I finally fired up the Copperhead 5.  It was fairly easy to rollout of the garage over the homemade ramps to get over the door threshold onto the patio.  I had about 5# of uncooked jerky from my December cook that was in the freezer that I thawed and am using for my first cook.  I want to use this unit for cooking jerky Memorial Day weekend.

Here is a pic of the initial startup.  Lotsa thick smoke as you normally get with a startup.  It settled down a few minutes afterward.  Only took 10-15 minutes to get to about 300° when I had the controller set to 350° per startup instructions.  I then set it to 150°.  I filled the pan with about 60 ounces of water.  The top racks where the meat is sitting is running at about 120° so far.  the bottom rack that is about half way up the cabinet with nothing on it is running about 140°-145°.  I am using my Smoke to monitor temps from my basement while I work today.

I really need some more racks.  I was told via an email from Pit Boss that they should have them online in May/June.

I may have to get one of these as a dedicated cold smoker. Look forward to your results.


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The unit looks like it is running about a 10°-15° up and down temp swing.  Top shelf is running 110°-125° and bottom shelf (again, mid way up the unit) is running 135°-145°.  This is with controller set at 150° and initially about 60 ounces of water in the pan.  Temp outside is 57° with almost no wind.  I am using the Thermoworks Smoke temp probes on top shelf and bottom shelf to monitor temps.  I didn't have time to get the Gateway hooked up to graph.  May do that one of these weekends.

131° top side temp on top shelf

157° top side temp on lowest shelf

This is about 75 minutes into the cook.

I never considered cutting the jerky up early, marinating it and then freezing it for a future smoke. That will be on my list to do real soon.

As far as more racks are concerned, I ordered something online a couple days ago that is supposed to arrive today. Once it gets here I'll show you what I am doing.

I never considered cutting the jerky up early, marinating it and then freezing it for a future smoke. That will be on my list to do real soon.

As far as more racks are concerned, I ordered something online a couple days ago that is supposed to arrive today. Once it gets here I'll show you what I am doing.

Well, the freezing was not necessarily planned.  We had too much to drink and had all racks on all grills loaded with jerky and decided to freeze what was left.  We made about 50# of uncooked meat that day and had about 5# leftover.  Most of it was small pieces so I am not expecting much from this batch.

The next batch will go thru my LEM jerky slicer attachment to the meat grinder.

Looking forward to your rack update.

146° top side temp on top shelf

180° top side temp on lowest shelf

This is about 90 minutes into the cook.

 Very informative + nice pics.

I opened the door about 20 minutes ago to check on the jerky.  The temps dropped about 20°-25°, but recovered in a few minutes.  Still a lot of water in the pan and it was in the steaming state.

Racks are now at about 130° and 170° 20 minutes after door was opened.

If you want to cool it off could you siphon some water out of the pan and throw some ice in it. That is my plan when I smoke jerky.

If you want to cool it off could you siphon some water out of the pan and throw some ice in it. That is my plan when I smoke jerky.

I'm good with it where it is right now.  My MAK and Memphis usually run at 170°-180° when I make jerky so this is lower.  I am slightly concerned that the water may slow it from drying out.  If it is not done in 4 hours, I will throw it in my dehydrator for a bit.  I want to test that method anyway so that we can make more jerky during the same period of time.

 I had a look at the Copperhead 5 video on the Pit Boss site. Looks like a nice unit..Pricing was well below what I thought it to be...  I was wondering how the "see through" function of the door will hold up..

If you want to cool it off could you siphon some water out of the pan and throw some ice in it. That is my plan when I smoke jerky.

I'm good with it where it is right now.  My MAK and Memphis usually run at 170°-180° when I make jerky so this is lower.  I am slightly concerned that the water may slow it from drying out.  If it is not done in 4 hours, I will throw it in my dehydrator for a bit.  I want to test that method anyway so that we can make more jerky during the same period of time.

If you take 2 identical pans of water and put one on your range and start it boiling and leave the other on the counter. The one on the range will evaporate much, much faster than the one on the counter. If you keep the water in the drip pan from from boiling / steaming, you will get a lot less moisture in the cooking cabinet. At least that is my thought process.

I have heard more than 1 person say that when they have cooked on a rainy day, they feel the meat takes on more smoke flavor. More humid air may actually enhance the smoke flavor, except for the fact the humidity from the drip pan is being added after the fire and not going through the fire. It is not exactly the same.

According to Bentley, the see thru door needs to be cleaned about every other cook.

I pulled the jerky off the smoker after 3 hours and put into my dehydrator.  This is an experiment I want to try to see if we can get smoke and then a better dry in the dehydrator.  Will also give us more capacity for cooking more meat in one day.


The unit settled in for 60+ minutes with controller at 150°.  You can see the bottom probe.  The other probe is in the top rack.  You can see the temps on the smoke versus the controller setting.


3 hours at 150° controller setting.  These are from the 3rd rack down from the top.  I should have taken pics of the other two racks above it.  They were not as cooked/dryed.

If you want to cool it off could you siphon some water out of the pan and throw some ice in it. That is my plan when I smoke jerky.

I'm good with it where it is right now.  My MAK and Memphis usually run at 170°-180° when I make jerky so this is lower.  I am slightly concerned that the water may slow it from drying out.  If it is not done in 4 hours, I will throw it in my dehydrator for a bit.  I want to test that method anyway so that we can make more jerky during the same period of time.

If you take 2 identical pans of water and put one on your range and start it boiling and leave the other on the counter. The one on the range will evaporate much, much faster than the one on the counter. If you keep the water in the drip pan from from boiling / steaming, you will get a lot less moisture in the cooking cabinet. At least that is my thought process.

I'm not sure it needs the water in the unit.  I will do another test with the unit set at 150° without the water in the pan.  This is fun to learn a new pit.  Once I figure out how to dial it in, then it usually becomes sorta set and forget on my other units.

BTW, I was using Cabella's cherry pellets for those wandering.