Pit Boss Navigator 850 Review

Who this grill is for

Anyone feeding four to nine people who wants one cooker that smokes a brisket overnight and sears a steak on Saturday. If you want the most capability per dollar in pellet grilling and do not need the temperature pinned to within a few degrees, this is the grill.

Who it is not for

• Precision-obsessed long-cook specialists. The LCD board swings wider than a PID. The Advantage 850SL has the same 932 square inches with a touchscreen PID board, and that is the one to buy if 12-hour consistency is your priority.
• People buying primarily for the app. If remote control is the whole point, buy Traeger. See the app comparison.
• Small households. 932 square inches costs pellets to heat on every cook. For two people, a Z Grills 600D2 is the smarter buy.

What the specifications actually mean

932 square inches

Using the food-count ratios Pit Boss and Traeger publish for comparable grills, that is roughly 40 burgers, 7 rib racks or 6-7 whole chickens. It comfortably feeds nine in mixed grilling. For context, the Traeger Pro 780 it competes with has 780 square inches.

The 30 lb hopper is the standout

At roughly 1.25 lb an hour at smoking temperatures, 30 lb is about 24 hours. Traeger fits 18 lb to almost its entire range, which is about 14 — uncomfortably tight for a 12-hour brisket with no margin for cold weather or a long stall. This specification, more than the square inches, is why we recommend this grill.

The Flame Broiler

A sliding plate in the heat deflector that exposes part of the grate to direct flame, rated by Pit Boss to 1,000°F. No Traeger at any price has an equivalent. If steak is a weekly event this single feature may settle your brand choice.

Five-year warranty

Against Traeger’s three. On a machine whose auger motor, induction fan and igniter are the known failure points, years four and five are exactly when that matters.

The two things to know before buying

1. It is an LCD board, not a PID

Pit Boss does not publish a temperature-accuracy figure for this controller. A PID board continuously predicts and corrects; an LCD digital board corrects after the fact and therefore swings wider. On grilling and short smokes that is invisible. On a long low cook it is not.

2. The app

Pit Boss connectivity has drawn persistent owner complaints across app generations. We have not tested the current firmware and will not tell you whether it is fixed. Our advice is to treat the WiFi as a bonus rather than a reason to buy — the grill is excellent on hardware alone.

What else to look at

Searching for the Pit Boss 1150 DX or 850 DX?

Those are previous-generation names and are no longer current models. The Navigator 850 is the modern equivalent of the 850-class grills, and the Navigator 1300 sits where the 1150 did. We map the whole range in best Pit Boss pellet grills.