Around here, Louisville, Kentuky…the big box stores have been running the Pit Boss Eeluxe Pellet Grill and Smoker with 820 sf of cooking surface for a sale price of $399 with some giving %5-10% off for military/Vets…so this is not a deal by any means around here.1
and Pit Boss is the brand that is giving Traeger smokers a run for their money
There are so many chain stores running better sales than this, it’s not even worth looking at this to compare prices.
Everyone from Walmart to Lowes has been pushing these pellet smokers. Add in Brinkman going belly up and there were some really nice grills for bottom dollar prices the last few years.
I paid $549 last Summer for this same smoker. The advantage to Camp Chef is the sear box add-on ($200 on Amazon) that allows you to sear steaks or burgers before you smoke them. Traeger and Pit Boss are good smokers too and all work the same. The advantage is the accessories that fit your needs.
i have owned this grill for almost 2 years now. it has one feature no other grill has, the ash dump, that saves you from having to clean out your burn pot every 2 or three cooks. also, it is smaller than the pit boss, but i have smoked whole turkeys, and full packer briskets with no problem. unless you are cooking for a lot of people, this grill is plenty big. it is as big as my weber gas grill. not sure how long the warranty is on other grills, but this one has a 3 year warranty, and camp chef customer service is top notch! they are very helpful. i love my camp chef!
Bought one of these last time Woot had them up for sale back in May. Was able to assemble it by myself in about an hour. As I unpacked the parts I noticed the smoke stack flange was warped (but usable) and the side shelf was bent (not usable). Went on to the Camp Chef website and filled out a warranty request, they responded within 30 minutes and had replacement parts sent out the next day. I’ve loved this thing so far, not only has it been great for smoking but it gets up to 450°-475°f so I’ve been also able to use it as a wood burning pizza oven.
Edit: One thing to note is that the image of the control box on the sale page shows 2 probe inputs, mine has only 1.
[MOD: Confirmed with the vendor that this has 2 probe inputs]
I have owned this grill for over a year. This may not be a “screaming deal” where you live, but it is very reasonable and worth every penny of this price. I have made some of the best briskets I have ever had with this grill and regularly use it for pork steaks and salmon.
Great smoker for a great price. Love mine.
Traeger, Camp Chef, Pit Boss are all low end pellet smokers. This is a fine deal for $399, esp knowing that Camp Chef has a superior controller.
Being able to spend more money is an advantage? haha
When I bought my smoker, I borrowed and tried traeger, cuisinart, camp chef, pit boss, and z grills brand smokers and grills. For real smoking (talking serious, multi hour cooking for ribs, brisket, pork shoulder, etc) I ended up purchasing a pit boss copperhead 5. The vertical smoker style gave me more smoke flavor, a better smoke ring (might be just cosmetic, but if i’m smoking meat for 7+ hours I want it to taste AND look like it was really smoked), and more predictable cooking. The top rack was a little bit cooler than lower racks, but overall the temperature was very accurate to the thermostat- normally variations of only about 5-10 degrees from thermostat.
For a pellet GRILL, I didn’t really notice that much difference. They all cooked roughly the same for similar models, biggest difference was digital vs analog temp, size… Burgers, steaks, etc, all taste similar unless you get a searbox on one of them which makes a night and day difference. To be frank, I didn’t think they were worth the cost. I much prefer charcoal for quick grilling because a charcoal grill can be had for dirt cheap, and the flavor of a cheap charcoal grill vs a cheap pellet girll without a searbox is night and day in my opinion.
If the question is outright price, yeah there’s cheaper. But as someone that tried a few of these pellet smokers before buying this one punches above its weight, and this is a good deal for this particular smoker. It’s the one I recommend if you’re not gonna go up more towars the $1k region. Way easier to clean than the others in its price range, and the most accurate temp controller that I saw in this level of smoker. The sear box is real nice to have too.
I doubt anyone that’s in the market would get this and not be happy with it. I don’t regret getting mine for a second.
I got one of these for my dad for father’s day and paid a lot more than this, it is worth every penny. I already have a smoker or I would buy this in a heartbeat. It was about the easiest setup I’ve ever had and runs like a charm. The only issue he’s ever had is the oils from shipping pooled in the ash clean out and jammed the ash clean out pull, all it took was a couple of taps with a hammer from above and below to free it up. My dad has told me multiple times that he will no longer grill/smoke on anything else.
I like the fact that I can drop the hot pellets and ash into the cup on the bottom and throw them in a bucket of water. My friend’s smoker does not do this, he has to let it cool & dissemble it to clean and remove the ashes.