Pit Boss Lockhart Platinum

danny.hoke · Sep 16, 2020

Hello,
Brand new owner here and first time pellet smoker. I have the Pit Boss Lockhart Platinum and I am having a difficult time of keeping the temp in the right zone on the upper cabinet. I get the temp up as described on the Pit boss page by getting the lower grill area at high temp, all vents are open, and once I hit my desired temp it instructs to decrease the bottom temperature to 275 and that should maintain the upper cabinet. When I do this the upper cabinet starts dropping temp as well and drops rather quickly. I have a komado as well and when I get it to temp you adjust the vents to hold that temp in, I tried this with the upper cabinet as well and did not have any success. I am hoping it is something simple that I am doing wrong if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate the help.

HuntJ08 · Sep 17, 2020

Take a meat probe and suspend it in the upper cabinet not touching any metal.
You will probably find out that the ACTUAL temperature is 25-30 degrees higher than the digital temp reads on the control board.
You don't have to raise it as high as you think.
Their design to put the temp probe on the lh side of the cabinet (almost hidden) is bad!
Once I found this trick out, I don't have to raise the bottom grill section as high!

danny.hoke · Sep 19, 2020

HuntJ08 said:
Take a meat probe and suspend it in the upper cabinet not touching any metal.
You will probably find out that the ACTUAL temperature is 25-30 degrees higher than the digital temp reads on the control board.
You don't have to raise it as high as you think.
Their design to put the temp probe on the lh side of the cabinet (almost hidden) is bad!
Once I found this trick out, I don't have to raise the bottom grill section as high!

Thanks for your reply. Are you able to stay at a constant temp on the upper cabinet even if the temp gaugevis reading lower than the actual cabinet temp? The reason I ask is that when I turned my grill section down the upper cabinet just dropped and dropped down into the low to mid 100 on the dial. I will try the method you had mentioned but just want to make sure.

HuntJ08 · Sep 19, 2020

Mine remains okay.
I used it tonight to finish off some baked potatoes that I started in bottom @ 250 for about an hour.. Bottom grill was then cranked to 400 for steak and top held @ 250 or so.
You may have to get a replacement temp probe on warranty. I have replaced 3 different factory parts on warranty and mine seems to be going fine now.

JeepSmoker · Sep 22, 2020

The upper cabinet temp probe in my Lockhart is in the back of the cabinet dead center. Pit is on LH side though. If I'm using the upper chamber, I adjust the top dampers so you can stick a pencil crosswise in between the cap and the stack (1/4 to 3/8 inch). Seems to hold the heat up there a little better.

Denbob4369 · Sep 22, 2020

I am very glad to hear that SOMEONE has a Lockhart that works! I tried 2, but didn't have the patience to wait on parts and install myself! The second one, I did get 2 cooks before it crashed, and yes, the extra probe for the top does work, and shows you don't have to raise the heat as much. Its a shame they don't have better customer service! I'm a Zgrills man now, very steady Temps!