Pit Boss 500 FB2 Review: 1,000°F Searing and a 5 lb Hopper

The Pit Boss 500 FB2 is built around a lever. Slide it and the heat diffuser over the firepot opens, flame reaches the grate directly, and Pit Boss rates the result at up to 1,000°F — a real sear on a pellet grill that costs less than four hundred dollars.

That lever is the entire reason this grill exists in a market where its own stablemate, the Carbon Series 500, sells for about the same money with more cooking space and nearly three times the hopper. The FB2 is the one you buy to cook steaks. The Carbon is the one you buy to smoke pork.

This review is research-based. Specifications come from Pit Boss's own 500 FB2 product page, from Pit Boss Canada's spec table, from retailer spec sheets, and from the Amazon listing we resolve through the Amazon Creators API — where the grill was verified In Stock on November 5, 2026, discounted against Pit Boss's $489.99 list price. Live prices render inside the buttons below with a timestamp; they are never typed into this prose. We have not cooked on this grill and nothing below claims we have. Where sources disagree, we print both figures instead of picking the flattering one.

Who It's For

The 500 FB2 is for the cook who uses a pellet grill as a grill — weeknight steaks, burgers, chicken thighs, chops — and smokes occasionally rather than constantly.

That framing matters because of the hopper. A 5 lb hopper is genuinely small, and it means this grill is at its best on cooks measured in hours rather than overnight. Hot-and-fast is where it shines: preheat, sear over open flame, finish on the indirect side, done. Nobody refills a hopper during a 90-minute cook.

It also suits the value-focused buyer who cares about warranty. Five years on a sub-$400 grill is the longest cover in this bracket, and it is two years longer than Pit Boss's own Carbon Series. If you are the kind of buyer who has had a budget pellet grill's control board die in year three, that difference is the whole argument.

It is the wrong grill if you are planning unattended overnight briskets — see the hopper section, because that is the real limitation — or if you want app control. For both of those, our best pellet grill under $700 roundup opens up options this one does not have.

Key Features

• 518 sq in of total cooking space across two tiers of porcelain-coated steel cooking grates.
• Flame Broiler lever for direct flame searing up to 1,000°F — the headline feature of the FB2 line.
• 180°F to 500°F temperature range in 5°F increments, via a digital control board.
• 5 lb pellet hopper (Pit Boss's own 500 FB2 page).
• One meat probe included.
• Assembled dimensions 39.3 in L x 23.6 in W x 45.3 in H; weight 90.4 lb per Pit Boss Canada's spec table — see the honest-flaws section for the conflicting weight figure.
• 5-year warranty on the FB2 line.
• Model PB500FB2, SKU 11086. Pit Boss US list price $489.99.
• No WiFi, no Bluetooth, no app.

The Flame Broiler Is Why You Would Buy This

Pellet grills are convection ovens that happen to burn wood. The fire sits in a firepot under a steel diffuser, a fan circulates the heat, and the food never sees flame. That is what makes them so good at smoking and so mediocre at searing — at 450 or 500°F of circulating air you get a browned steak, not a crusted one.

The Flame Broiler is Pit Boss's answer, and it is a mechanical one rather than a software one. The lever slides the diffuser plate open over the firepot, exposing a strip of grate to direct flame. Pit Boss rates that zone at up to 1,000°F, and it turns the grill into a two-zone cooker: sear over the open section, then slide the food to the closed section to finish by convection.

Two honest points about how to read that number. First, 1,000°F is a searing-zone rating, not a chamber temperature — the controller still tops out at 500°F and you cannot roast at four digits. Second, open-flame searing over a firepot means grease meets fire, which is a real fire-safety consideration; our pellet grill grease fire guide covers what to do and, more usefully, how to keep the drip path clean so it never starts.

What the lever buys you in practice is the ability to reverse sear a steak start to finish on one cooker — smoke it up to temperature on the closed side, open the lever, crust it over flame. On a diffuser-only grill like the Carbon Series 500 you have to finish in a cast-iron skillet. That is the difference, and whether it is worth a smaller hopper is the whole decision.

The 5 lb Hopper Is the Real Flaw

This is the specification that should decide your purchase, and it is buried on every retailer listing.

Pit Boss's own 500 FB2 page gives the hopper capacity as 5 lb. Our how many pellets does a pellet grill use guide puts consumption at roughly 1 to 3 lb per hour depending on set temperature, ambient weather and how often the lid comes up. Do the arithmetic and a full hopper is two to four hours of cooking.

That is fine for everything the grill is good at. A tray of chicken thighs, a pair of ribeyes, burgers for eight — none of those outlast a hopper. It is not fine for the cooks people buy pellet grills dreaming about. An 8-hour pork butt needs at least two refills. A 12-hour brisket needs three or four, which means setting alarms, and our can you leave a pellet grill unattended guide explains why you should not solve that by walking away from a nearly empty hopper — a run-out causes a flame-out, and a flame-out on a hot grill is how unburned pellets pile up in the firepot.

For comparison, within Pit Boss's own range: the Carbon Series 500 holds 13.5 lb with a cleanout door, and the 700 FB2 and 850 FB2 hold 21 lb. The 500 FB2 is the outlier in the lineup, not the norm.

