Pit Barrel Cooker Co.
Pit Barrel Cooker PBX 22.5
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.
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Specifications
Pros
- ✓Four full packer briskets or four turkeys in one load is more capacity than any vertical water smoker near this price
- ✓Three hanging rods instead of two means you can run ribs and butts on separate levels without crowding
- ✓All hanging hooks, rods and racks interchange with the 18.5-inch Classic, so an upgrade does not orphan your accessories
- ✓Same no-damper simplicity as the rest of the line — light the basket, set the intake, close the lid
- ✓Porcelain over steel rather than paint, so it will not burn off around the intake the way painted drums do
Cons
- ✗Runs noticeably hot when lightly loaded, which Pit Barrel warns about on the product page — this is not a cooker for a single rack of ribs
- ✗Ash pan, hinged grate and cover from the 18.5 do NOT fit, so three of the common accessories have to be rebought
- ✗84.5 lbs and 30 inches wide: it needs a dedicated spot, and the caster kit is the only way to move it
- ✗$600 puts it against a 22-inch Weber Smokey Mountain at $549 that does hold low temperatures
Compare the Pit Barrel Cooker PBX 22.5
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