Best Pit Boss Pellet Grills in 2026: 7 Models Compared

Pit Boss® is the brand people land on when they have priced a Traeger® and decided the badge is not worth the difference. It is the second-biggest name in pellet grilling for a reason: more grate, bigger hoppers, and a direct-flame sear plate at price points where most competitors are still selling an indirect-only box.

The problem is the catalog. Pit Boss sells wood pellet grills under at least nine series names — Carbon, FB2, Navigator, Sportsman, Onyx Edition, Competition, Pro Series, Platinum, and a Lowe's-exclusive DX line — and several are retailer exclusives with model numbers that look almost identical. Two grills with "700" in the name can have different warranties, different hoppers, and one of them cannot sear. So this guide starts by decoding the series, then names the model to buy in each situation. Every pick below was verified live and purchasable on August 20, 2026, every specification comes from what Pit Boss publishes itself, and every entry says plainly what it gives up. Prices move constantly, so the numbers live on the buttons, not in the prose.

First, Decode the Series Names

This is the single most useful thing to understand before you shop, because the series tells you the feature set and the warranty before you look at a single dimension.

Three rules follow from that table. If you want to sear over open flame, skip the Carbon Series. If you want your phone to run the grill, you need a Navigator. And if a model number you are looking at does not appear on Pit Boss's own site, it is probably a retailer-exclusive build — check the warranty and the hopper size before assuming it matches a model you have read about.

How We Picked

We do not run instrumented burn tests on every grill in a brand's catalog, and we are not going to pretend we do. This ranking is built from three things we can stand behind: the specifications Pit Boss publishes for each model, live retail listings verified the week this was published, and years of cooking on pellet grills, which is where the practical advice about hopper size, sear plates, and cold-weather pellet use comes from.

The score on each pick is our own editorial rating, not an average of customer stars. It weighs four things:

• Usable cooking area, not headline area. Pit Boss counts upper racks in its totals, as most brands do. A 900-square-inch grill is not 900 square inches of primary grate, and warming-rack space is not where you cook chicken thighs.
• Hopper capacity relative to grate size. Hopper pounds are unattended hours. A big grate with a small hopper is a grill that wakes you up at 3am during a brisket cook.
• What the money buys versus the next model up. Every pick had to beat its own siblings at a specific job, not just exist in the lineup.
• Warranty and serviceability. Pit Boss parts are widely available and inexpensive, which matters more on a value brand than it does on a premium one.

Quick Picks: Best Pit Boss Pellet Grills

1. Pit Boss Navigator 850 — Best Overall

The Navigator 850 is the model where Pit Boss stops holding things back. Pit Boss publishes 932 square inches of cooking space, a 30 lb hopper with a viewing window, a 180°F to 500°F range adjustable in 5-degree increments, WiFi and Bluetooth app control, a rapid igniter, and the Flame Broiler™ lever that opens the grate to direct flame for searing rated up to 1,000°F — all under a 5-year warranty.

That combination is the whole argument for buying Pit Boss instead of a premium brand. You get app control, a sear mechanism most pellet grills simply do not have, and enough grate to run four pork butts, at a price where competitors are selling smaller grills with fewer features. Our full Pit Boss Navigator 850 review digs into how it cooks, and the Traeger vs Pit Boss comparison covers the brand-versus-brand question directly.

The honest catches are real. The price has climbed — this grill sold for far less into early 2026 and now sits at Pit Boss's own list, which moves it out of bargain territory and into a crowded mid-range where the Traeger Westwood and Z Grills 700 series are legitimate alternatives. The body is single-wall, so it burns noticeably more pellets in cold or wind than an insulated grill. The app is functional rather than polished — it monitors and adjusts, and that is about it. And like every Pit Boss, expect the temperature to breathe: the company itself calls swings of about 25 degrees around a set point completely normal.

2. Pit Boss Navigator 1600 — Best for Big Cooks

If you cook for a crowd rather than a family, the Navigator 1600 is the answer in this lineup. Pit Boss publishes 1,593 square inches across three tiers, a touchscreen controller with WiFi and Bluetooth, the same 180°F to 500°F range in 5-degree increments, the Flame Broiler lever rated to 1,000°F for searing, a 30 lb hopper with a gravity-fed pellet cleanout, and a 5-year warranty.

The gravity cleanout deserves a mention on its own. Swapping pellet flavors between cooks is the chore that stops most people from doing it at all, and a hopper that empties from the bottom turns a fifteen-minute scooping job into a bucket under a chute. If you are the person hosting Thanksgiving and a summer graduation party on the same grill, the extra grate area is the point.

