Camp Chef PGVXXL XXL Vertical Pellet Smoker, Black

I have been using a Cuisinart propane vertical smoker for the past 3 years with great results, but it needs frequent interaction. I have been researching pellet smokers for some time and settled on the Camp Chef XXL for a number of reasons. It is a vertical smoker (we love to do multiple products at one time), it comes with 2 digital temp probes, it has an ash purge system as well as a pellet purge for changing out different pellets.The smoker was delivered in a smashed up, broken box. I was afraid that the smoker was damaged beyond repair. Thankfully, Camp Chef had packaged the unit very well and nothing was damaged or bent. The unit took my son and I just over an hour to assemble, the instructions were ok (I've seen worse), but did have a couple of spots that could have been clearer. The parts labeling could have been better, some were labeled well and others not. We laid them out on a table (all except the very large parts) so we could find them easy and differentiate them from similar ones.I have used the unit for two complete smokes, including ribs, cubed pork shoulder and 2 turkey breasts on the first (see the picture). The unit has plenty of room and it produces excellent smoke (especially for a pellet smoker). I used lumberjack pellets (recommended by a number of professional smokers on the internet). The unit fired up quickly and came to set temp in about 10 minutes. The entire smoke took about 6 hours (less for the pork) to get the turkey breasts done. The included digital thermometers worked awesome. I opened the unit and double checked their readings with my portable digital unit (that I had from my previous smoker) and the readings were very close (1-3 degrees variance). The ability to have 2 thermometers is awesome, thou it would be nice if they could be monitored by Bluetooth or other wireless method. The internal temperature monitor did vary about 10-12 degrees, I assume as the pellet drive system was varied to slow or speed up pellet delivery to the fire box as needed. This technology isn't instantaneous, but seemed to work very effectively.The grease drainage system worked fairly well, I did line the bottom grease pan with foil (as recommended by other reviewers) and this made cleanup very easy. The grease collector at the right bottom did need to be hand cleaned and the spout that drained the grease into the pail was the most work to clean. The ash clean out was simple and easy to use. The 6 hour smoke left me with barely 1/4 of the ash collection cup full, the pellets all burned completely. The pellet consumption was right about a pound per hour (this will vary based on how high the temperature is set and/or how cold it is outside).The pellet purge could use a bit of work. The pellet hopper has a rear dump with a pail holder, just pull the release and the pellets fall into the pail (well about 80% do, the rest remain in the hopper). The rear dump exit location doesn't allow for the remaining pellets to fall out, a small hand tool that looks like a rake is provided to manually drag the remaining pellets to the pellet dump (this is a bit clunky). Then you have to open the ash clean out and run a pellet purge cycle, this runs the pellet drive screw continuously to expel the pellets that are in the screw drive system. This takes about 5-6 minutes to run and I found by running it again (as a test) there was still a couple dozen pellets that had not made it out (not a big deal most of the time, but if left in the drive system in a humid environment they could become waterlogged and not ignite properly). The pellet purge system also allows you to change the type of pellets (wood) that you want to use for different types of meats. The ability to do this was very important to me for the humidity and convenience.The manual recommends that the grease drainage tray and heat deflectors be removed after 50 hours of smoking to clean up residual ash and grease that maybe trapped underneath. I removed these after my second smoke to test. There was no residual grease to be found, but a fair amount of loose ash that had been blown around by the fan. This after 12-13 hours. I would recommend cleaning these at about 25 hours based on what I saw and the removal and replacement of these parts wasn't difficult and didn't take long.Conclusion: I love this smoker! Could it be better, sure. Everyone could find something they might want different, but it has all the things I need and they work well. Despite my few nit picks above, I gave it 5 stars. It is well worth the investment if you're into smoking. I also got the Camp Chef cover to protect my investment. By the way, everything tasted amazing. The smoke taste and depth of smoke ring easily beat my old propane smoker (that used wood chips). Can't help but wonder if the people who complained about no smoke taste, if it was related to poor quality pellets?

Temperature probes are no where close to accurate. You can use them as a wide ball park number at best. I don't trust the wiring from the controler to the smoke box will last long term. I don't like the gap between the hopper and the smoke box. I know it's necessary but pellets fall down in there and you can't get them out. Auto feed works well enough for about 4 hours but then you need to manually get the pellets to resettle. Smoker needs to get up to at least 300 degrees and then dialed back down. This will stop it from having a feed error or flare up error. I think the door needs to have a gasket around it for obvious reasons. The door has to be all the way open in order to get the racks out. But that's not that big of a deal. Super easy to use and maintain. Very large. Good quality rack. Great door handle.

As far as assembly goes, the only issue I had was with tightening one of the legs (I believe it was the front right leg as you look at the smoker). The way the metal was stamped, it was just difficult to get as tight as I would have liked. Other than that, assembly took about an hour, by myself.I haven’t been able to hammer down exactly how many pounds of pellets to use for a typical smoke, so I have just been filling the hopper. The hopper has a shelf in it, BAD DESIGN. The shelf makes it appear as if you have pellets in the smoker, but none are being fed into the auger (ask me how I know this).This smoker does a cyclical smoke throughout the cook, so you won’t get a ton of smoke for the first two hours, but continuously through the process as it heats back up to temp.The set it and forget it is what I was looking for, and as long as there are pellets, you have. NOTHING to worry about. I haven’t used the pellet change out feature yet, but plan to this coming week as we are going to smoke some salmon.I have not smoked a ton on here, but what I have smoked, has turned out amazing. My first stab was with six racks of ribs. Great reviews from all of the friends and family that were able to eat them. I tried a pork shoulder afterwards. For some reason, the shoulder didn’t stall at points I have experienced in past smokes. It happened around the 180 degree mark. Amazing taste though.I would definitely buy this again, with the caveat that I haven’t used it in temperatures below 75 degrees. I assess many more pellets will be used at those lower temps. If I remember, I will update this review when it gets cool enough.

All. Know what you are getting. 1. The smoker is not insulated and gets quite hot to the touch. 2. The pellet hoper needs to be stirred. It will not smoke for long hours without attention. Pellets won’t freely feed the feeding device. They provide a rake. 4. Online manual is not correct. It has not been updated with correct parts. Use manual in box. 5. Two screws short in package due to design change in handle mounting. 6. 12 hour smoke and used 30 pounds of high quality pellets. 7. Don’t believe the reviews as they seem to be rigged. I like the smoker it just seems to be an under performer for the cost vs quality. Love the ash clean out

I've had my XXL for a little over a year now and have smoked turkeys, briskets, pork butts, pork ribs, chickens, bacon and homemade sausages.The main issue is that it doesn't produce all that much smoke flavor, even on hi or low smoke. Something to do with the way pellet smokers work since the heat and smoke are both being produced by the pellets.Anyway this isn't a huge problem for things that don't require lots of smoke - bacon, sausage, ribs and poultry are fantastic and easy on the XXL. But it is NOT good for brisket and is barely adequate for pulled pork when I add a smoke maze and a smoke tube to boost the smoke.Setup wasn't hard and it's easy to keep clean if you have a shop vac. It works well for what it is, but if you plan to smoke brisket or other high smoke meats, look elsewhere.