Pit Barrel Cooker Co. Grills & Smokers

The 14-inch sibling of the Classic already in the catalog, rebuilt in 2026 as the Premier series. It is the same sealed drum design — charcoal basket in the base, meat hung from rods on hooks rather than laid on a grate — shrunk to a 14-inch barrel that Pit Barrel rates at four to eight people or up to six racks of ribs hung vertically. The Premier revision adds an elevated lid handle, a detachable single-tier heat shield so it can sit on a deck, and an attachable ash pan; it ships with the hook tool as standard, which used to be an upsell.

Pit Barrel's largest drum and the one the catalog is missing at the top end: a 22.5-inch porcelain-coated barrel with three hanging rods and sixteen hooks against the Classic's two rods and eight. Pit Barrel rates it at 16 to 20 racks of ribs, four pork butts, four full packer briskets or four turkeys in a single load, which is catering and competition capacity rather than backyard capacity. The trade-off is the one Pit Barrel prints on the page themselves: with a light load there is less meat absorbing heat, so the barrel runs hotter than the 18.5.

The odd one out in Pit Barrel's line and the only model in it with real dampers: a 16.5-inch porcelain drum with adjustable vents on both the lid and the base, which the Classic and Junior deliberately do not have. The mid-section lifts out so the base becomes a shallow hibachi for hot-and-fast grilling, and the hanging rack stays for smoking — Pit Barrel rates it at six racks of ribs. Priced at $275 against the $360 Junior, it is the cheapest way into the line and the only one you can actually dial down.