Best Pit Boss Pellet Grill in 2026

Three numbers do most of the deciding across this lineup. Cooking space runs 518, 747, and 932 square inches; hoppers run 5, 21, and 30 lb. Only the largest of the three adds WiFi. Picking between them comes down to how much manual refilling and how much room you're willing to trade for the lower price, not to a name.

Pit Boss also builds a second, retailer-exclusive lineup, the DX Series and Pro Series, sold only through Lowe's. If you're cross-shopping model numbers between stores, know that the 850 DX and the Navigator 850 Connected Grill both carry the number "850" even though they aren't the same grill.

840 square inches versus 932. That's not a rare edge case. It's the reason two spec sheets with the same number can disagree.

We verified all three picks below directly against Pit Boss's current listings at pitboss-grills.com, checked live on 2026-08-22, so the spec spread above applies to what you can actually buy today, not to a Lowe's-exclusive twin wearing the same number.

Why the Same Number Means Two Different Grills

Pit Boss builds retailer-exclusive versions of its grills for partners like Lowe's, under the DX Series and Pro Series names. The 850 DX is one of them. It runs 840 square inches, sold only at Lowe's, tagged "Retailer Exclusive" on Pit Boss's own site.

The Navigator 850 Connected Grill runs 932 square inches instead. It's sold directly at pitboss-grills.com. Same number, different hardware, different place to buy it.

It happens again at "1600." Pro Series 1600, Pro Series 3 1600, and Pro Series 1600 Elite are three separate Lowe's-exclusive SKUs. Each is distinct from the direct-sold Navigator 1600 Connected Grill. Cross-shop prices between pitboss-grills.com and a big-box retailer, and that number alone won't tell you which grill you're looking at.

This guide covers the three grills Pit Boss sells directly, each verified against its own current listing: the 500FB2, the 700FB2, and the Navigator 850 Connected Grill. If a Lowe's-exclusive model is what's in front of you, treat its spec sheet as its own thing, not a stand-in for the number-matched grill here.

Best Budget: Pit Boss 500FB2

This is the one to start with if the price tag matters more than anything else. It runs 518 square inches of cooking space. The range runs 180°F to 500°F, straight from Pit Boss's own current listing.

The trade-off shows up at the hopper, which holds just 5 lb of pellets, the smallest of any model in this guide by a wide margin. One verified Walmart owner of this exact SKU reports it as heavy duty with great quality, self-identified in their own review title as the PB500FB2.

That same owner independently confirms the hopper "is super small" in practice, one account rather than a confirmed pattern across many owners, though it does line up with the spec gap on paper.

It still gets the same Flame Broiler lever as the pricier two grills here, plus 2 meat probe ports with one probe included in the box. Pit Boss rates the lever for direct-flame searing up to 1,000°F. You're not giving up searing capability at this tier, just refill frequency on long cooks, and we think that's a fair trade if the price tag is what's deciding this for you.

Best Value: Pit Boss 700FB2

Step up one size and the hopper problem mostly disappears. The 700FB2 runs 747 square inches of cooking space and a 21 lb hopper. It uses the same 180°F to 500°F range, adjustable in 5° increments through a dial-in digital control board.

That controller is the real trade-off here: no WiFi, no app, nothing to check from your phone. One verified Walmart owner of this exact SKU reports being impressed with the cooking results so far, self-identified as the PB700FB2.

That owner describes the physical controls as "very finicky," describing repeated knob turns and button presses before a change actually registers. It's one account rather than a confirmed pattern, but it's a specific description of what the no-app trade-off feels like day to day. If you've never once opened an app to check on a cook anyway, we don't think that's a real cost to you.

The Flame Broiler lever carries over unchanged, rated to the same 1,000°F as the other two grills in this guide.

Best Overall: Pit Boss Navigator 850 Connected Grill

This is the one that adds a phone app on top of more room, not instead of it. The Navigator 850 Connected Grill runs 932 square inches of cooking space and a 30 lb hopper, the largest of any grill in this guide. It adds WiFi and Bluetooth through the Pit Boss Grills app.

Two meat probes ship included this time, not just probe ports. Fan-forced convection helps even out heat across that larger chamber. The Flame Broiler lever is still here too, at the same 1,000°F rating as the two cheaper grills. We'd only tell you to pay the difference over the 700FB2 if you'd actually open that app, or if the extra room is the whole reason you're upgrading.

One pitbossforum.com owner reports periodic batches of white smoke throughout an 8-hour cook on this exact model, after cooking a pair of beef back ribs from Costco, and asked whether that was normal. The cause wasn't confirmed in what we found, and one report isn't enough to call it a defect. We're naming it because it's worth watching for on your own first long cook, not because it's a settled pattern.

What You're Actually Choosing Between

None of these three wins on every axis. The 500FB2 costs the least and still gets the same searing lever as the other two. Its small hopper means more manual refills on a long, unattended smoke.

The 700FB2 fixes the hopper problem and adds real cooking room. The cost is an app most buyers won't miss, until they're standing at the grill adjusting a finicky dial. The Navigator 850 Connected Grill adds that app back on top of the most room of the three, at the highest price of the group.

Warranty doesn't split the decision at all. All three carry Pit Boss's same 5-year term, so a longer warranty is never the reason to spend more here. That's a real difference from some other pellet-grill guides, where warranty length climbs with price. If a WiFi feature or extra cooking space isn't something you'd actually use, the cheaper pick loses nothing on coverage by comparison.

Not sure how much cooking area your own group actually needs? Run your guest count and cook style through our Grill Size Calculator rather than guessing from the numbers above.

The auger jam and error-code failure modes that eventually show up are controller-generation problems, not brand problems. They hit every Pit Boss the same way, regardless of which grill in this guide you buy. See Pit Boss Auger Jam and Pit Boss Error Codes if either comes up down the line. And if a Traeger at a similar cooking-area tier is still in the running, Pit Boss vs Traeger covers that trade-off directly.

Our Verdict

For most people who want one Pit Boss and don't want to overthink it, the Navigator 850 Connected Grill is the safest call. It has the most cooking space and hopper capacity of the three. It's also the only one that adds a phone app on top of that, not in place of it.

Drop to the 700FB2 if an app was never going to matter to you, and put that money toward a bigger hopper and more cooking room instead. Drop to the 500FB2 only if the entry price is the deciding factor. You still get the same searing feature as the other two, you just refill the hopper more often to get it.

Verify whatever you land on against Pit Boss's own current listing before you buy. A roundup elsewhere might be describing a retailer-exclusive variant, or a superseded generation under a similar-looking number. Our full pellet grill buying guide covers that same naming-confusion problem across every brand in the category, not just Pit Boss.