The catches: the hopper is the same 30 lb as the 850 while feeding nearly 70% more grate, so a full-load cook burns through pellets faster relative to capacity — plan on a mid-cook top-up during a long overnight. It is a large, heavy grill that wants a permanent home on a patio, not a spot you shuffle around. The touchscreen lives outdoors, and touchscreens and weather are a long-term relationship worth thinking about. And you are paying for space rather than insulation — this is a bigger single-wall grill, not a better-built one.

3. Pit Boss Carbon Series 500 — Best Value

The Carbon Series 500 is the most grill per dollar Pit Boss currently sells. Pit Boss publishes 543 square inches of cooking surface, a 13.5 lb hopper with a cleanout, an LCD digital controller running 180°F to 500°F, porcelain-coated steel grates, and one included meat probe. At the time of writing it was selling below Pit Boss's own list price, which is the whole appeal.

What makes it interesting is the hopper. A 13.5 lb hopper with a cleanout on an entry-level grill is unusually generous — several grills that cost more ship with a 5 lb hopper, which is barely a long afternoon. If your cooking is mostly ribs, chicken, and the occasional pork butt, this is the cheapest honest way into pellet smoking under the Pit Boss badge. It is also the model we would point a first-time buyer to alongside the picks in our best pellet grill under $500 roundup.

Now the giving-up list, and it is longer than the others here. There is no Flame Broiler lever, so there is no direct-flame searing — you will finish steaks in a cast iron pan or accept that this grill is a smoker and roaster. There is no app; the controller is an LCD and a knob. The warranty is 3 years, not 5, the shortest in the Pit Boss lineup. And stock on the Carbon models has been intermittent, so if the button shows it available, that is the moment to act.

4. Pit Boss 700FB2 — Best Mid-Size Searing

The 700FB2 is the pick for someone who wants the sear plate and the big hopper but has no interest in running a grill from a phone. Pit Boss publishes 747 square inches over two tiers, a 21 lb hopper, 180°F to 500°F in 5-degree increments, two meat probe ports with one probe included, the Flame Broiler lever rated to 1,000°F, and the 5-year warranty.

The 21 lb hopper is the quiet strength. That is a genuine overnight brisket without a refill in mild weather, on a grill that costs meaningfully less than the Navigator 850 — and the sear lever means it still handles steak night. For a lot of backyard cooks, WiFi is the feature they use twice and then forget, which makes this the rational buy.

The catches: no app, at any price, on the FB2 line — if you are the type to check the grill from the couch, you will resent this within a month. It sits uncomfortably close to the Navigator 850 in money while giving up app control and roughly 185 square inches, so if your budget can stretch, compare them side by side rather than assuming the cheaper one is the better deal. And like the rest of the barrel-style lineup, the body is single-wall, which shows up as pellet consumption once the weather turns — our cold-weather pellet grilling guide covers how to manage that.

5. Pit Boss Navigator 3-Series Vertical — Best Vertical Smoker

Barrel grills are a compromise for anyone who smokes in volume, and the Navigator 3-Series vertical is the answer to that. Pit Boss publishes 1,118 square inches across five porcelain-coated steel racks, a 130°F to 420°F range in 5-degree increments, a 50 lb hopper, WiFi and Bluetooth control, three probe ports with one meat probe included, a large viewing window, and a 5-year warranty. It measures 55.3 inches tall by 37 wide by 26.3 deep and weighs 127 pounds. Men's Journal named it Best Vertical Smoker in 2025.

The case for it is arithmetic. Five racks stacked in a cabinet hold far more ribs, sausage, jerky, and whole chickens per square foot of patio than a barrel grill ever will, and the 130°F floor is genuinely low — low enough for jerky work that most pellet grills cannot reach. The 50 lb hopper is the largest here by a wide margin. If your cooking looks like our beef jerky and smoked pulled pork recipes more often than it looks like burgers, this is the Pit Boss to buy.

The trade-offs are structural, not fixable. It tops out at 420°F, so there is no searing and no crisping chicken skin the way a 500°F grill does — this is a smoker, full stop. Racks are not grates: no grill marks, and delicate items need a mat or a pan. It is tall and heavy, which makes moving it a two-person job. And a 50 lb hopper is a lot of pellets sitting in the weather if you only cook occasionally — pellets swell and jam when they take on moisture, which is behind many of the faults in our Pit Boss error codes guide. If you need more room still, the Navigator 6-Series steps up to a published 2,224 square inches with a 75 lb hopper.

6. Pit Boss 150 — Best Portable

The Pit Boss 150 refuses to make the trade portables usually make. It carries 256 square inches of porcelain-coated grate, a 7 lb hopper, a 180°F to 500°F range, and — unusually for a tabletop grill — the Flame Broiler lever for direct-flame searing, in a latching-lid body one person can carry. Amazon has been running below Pit Boss's list price on it, which is why it also leads our best portable pellet grill roundup.

