaying for something I have to fix, before I can even use it.
I wouldn’t recommend a Pit Boss product unless you got it free (but still with the warranty), you’ll need it.
Ended up buying the cheapest (almost) electric smoker I could find, and it’s been working great.
How does this compare to Masterbuilt 40 inch digital charcoal smoker? Anyone have experience with the Masterbuilt?
We just published a review of the 40″ Bluetooth model you can check out.
bought my series 5 back in the beginning of 2020 after reading this review and never regretted it. the comments about the control panel gave me pause but i never had an issue with it except the internal probe that tell the unit the ambient temp went out and they send a new one to me that the ERH and random ERL codes i was fighting. now im getting mad at the 75* temp swings (especially when its really cold outside or severely hot) used to be about 25* which is acceptable. so i ordered a Pellet Pro PID Controller from smokedaddyinc.com hopefully it works out otherwise im going to be getting a different smoker. ive cooked alot of really good meat on this thing so im hoping i can salvage what i can instead of spending a ton of money on a new one.
Hey Denton thanks for coming back and updating everyone on your experience with this smoker! Great to hear from people who have purchased products based on our reviews.
Curious about the swings, did you manage to talk to Pit Boss support about them? Hopefully the PID controller helps take care of the issue though.
Cheers.
I have the pro series
I’m on my 5th control panel? With the last board they sent I kept it hanging out of the frame works, these boards can only take 85f, with it sitting right at the heat box with only a peace of metal between, using no heat shields?
It worked for 6 usage then it stopped with an error? So maybe it wasn’t heat?
I have a guy that builds boards and he is running tests. I think it’s a poorly designed board. With low end components ? But when it works… it works good, but no more than 30 or so minutes
purchased a PBV4PS2 vertical smoker from lowes. I have smoked ribs 4 times using 3-2-1 method and have failed to get a good smoke flavor. I had an electric masterbuilt wood chip smoker many years and never had this problem. Any hints on possible problem. If I can’t get a better smoke flavor I am going to sell and go back to my old reliable.
Hi Bill. If you are seeing smoke coming from the smoker regularly, then I don’t think there is a problem. However, here are a couple things that could help:
1. It might have something to do with the pellet brand or flavor you are using. Some wood flavors are stronger than others. It MIGHT also be the brand. Some brand mix the flavor wood with Oak. Oak burns clean and doesn’t really impart much in the way of flavor. You could try a pellet brand that use 100% flavor wood such as Lumber Jack pellets or Weber pellets.
2. When you first begin your smoke, turn your smoker down to it’s lowest setting, which should be the smoke setting. Depending on the amount of food smoking, leave it there for about 30 minutes to 2 hours, then bump it up to the temperature you would normally smoke at. This will cause your meat to get a lot more smoke flavor for those that like a stronger smoke flavor.
I hope this helps!
I have a 40″ masterbuilt smoker and I love it but I have started to smoke more meat to stock my freezer. It was fine for a change. I’m looking forward to this purchase. I gain 600+Sq in of cooking space so that is a plus.
Absolutely a POS vertical smoker, horrible design, junk…. Do NOT waste your money on pitboss!!!
Keen to hear more about the exact issues you had with your Pit Boss Brady?
I just purchased the 5 series. Can you use the pit boss app with this series. I guess I’m asking if it’s has Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Also, I had the 4 series it had Bluetooth, but it caught on fire, which is why I wanted to try the 5 series.
The one in this review does not have Wifi or Bluetooth. For that, you should get the Sportsman 5 series.
Good day Joe , tell me please if you have any info on the pit boss navigator 3 series vertical smoker, I’m in Canada { not upset } wanting this to be my first pellet grill as a treat for my 65th birthday , thanks for your effort!!
Hi Dave, we don’t have any reviews on the Navigator series unfortuantely but from what I understand they are similar to the Sportsman, and are decent smokers for the money. If your budget can stretch the Grilla Mammoth is on special right now, and is about $200 more than the Navigator. That’s a really nice smoker, although could be a little too big depending on your needs.
Thanks much for that, more home work!!