Pit Boss Navigator 3-Series vs 6-Series: Which Vertical Smoker Should You Buy?

The Bottom Line

Buy the Pit Boss Navigator 3-Series unless the size of each individual rack is your constraint. If it is, buy the Navigator 6-Series.

This is an unusually clean comparison, because these two cabinets are not really different smokers. They share a temperature range, a controller, an app, a probe setup, a warranty and a rack count. What separates them is geometry: how big each of the five racks is, how much patio the cabinet claims, and how much fuel it takes to heat the space inside.

The 3-Series is the one we rank Best Overall in our best vertical pellet smoker roundup, and it was named 2025 Best Vertical Smoker by Men's Journal. The 6-Series is the Best for Crowds pick on the same page. Both are correct answers to different questions.

Live Prices

Side-by-Side Specifications

What Is Identical on Both

It is worth stating plainly, because it removes most of the decision:

• Temperature range: 130°F to 420°F in 5-degree increments on both.
• Rack count: five porcelain-coated steel racks on both.
• Controller: the same LCD digital control board.
• Connectivity: built-in WiFi and Bluetooth into the Pit Boss app on both.
• Probes: three probe ports with one probe included, on both.
• Chamber: single-wall with a high-temp door seal and a viewing window, on both.
• Height: both stand 55.3 inches tall.
• Warranty: Pit Boss's 5-year term on both.

So you are not choosing between a better smoker and a worse one. You are choosing a size.

Head-to-Head: Rack Space vs Rack Size

This is the whole comparison, and the total-area figure is the less useful of the two numbers.

• 3-Series: 1,118 square inches across five racks of 17.5" x 12.8".
• 6-Series: 2,224 square inches across five racks of 25.7" x 17.3".

The 6-Series does not give you more racks. It gives you substantially bigger racks — roughly double the area per shelf. Pit Boss makes the practical point better than a spec sheet can: each 6-Series shelf fits two full-size foil pans.

That is the real question to ask yourself. If you cook big volumes of small things — ribs, chicken thighs, pork butts, sausage, jerky — five racks at 17.5 by 12.8 inches is a lot of food, and the 3-Series handles a serious family or neighborhood cook without complaint. If you cook pans — catering trays, large sides, beans and mac for a crowd — or you want to lay long racks of ribs flat rather than rolled or bent, the shelf dimensions on the 3-Series become the limit and no amount of stacking fixes it.

For how both compare with the rest of the cabinet market, our best vertical pellet smoker roundup runs five current models side by side.

Head-to-Head: Hopper and Running Cost

• 3-Series: 50 lb hopper.
• 6-Series: 75 lb hopper.

Both are large by any standard — a barrel pellet grill typically carries 18 to 40 pounds — and both will run an overnight cook without a refill. The 6-Series' extra 25 pounds is not a luxury, though: it is compensation. Doubling the cabinet volume doubles the air you have to heat, and a single-wall cabinet loses heat across its whole skin, so the bigger box burns meaningfully more fuel to hold the same 250°F.

That cuts both ways on value. The 6-Series costs more to buy and more to run. If you will routinely fill it, the cost per pound of finished food is excellent. If you will usually run it half empty, you are paying twice — once at purchase and again every cook. Our how many pellets does a pellet grill use guide covers the arithmetic, and how to store wood pellets matters more than usual when you are buying in the volumes a 75 lb hopper encourages.

Head-to-Head: Footprint and Moving It

Both cabinets are 55.3 inches tall, so neither has a height advantage. The difference is width, depth and mass:

• 3-Series: 37" wide, 26.3" deep, 127 lb.
• 6-Series: 44" wide, 29" deep, 173 lb.

Seven extra inches of width and 46 extra pounds sounds modest written down and feels significant on a deck. Measure the space, and measure the gate and the doorway you will push it through — a 44-inch-wide cabinet does not go everywhere a 37-inch one does. One retailer lists the 6-Series height as 53.3 inches against Pit Boss's own 55.3, so if you are fitting it under an overhang, measure rather than trusting a listing.

Neither is a one-person reposition once assembled. Decide where it lives before you build it.

Head-to-Head: What Neither One Does

Neither cabinet sears, grills, or crisps skin. 420°F in an enclosed box with no flame path is roasting heat. This is the category's defining trade and it is the single most common reason buyers regret a vertical: they bought it as their only cooker.

