How to Start Pit Boss Pellet Grill (6 Simple Steps)

Sharing is caring!

Want to know how to start your Pit Boss Boss grill? I have the super simple steps below that will get your started and on your way to cooking delicious smoky feasts

Pellet grills may look a little intimidating, but they are actually not that difficult to use at all. It essentially works as an outdoor convention over.

Keep reading on to learn how to start up your pellet smoker, as well as how to cook with it.

How to Start Up Your Pit Boss Pellet Grill

Only ever used a portable charcoal grill? Then you might be a little lost when it comes to how to start up a Pit Boss smoker.

You might feel a little overwhelmed because this cooking appliance is fully electrical. Not to mention, it comes with a whole bunch of different digital temperature controls.

But don’t fret, we’ll teach you exactly what to do with the control board screen, the hopper access panel, and much more. Just follow along as we go through everything.

Start With the Pellets — Fill Up Your Hopper

If you’re working with a completely new Pit Boss smoker, then you should Prime it first. If you want more information on starting your Pit Boss for the first time click here

So, you’ll first want to start by filling the grill’s hopper with wood pellets. The hopper is essentially a metal storage box for all of the unused pellets.

The auger will then push these unused pellets into the firebox to be burned as fuel. The auger will control the speed and amount of pellets being burned. And it essentially determines the cooking temperature of the smoker.

Priming Your Pit Boss

If you have used your Pit Boss before you can skip this step and move to the next. Priming helps to get rid of all of the nasty dirt and odors that might be leftover from the grill’s manufacturing phase.

This process of priming will also help prevent rust from forming, and it will help to prolong your smoking appliance for longer too. There’s a difference between ‘Priming’ your smoker and just letting it run.

When you ‘Prime’ it, you don’t cook anything with your smoker. This is because you don’t want all of that dirt and smell that you’re trying to get rid of to end up on your food.

I have a full guide on Priming but to wrap it quickly, you need to turn it on, set it to SMOKE, and listen for the auger motor. Check for air movement in the fire pot, then turn off. Fill the hopper, press the Pit Boss ‘Prime’ button until pellets drop, wait for ignition, then cool off.

Let’s Talk About Pellets

Ever wondered how many Lbs of pellets you’ll need?

We won’t be able to tell you the exact amount, but you definitely do not want to put too little.

If you have too few or end up running out then you’ll have to deal with the issue of some severe temperature fluctuations.

This is because your grill will essentially run out of fuel and there will be a huge drop in the overall cooking temperature.

You will need to fill the hopper with wood pellets until it is full.

Don’t go overboard and pack in so many pellets until you can’t even close the hopper access panel.

It’s best to leave about an inch of space free from the opening of the hopper.

We do have a useful piece of information for you to refer back on.

You will want to keep in mind that, on average, your pellet grill will burn through about 2 pounds of hardwood pellets.

In terms of what type of wood pellets you should go with, do feel free to experiment with a few!

As long as you’re using all-natural wood pellets, your pellet grill will be able to burn it up just fine.

The different kinds of wood pellets will influence the flavor of your food.

For steaks, we would highly recommend trying out hardwood pellets.

But, of course, there’s also black cherry wood pellets and hickory wood pellets.

Set the Grill — The Smoke Option

First thing’s first, make sure that the grill lid is kept open.

After that, you’re going to want to locate the temperature dial and turn it to ‘Smoke’.

Only after that, should you turn on the appliance by pressing the power button.

Following that, you’ll need to hit the ‘Prime’ button.

This will transport the pellets from the hopper to the auger, where it will push the pellets through the auger tube and into the fire pot.

You will be able to hear this happening. That’s how you’ll be able to tell that you’re on the right track.

Learn How to Prep Your Grill — Why Food Prep Is So Important

Keep on holding down the ‘Prime’ button for another five to seven minutes, until the fire pot is filled with enough pellets.

The fire rod will automatically ignite the wood and you’ll hear a distinct sound.

After that you should begin to see some smoke coming out of the pellet grill.

You’ll then want to close the smoker lid and set the temperature range to around 350 ℉.

Leave it for around 10 to 15 minutes and you’re done preheating your grill.

10 to 15 minutes isn’t actually too long of a time.

So, you should really start prepping your food so that you can immediately place it into the cooking chamber as soon as your grill is ready to go!

If you don’t you’ll be wasting a lot of that indirect heat, as well as precious cooking time.

You definitely do not want to leave your hungry guests waiting!

Smoke and What You Should Look Out For

You’ll know when you can begin cooking when you see the grilling appliance start producing thick clouds of smoke.

This will indicate that the pellets are burning well in the fire pot.

As soon as these clouds of smoke dissipates, you can open the grill lid and begin your cooking process.

However, if you notice that the smoker is producing a lot of white smoke that doesn’t seem to go away, then something’s wrong.

There are many reasons as to why this may be happening, and an error code will most likely pop up onto the control panel LCD screen.

Here is a list of all the error codes that you might see on your Pit Boss grill display.

Recipes for a Pit Boss Grill

Looking for the best things to cook on your Pit Boss?

See our favorite recipes below

Smoked Tomahawk

Smoked Brisket

Smoked Ribeye With Truffle Butter

Babyback Ribs

Smoked Mac and Cheese

The Secret to Grilling the Perfect Steak

Before we end this article, we’ll leave some of our best tips to cooking the perfect flank steak on your pellet grill:

• Choose your cut of meat wisely.
  Different cuts have different cooking times, as well as various methods for cooking them.
• Find out the best rubs for your cut of steak and always make sure to use a meat thermometer to keep an eye on the internal meat temperature.
• Switch up the way you cook your meats depending on its thickness.
  If the steak is relatively thin, then cook it on higher heat for a shorter amount of time. However, if the cut is thick then use low heat and leave it to cook for longer.

Electrical wood pellet grills are just absolutely fantastic.

While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a portable charcoal grill, it can take up a lot of your time and energy.

If you’re just cooking in the comfort of your own backyard, then there’s no reason to have to wait around for ages just to light up pieces of charcoal.

The convenience of plugging the power cord of your pellet smoker into the power outlet is unbeatable.

We hope that you found this article useful and that you now know how to start up your own Pit Boss pellet smoker.

Smoke On!

Charlie

Hungry For More?