Good idea, wise that I surround myself with intelligent people!

Rather than separate, could you just copy the data to a new thread. That way you are keeping the flow of this one as is and still have straight up factual data in another?

I saw the smaller version of this at dicks sporting good. Oddly enough, it was about the same price. 399. MUCH less real estate. The cook chamber is tiny, and also oddly shaped. At a glance didn't appear that a whole rack of ribs would fit in either direction. Looked to be nearly a perfect square as opposed to the rectangle shape of the test model.

I saw the smaller version of this at dicks sporting good. Oddly enough, it was about the same price. 399. MUCH less real estate. The cook chamber is tiny, and also oddly shaped. At a glance didn't appear that a whole rack of ribs would fit in either direction. Looked to be nearly a perfect square as opposed to the rectangle shape of the test model.

And, I think that $399 is a sale price to be able to match the price at WM for the medium size unit.

even WM wants 506 for the smaller 3 series

Cabelas has the 7 series on sale now for 549.00 not sure how long the sale is on but they are normally 599.00

You made me actually consider taking mine back and possibly getting the larger unit. You know, because bigger is better right? Then I did a little research and ran across this. I doubt very seriously I will ever cook 16 Boston Butts or 16 chickens or 18 full racks of ribs at one time, ever. The 5 Series will be plenty big enough to cook anything I plan to cook.

On A side note, at Walmart online, the Pit Boss 5 Series is now $442. Mine was $396 in the store last week. It looks like the prices might be increasing...

Only time I ever foresee the need to use all the space in a 5.5 CU ft version is when doing jerky...  If I ever had a really big party and wanted to spring for ribs for everyone ( not very likely ), I might see cooking like 10 racks of ribs at once.


  Think of this... how many baked beans, mac & Cheese... or whatever your favorite thing to make is ... how unless your like catering for huge events, it's really hard to for me to imagine needing more space than is in the Walmart version of this cooker.

This will probably be used exclusively for jerky for me, and snack sticks and sausage when I learn how to do them.  May use it for wings depending how satisfied I am with how crispy it makes them.

This will probably be used exclusively for jerky for me, and snack sticks and sausage when I learn how to do them.  May use it for wings depending how satisfied I am with how crispy it makes them.

How do you like that sausage book?

This will probably be used exclusively for jerky for me, and snack sticks and sausage when I learn how to do them.  May use it for wings depending how satisfied I am with how crispy it makes them.

How do you like that sausage book?

I liked it.  I read the intro chapters on how to make.  I plan to use it once I get time to make it which will probably be this summer.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Just wanted to thank Bentley for this review, and the rest of the group for the questions and discussion. It led to my purchasing one. First successful cook on Mother's Day (chicken breasts and a pan of baked beans, and no pics--too busy running around doing other things). Held temps really well (5* each way was the most I saw-yay!), everyone loved the flavor of the food.
Thanks again!

I have been taking baby steps with the smoker I won being I have been traveling.  My next smoke will be ribs.  I had a bunch of neighbors checking on what I have smoked.  With five shelves I could smoke 10 racks of ribs or more.  The neighbors are saying maybe they could rent a shelf.  They all commented on how much smoke was coming out of the stack.

When I smoked a mixture of different types of sausage a few days ago I had some oven thermometers on each shelf.  At the temperature of 200 each shelf was very close to each other.  After I removed the sausage and I was doing the burn-off at 350 degrees each shelf above the lower one was about 15 degrees hotter.