One correction worth making, because it is circulating: at least one review site lists this grill with a 21 lb hopper. That is the 700/850 FB2 figure. Pit Boss's own page says 5 lb for the 500.

Specs: 500 FB2 vs the Grills It Competes With

The table makes the trade explicit. Against the Carbon Series 500 you are buying searing and warranty and paying for it in hopper capacity and cooking area. Against its own bigger sibling you are buying availability — the 700 FB2 has the specs you want and was not purchasable when we checked.

Performance: What the Specs Tell Us

Hot-and-fast is the strength. 5-degree increments across the range is finer control than the 25-degree steps some budget boards use, and with the Flame Broiler open you have a legitimate sear zone. Steaks, chops, burgers, wings, chicken thighs — this grill is set up for the cooking most people actually do most weeks.

Smoking works, with supervision. The 180°F floor is a true smoke setting and there is nothing wrong with the grill's low end. The constraint is purely fuel. Plan smoking sessions around hopper refills, keep a bag open next to the grill, and read our complete pellet grill smoking guide for how to stage a long cook around interruptions.

The second tier is warming space. 518 square inches across two levels is not the same as 518 on one plane. Upper racks on pellet grills run hotter and drier, which makes them good for finishing sausage or holding done ribs and poor for anything you want to cook evenly alongside the main grate.

No PID claim here. Pit Boss describes the Carbon Series as using a P.I.D. control board and does not make that claim for the FB2 line, which is described simply as a digital control board with 5-degree increments. Expect ordinary budget-pellet-grill temperature behavior — our pellet grill temperature swings guide covers what is normal and what is a fault.

The Honest Flaws

1. The 5 lb hopper. Covered above, and it is the reason this grill scores where it does rather than higher. Everything else about the FB2 is competitive or better than competitive; the hopper is a genuine design compromise, not a nitpick.

2. Less cooking area than the cheaper Carbon 500. 518 against 543 square inches, split over two levels instead of presented as one. At a similar street price that is a real concession.

3. No connectivity. No WiFi, no Bluetooth, no app. On a grill you have to visit regularly anyway this hurts less than it would elsewhere, but in 2026 it is still a gap. A standalone wireless meat thermometer is the cheap fix.

4. The published weight conflicts. Pit Boss Canada's spec table gives 90.4 lb with assembled dimensions of 39.3 x 23.6 x 45.3 inches. One overseas listing for the same model shows 136.6 lb with different dimensions. We cannot reconcile those from the outside, so if you are planning to assemble or move it alone, confirm the figure with the retailer you buy from.

5. The line's stock is patchy. The 700 FB2 — the model most people would step up to for the 21 lb hopper — was Currently unavailable on Amazon when we checked on November 5, 2026. That is worth knowing before you commit to the FB2 platform expecting to upgrade within it.

Ownership Notes

• Season it first. Burn-in before the first cook is not optional on a new Pit Boss. Our how to season a new Pit Boss pellet grill guide has the procedure.
• Keep the Flame Broiler slide clean. It is a moving steel plate directly over the firepot; grease and ash are what make it stick. Clean it as part of every ash-out, and keep a grill degreaser on hand.
• Buy pellets in sizes you can lift repeatedly. With a 5 lb hopper you will be scooping often, so a sealed container near the grill beats a 40 lb sack in the garage — see how to store wood pellets.
• Register the warranty. Five years is this grill's best feature after the lever, and claims are easier when you are on file from day one. Our pellet grill warranty comparison shows how it stacks up.

Price and Where to Buy

The 500 FB2 sits in the mid hundreds. Pit Boss's US list price is $489.99, and the Amazon listing we resolve has been running well below that — it was in stock and discounted against Amazon's own $399.99 reference price when we checked on November 5, 2026. That discount is what makes the value case here, because at full list the Carbon Series 500 would win on specifications alone.

For the alternative at the same street price, read our Pit Boss Carbon Series 500 review. For where both sit in the brand, see our best Pit Boss pellet grill roundup, and for how Pit Boss compares with Traeger®, Weber® and recteq on warranty and support, our best pellet grill brands guide.

Verdict

The Pit Boss 500 FB2 earns a 3.9 out of 5 from us. The Flame Broiler lever is not marketing — it is a mechanical answer to the thing pellet grills are genuinely bad at, and getting a 1,000°F-rated searing zone plus a five-year warranty for under four hundred dollars is a combination almost nothing else in this bracket offers. On the cooking most households do most weeks, this grill is better value than its specifications suggest.

What holds it back is one number. A 5 lb hopper is two to four hours of fuel, and that quietly removes the overnight brisket and the all-day pork butt from the list of things you can do without supervision. Pit Boss put a 13.5 lb hopper on the cheaper Carbon Series 500 and 21 lb on the 700 FB2, which makes the 500 FB2's hopper look like a cost decision rather than a design one. Add no connectivity, slightly less cooking area than the Carbon 500, and a published weight that two sources cannot agree on.

So the honest recommendation is a fork, not a ranking. If you grill more than you smoke, buy this one — the lever is worth the hopper. If you smoke more than you grill, buy the Carbon Series 500 — 543 square inches, 13.5 lb and a P.I.D.-described board for less money. And if you want both without the compromise, the step up to a Pit Boss Navigator 850 is where searing, capacity and WiFi finally arrive in one grill.

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