If you need one machine that smokes low and sears hot, you want a barrel, and Pit Boss's own answer is the Navigator 1600 — see our Pit Boss Navigator 1600 review and our best pellet grill for searing roundup. At the opposite end of the budget, the Louisiana Grills Founders Legacy 1200 is the stainless barrel with a genuine open-flame sear zone. Most people who own a vertical own it as a second cooker, next to a gas grill or a griddle, and that is the right way to think about both of these.

Neither cabinet is insulated. Pit Boss does not describe either Navigator as double-wall. For winter smoking, the insulated answer in this class is the Grilla Grills Mammoth — double-walled, more expensive, and covered in our Grilla Mammoth review. Our cold-weather pellet grilling guide explains why chamber construction matters more than controller quality once it gets cold, and can you use a pellet grill in the rain covers the wet-weather half.

The one place both Pit Boss cabinets beat the Mammoth outright: their 130°F floor. The Mammoth stops at 180°F. For jerky and snack sticks, 130°F is the better tool.

Who Should Buy the Navigator 3-Series

• You want a cabinet that fits a normal patio — 37 inches wide, 127 pounds.
• You cook ribs, butts, chicken, sausage and jerky in family or neighborhood volumes, not catering volumes.
• You would rather spend the difference on pellets and a wireless thermometer than on rack width.
• You want the pick our roundup rates Best Overall and that Men's Journal named 2025 Best Vertical Smoker.

Who Should Buy the Navigator 6-Series

• You need two full-size foil pans per shelf — catering, church suppers, competition prep, big batches of sides.
• You want to lay long rib racks flat instead of rolling or bending them.
• You will actually fill it, so the extra fuel to heat the box is buying finished food rather than warming air.
• You have 44 inches of width to give it and a flat path to wheel it along.

How We Compared These

This comparison is research-based. Specifications come from Pit Boss's own product pages for the Navigator 3-Series and 6-Series and from the live Amazon listings we resolve and verify through the Amazon Creators API — both were confirmed buyable on October 29, 2026. We note where a retailer listing disagrees with Pit Boss's published figure rather than silently picking one. We have not cooked on either cabinet, we do not run a test kitchen, and nothing above claims otherwise.

Prices are the other thing we will not fake. Every number on this page comes from our tracked price registry and renders live inside the buy buttons with an "as of" stamp, so nothing here goes stale. Pit Boss discounts the Navigator line regularly and the spread between sellers on one model can be wide — treat the button as the number, and check our current pellet grill deals before you order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Navigator 3-Series or 6-Series?

The 3-Series for most buyers. Same range, same controller, same app, same warranty, five racks on both — the 6-Series only earns its premium if the size of each individual rack is the thing limiting you.

What is the actual difference?

Rack dimensions, hopper and footprint. 1,118 sq in on 17.5" x 12.8" racks with a 50 lb hopper at 37 inches wide, versus 2,224 sq in on 25.7" x 17.3" racks with a 75 lb hopper at 44 inches wide.

Will either one sear?

No. 420°F ceiling, no flame path, no exceptions. Buy a barrel grill if you need high heat.

How low do they go?

130°F on both, in 5-degree steps — one of the lowest floors in the pellet category and the reason to pick these for jerky.

Are they insulated?

No. Single-wall with a door seal and a window. For winter, look at an insulated cabinet instead.

What about the Sportsman verticals?

Pit Boss's Sportsman 5-Series and 7-Series sit between these two on capacity, and the Sportsman 5-Series had no buyable Amazon offer when we last checked on October 29, 2026, which is why it is not a pick on this page. Our best vertical pellet smoker roundup covers the whole lineup, and best Pit Boss pellet grill ranks the brand's barrels and cabinets together.

Our Recommendation

For most buyers the Navigator 3-Series is the right Pit Boss vertical. It is the same smoker as its bigger sibling in every way that affects how food comes out — same 130-420°F range, same controller, same WiFi, same five racks, same 5-year warranty — in a cabinet that fits a real patio and costs several hundred dollars less to buy and less again to run. The 50 lb hopper already covers an overnight.

Step up to the Navigator 6-Series for one reason: you need the racks themselves to be bigger. Two full-size foil pans per shelf is a genuine catering capability that the 3-Series cannot match at any setting, and if that is your cooking, the 6-Series is worth every dollar of the difference. If it is not, you are buying 44 inches of patio and a larger fuel bill to heat air.

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