The reason it wins its category is that it is a real pellet grill rather than a novelty. A third more grate than most tabletop competitors, the full temperature range, and a sear plate mean a campsite cook is not a downgrade — you can smoke a rack of ribs in the afternoon and sear burgers on the same machine that evening.

The catches are what you would expect at this size. The 7 lb hopper limits unattended time, so a long cook means watching the level. There is no WiFi or app anywhere in the 150 line. The corded model's listing does not include a meat probe, so budget for a separate thermometer — our best wireless meat thermometer picks cover that. And it needs a 110V outlet: pellets are the fuel, but electricity runs the auger, fan, and igniter.

7. Pit Boss 150 Battery Powered — Best Off-Grid

This is the grill that solves the problem the category dodges. The battery-powered 150 is the same 256-square-inch, 7 lb hopper cooker as our portable pick, with an onboard 12V battery Pit Boss rates for up to 15 hours on a charge. No outlet, no inverter, no extension cord across a campsite. It ships with a 110-120V adapter so it charges and runs on household power at home, includes a fitted cover, weighs 46.7 pounds assembled, and carries the 5-year warranty with the battery covered for one year.

For tailgating, campsites, boat docks, and job sites, there is very little else in pellet grilling that does this. It is the one grill here that works where there is no power at all.

The catches are money and expectations. It costs a large premium over the corded version of the identical grill — you are paying purely for the battery, and if you always cook near an outlet, buy the corded 150 and spend the difference on pellets. Fifteen hours is a manufacturer rating, not a promise: cold weather and a hard-working fan will pull it down, so treat it as comfortable margin for a day out rather than a guarantee of an overnight brisket. And the battery carries a one-year warranty while the grill carries five, which tells you which component ages first.

Matching the Model to How You Cook

• One grill for everything, family-sized: Navigator 850. App control, searing, and enough grate that you will not outgrow it.
• You host, regularly, for a crowd: Navigator 1600. Buy it for the three tiers and the gravity cleanout.
• Tightest budget that still smokes properly: Carbon Series 500. Accept no sear plate and a 3-year warranty.
• Overnight cooks, no interest in an app: 700FB2. The 21 lb hopper is the reason.
• Ribs, sausage, and jerky in volume: Navigator 3-Series vertical, or the 6-Series if five racks are not enough.
• Camping, tailgating, small patios: Pit Boss 150 — or the battery version if there is no outlet where you cook.
• Cross-shopping other brands first? Start with our best pellet grills roundup, then the head-to-heads: Z Grills vs Pit Boss, Pit Boss vs Camp Chef, and Pit Boss vs recteq.

What to Know Before You Buy a Pit Boss

Four things come up constantly with this brand, and knowing them ahead of time changes which model you pick.

1. Temperature swings are normal here. Pit Boss states that roughly 25 degrees of movement around a set point is expected behavior. On a low-and-slow cook that is invisible in the food. If yours swings far wider, the cause is usually ash, damp pellets, wind, or a dirty probe rather than a broken grill — our pellet grill temperature swings guide walks through the diagnosis.
2. Learn the P setting if your model has one. On the older-style controllers, the P setting adjusts how long the auger pauses between feed cycles, which changes smoke output at low temperatures. The Pit Boss P setting guide explains what to change and when to leave it alone. Newer WiFi controllers largely manage this themselves.
3. Single-wall bodies cost pellets in the cold. None of these grills is insulated. That is fine most of the year and expensive in January, so factor an insulated blanket or a wind-sheltered spot into the budget if you cook through winter.
4. Buy the cover with the grill. Every model here lives outdoors and none of them ships weatherproof; our pellet grill cover buying guide covers fitment, and the best pellet grill accessories roundup handles the rest of the starter kit.

The Bottom Line

For most buyers the Navigator 850 is the Pit Boss to own: app control, real direct-flame searing, a 30 lb hopper, and 932 published square inches under a 5-year warranty. Cooking for crowds instead of a family? The Navigator 1600 trades nothing but patio space and pellet consumption for three tiers of grate.

On a tight budget, the Carbon Series 500 is the honest value play as long as you accept no sear lever and a 3-year warranty, and the 700FB2 is the sweet spot for anyone who wants the sear plate and a 21 lb hopper without paying for WiFi. If your cooking is mostly smoking, the Navigator 3-Series vertical holds more food per square foot of patio than anything else here. And for cooking away from the house, the 150 and its battery-powered twin are the only grills in this guide you can carry.

Whichever you choose, check the live price on the button before you order — Pit Boss pricing swings hard between retailers and seasons, and on at least one model in this lineup the manufacturer's own store has recently been cheaper than the big marketplace:

Then pick your fuel with our best wood pellets for smoking guide, and if a smaller sear-capable grill fits better, the 500FB2 is the same Flame Broiler idea in a 518-square-inch body.