Whenever I go out on picnics or camping, I always like to bring along a drum cooker. And my top choices are always either a Pit Barrel Cooker or Weber Smokey Mountain. These cookers are perfect for outdoor cook-outs because they both can cook a lot of food and are portable enough to move it around from one place to another.
The Weber Smoker Mountain and Pit Barrel cookers are perfect products for all your grilling, frying, roasting, and slow cooking needs. But which one should you get to take on your next trip or make your primary cooker?
In this article, I will compare the Pit Barrel Cooker vs Weber Smokey mountain to see which is better to use.
Pit Barrel Cooker vs Weber Smokey Mountain comparison
Looking at both the Weber Smokey Mountain and Pit Barrel Cooker, you can already tell that they are made from the best quality materials. They even offer some very cool features, which makes them both stand out from the rest of the crowd. To point out the differences between the pit barrel cooker vs wsm, I'll give you a quick overview of what each has to offer then go into the detailed comparison point by point.
Overview of Pit Barrel Cooker
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The Pit Barrel cookers usually come in two convenient sizes, measuring 18.5" and 14" respectively. The product uses 18 gauge steel and a porcelain enamel coating for its body to ensure quality and durability. With the pit barrel cookers, you can use coal, charcoal, or wood to heat the cooker in a separate fuel compartment attached to the main body.
Moreover, when purchasing a Pit Barrel cooker, you can choose from a variety of packages, each with a different combination of accessories and at different prices.
Overview of Weber Smokey Mountain
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The Weber Smokey Mountain cookers series comes with the promise of delivering an out-of-this-world barbeque experience. This product boasts stainless steel and rust-resistant body parts, perfect for handling any outdoor event.
It is available in 3 compact sizes, which makes it easy to transport but also big enough to fit an entire roast if needs be. Also, it includes a gauge steel charcoal grate and porcelain water pan that enhances the utility and safety of the product.
Overall, Weber Smokey Mountain is a superior quality product with high ranking performance delivery and ease-of-use ratings from the collective reviews of customers.
So now that you have an idea of the overview of both products let us look at the critical points of comparison between the two products:
Design and Build
Comparing the build quaility of the WSM vs Pit Barrel shows the first major difference between both brands. The Pit Barrel cooker stands vertically on three sturdy stands. It has a big 30-gallon steel drum body made of 18 gauge steel with an added porcelain layer for improving its rust-resistant ability as well as overall strength.
It is effortless to set up and does not require much effort as it comes almost fully assembled with all its product accessories. The user can easily attach the loose parts such as the hanging rods, hooks, and others, as and when required.
The Pit Barrel Cooker weighs between 55-60 lbs and is still compact enough for easy transportation to almost any place.
On the other hand, the most compact Weber Smokey Mountain stands at a smaller size at 14" and weighs 23 pounds. Moreover, all the different parts of this cooker are either stainless steel or aluminum, which makes it highly heat-resistant, rust-resistant, and durable.
Weber Smokey Mountain smokers are comprised of three main parts. They are the top lid, middle section for all cooking purposes, and a pan at the bottom for collecting grease and food pieces. Beneath these is the fuel chamber. So when it comes to the design and build, I found that the Smokey Mountain was better over the traditional barrel style.
Which is more Convenient to Refueling between WSM vs PBC?
The fuel compartment of the Pit Barrel Cooker can be filled up just once before the cooking starts and not afterward. There is no separate door for the fuel chamber, unlike the Weber Smokey Mountain, which comes with a different door that allows for refilling anytime during the cook. This setup makes the Weber smoker the better option as it is easier to refuel.
Cooking space
The Pit Barrel Cooker has dimensions of 53.3x 53.3 x 79 cm, the majority of which can accommodate different types of cooking styles. There are installable hanging rods and several hooks for roasts and a spacious grilling station, all of which you can easily rearrange as per your need.
The Weber Smokey Mountain 18.5 inch smoker, on the other hand, has a primary cooking area measuring 286 sq inches that divides into two stainless steel grates.
The Pit barrel cooker can serve between 8-12 people at a go while the Weber Smokey Mountain can serve only up to 6 people at a time. However, you can always buy the larger 22.5-inch smokey mountain for a much larger cooking area so you can serve more persons.
Ease of cleaning
When it comes to cleaning, it is easier to clean out the Weber Smokey Mountain because of its convenient design features. This product has a dome-shaped lid at the top, unlike the flat one in the Pit Barrel Cooker. The curved surface ensures that the grime from smoke and steam falls off more easily instead of collecting.
Again, in the Weber Smokey Mountain, there is a removable water pan at the bottom. This pan makes collecting any grease or pieces of food that may fall at any time during the cooking process. This feature is unavailable for the Pit Barrel Cooker. So you will have a harder time cleaning it than you would with the weber smokey mountain.
Temperature
With any type of smoker, the max temperature range of the product is crucial to how good it is. Moreover, the wider the temperature range, the better.
So, when comparing the Pit Barrel Cooker vs WSM, we had to see how they stack up in max temperature capacity and range. Off the bat, the Pit Barrel Cooker is far superior to the Weber Smokey Mountain. This is due to the overall larger surface area, which allows more space to add fuel.
However, both smokers offer a high enough temperature range that can go to around 350 F with little issues. I found it best and easiest to keep the temps between 225 and 275 for the best results and control.
Add-ons
The add-ons can either make or break a smoker. If it comes with more smart add-on features, then it almost always has better chances to become a favorite in the market.
In this regard, the Weber WSM has more add-ons that aim to improve the overall user experiences. It has features like the built-in thermometer and an easy to open aluminum door for the fuel chamber. These features all add to the product value. While the pit barrel smoker is just what you see is what you get. However, it still smokes some delicious ribs.
Pros & Cons of Pit Barrel Cooker
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Pros & Cons of Weber Smokey Mountain
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What are the main differences between the Pit Barrel Cooker vs Weber Smokey Mountain?
One of the main points of difference between the Pit Barrel Cooker vs WSM is the physical appearances and design. The Pit Barrel Cooker has a sturdier build with a full steel drum body and lacks sophistication. On the other hand, the Weber Smokey Mountain has more attractive design features and capsule-shaped body.
Another main point of difference between WSM vs Pit Barrel Cooker is the price of the two products. The Pit Barrel Cooker is much cheaper than the same size smokey mountain smoker. Moreover, the Pit Barrel Cooker comes in only two different sizes. In contrast, the Weber Smokey Mountain comes in three different sizes.
Conclusion
When it comes to drum cookers, both the Pit Barrel Cooker and the Weber Smokey Mountain are at the top of the game. The two cookers are very similar yet unique and come with their own sets of pros and cons, which makes it more challenging to choose one over the other.
When it comes to capacity and range, the Pit Barrel Cooker is the better choice. But the design and add-on features of the Weber Smokey Mountain are far superior. So, it is up to the personal preferences of the customer to make the best-suited choice for themselves.