Pit Barrel Cooker Vs Weber Smokey Mountain Best-Rated Picks

Cooking outdoors is always seen as great fun. The idea of going out of the house with food ingredients that you want to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner today is extremely exciting. For outdoor cooking, there are a number of products available on the market that ensure scrumptious food. However, in our opinion, the outdoor smoker does the job in the most comprehensive manner. Out of all outdoor smokers, we are going to compare two top contenders in order to determine a winner. So, today it’s going to be Pit Barrel Cooker Vs Weber Smokey Mountain. These two are high-end smoker brands that will provide users with delicious, aromatic and properly cooked food in the outdoors.

These smokers are proficient in cooking any type of meat in different styles. Representing Pit Barrel would be 18-1/2 in. Classic Pit Barrel Cooker, whereas Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker 18 inch Charcoal Smoker will bear the flag for Weber Smokey Mountain. To judge a winner, it is important to put these two smokers to test. For that, we have laid out different parameters that will clear the air as to which outdoor smoker is the best.

The main drum of Pit Barrel Cooker is made of porcelain-coated steel, which seems quite durable. The company has constructed this smoker in such a way that it gives users a unique ‘vertical cooking experience’. The company believes that cooking vertically ensures perfectly cooked food every time. We really like the design of the product, as it allows shorter cooking times in which we don’t have to regulate the temperature or smoke.

Despite the bulkiness of the smoker, it is portable and is going to last a good number of years. Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Charcoal Smoker is another top-class product in which the bowl, lid, and water pan are all made of steel with a coating of porcelain. The vents and the fuel door are made of non-rustable aluminum, which provides a solid and elegant look to the smoker. When it comes to the handle, then those are made of glass-reinforced nylon. The overall design and construction of the product are superb.

Cooking food in a smoker is dependent upon how accurate the temperature inside the smoker is. You will be left disappointed while using Pit Barrel Cooker as there is no equipment given to measure the temperature. They should have at least incorporated a sensor into the product so that users can determine the exact temperature.

Weber Smokey Mountain has taken a note of this aspect, therefore, they have provided a built-in thermometer, which will be extremely helpful in determining the temperature inside the smoker.

Though there isn’t much difference between the size of both smokers, yet there is a significant difference in the cooking space. Where you will get 481 sq. inches of cooking space that is divided between the two plated-steel grill grates, the cooking space in Pit Barrel Cooker is just 324 sq. inches. This difference is surely going to take the game away from the Pit Barrel Cooker if someone is primarily looking for an outdoor smoker with a large cooking space.

This is a very crucial parameter because a smoker with higher temperature is going to allow different types of meats to be cooked properly. Pit Barrel Cooker is a clear winner here as it cooks at considerably higher temperatures than its WSM counterpart.

The temperature could rise up to 320 degrees Fahrenheit in Pit Barrel. Moreover, this smoker can hold at high temperatures even in the winter, so there is no need to worry about how the food is going to be cooked during winters.

The temperature in Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker can go up to 225 degrees Fahrenheit, but a good thing about this product is that it can keep cooking at this temperature for a long time, i.e., up to 14 hours.

You must be thinking that the smoker with the larger cooking space is going to hold more food, right? Well, that is not the case. Pit Barrel Cooker smoker has a larger food holding capacity than Weber Smokey Mountain. There are hooks given by the company on which you can hang ribs. Plus, there are special hooks on which you can hang your roasts. These things are not possible in Weber Smokey Mountain, as it only allows you to cook on the racks.

In terms of clean and tidy operation, we would prefer Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker, as everything from adding charcoal to cleaning after cooking the food is so simple in this product. To add the charcoal, you just need to lift the body of the cooker, which will expose the bottom part where you can add the charcoal. In Pit Barrel Smoker, there is a charcoal basket given, but adding charcoal in that basket is not that easy during the cooking process.

Moreover, cleaning Pit Barrel is going to be a daunting task due to its flat lid. This annoying flat lid accumulates grease, and then pour that onto the next food that you cook. So, you will have to clean the cooking area after each use. Grease doesn’t accumulate in Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker, as it contains dome-like lid. You can clean up the oil after cooking the last food item, thus saving you a lot of time and unnecessary hassle.

These were some parameters that we thought would be interesting to judge both products on. It has been found that both products have certain strong points and shortcomings, just like every other product available on the market, but that doesn’t mean both products are good for nothing. The company has manufactured these products keeping the end user’s requirements in mind.

Pit Barrel Cooker Vs Weber Smokey Mountain is always going to be a fierce battle because both smokers are outstanding. Where one smoker outclasses the other in one parameter, the other bounces back strongly in another parameter. Which outdoor smoker you should go with is a tough question to answer. So, there is one way to make things easier for you.

• You want to cook large quantities of meat at one time. This smoker is perfect for large parties where you need more food in less amount of time.
• You want to take it to your friend’s house for cooking food. This is a lightweight smoker, at least when compared to Weber Smokey Mountain.
• You want to cook at temperatures more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit, which is not possible in WSM Cooker. 

• You need a large cooking space, as this smoker has 160 sq. inches more cooking area than the Pit Barrel Cooker.
• You want to cook at a constant temperature for long hours, i.e., up to 14 hours, which is a feature that is not available in Pit Barrel Cooker.
• You want to note the temperature inside the cooker at the time of cooking. This will give you a good idea as to how much time will it take for the food to be cooked perfectly.
• You don’t want to get into the hassle of cleaning the grease between uses, which you will have to do if using Pit Barrel Cooker. WSM Cooker has a dome-like lid that will allow all the accumulated grease to slide down to the sides so that you don’t need to clean it up after cooking food each time.