Review of the Pit Boss Lockhart Platinum Series Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker

The Lockhart drew our notice with its distinct design. Pit Boss has effectively placed a double door smoker cabinet on top of an upgraded pellet grill.

With a total cooking surface of 2,136 square inches, the Lockhart is the biggest pellet grill we’ve examined.

In this hands-on review, we’ll go through our recent experience cooking on the Lockhart, so keep reading to find out how well this grill works in the real world.

Pit Boss provided me with this barbecue for free in exchange for an honest assessment. My views and opinions are all my own.

Pit Boss Lockhart Platinum Series Review Overview

On the bottom, the Pit Boss Platinum Lockhart is a classic wood-fired pellet grill, with a double-door smoke cabinet on top.

The grill functions as you would expect from a pellet grill for the most part.

An electrical connection is required to power the auger, heating element, control panel, and lights on the grill.

Set your preferred temperature, wait for it to reach that temperature, and then just cook.

It’s as simple as using a gas grill, but with the added bonus of imparting wood flavor to all of your dishes.

Manufacturer Specifications:

I’ve used the Lockhart for a variety of cooks in the previous several months, including:

• pork ribs (smoked)
• black cod (smoked)
• smoked almonds (smoked)
• flap meat (grilled
• tri-tip (smoked then grilled)
• pork chops (grilled)
• veggies (grilled)

This grill is flexible and simple to operate, making cooking and cleaning significantly simpler than with my typical smoker.

One of the most prevalent problems with pellet grills is that they do not heat up enough to sear.

Pit Boss got around this by using an adjustable slide-plate flame broiler, as shown in the video below.

It does not get as hot as my Weber Summit, so searing suffers somewhat, but The Lockhart has been my go-to grill for the majority of my cooking.

Pellet consumption is moderate but not excessive.

Thermometers are incorporated into both the grill area and the smoke cabinet, and up to four meat probes may be added. Both modes provide plenty of cooking space for all but the biggest chunks of meat.

What I like:

• Cooking area The amount of grilling space you receive for the price is unrivaled.
• Durable construction For a mid-range grill, the build quality is surprisingly nice. All of the components fit together nicely because of the excellent machining and the structure, which is mostly coated metal of around thickness.
• Integrated lighting When cooking at night, the lights on both the grill area and the smoker cabinet give good visibility.

What I don’t like:

• Design of a Pellet Hopper When the pellets run out, they don’t appear to move down smoothly to feed the auger. There will be more on this later in the review.
• Usability of the app I discovered a lot of flaws, including a short Bluetooth range, a difficult-to-read display, and no history feature. Although the software is fresh new, it should be enhanced over time.

Another possible disadvantage is that the smoke cabinet cannot be controlled independently of the main grill.

To get the desired temperature, experiment with the grill temperature and see how the smoke cabinet temperature correlates.

You should consider the smoke cabinet to be an extension of the primary grill.

If you want a pellet grill with plenty of room, adaptability, and searing power, the Lockhart is a great option.

It should be noted that the Lockhart is now only available for pre-order at Walmart.

Unboxing and grill assembly

The Lockhart grill arrived on a big pallet.

In this situation, delivery was to my garage door, therefore you’ll have to move it yourself (not a simple task!). I ended up building the barbecue exactly where I acquired the pallet and rolling it to my backyard.

Assembly took around two and a half hours, but it was simple and just required a screwdriver and a wrench.

The directions were simple to follow, and all of the parts fit well and were neatly manufactured. Overall, I was happy with the grill’s first installation and setup.

Aside than the grill, the Lockhart comes with two meat probes and six sausage hooks.

Build quality and design

The grill’s overall build quality is pretty nice. It went together smoothly (excellent machining), and the structure is virtually entirely coated metal of about thickness.

It feels solid!

I wish Pit Boss had given a little more consideration to a couple design concerns.

The grill cabinet lid is rather inconvenient.Because of the smoking cabinet, it may not remain up on its own when lifted.

I’d had it come crashing down on me many times, so I began keeping one hand on the handle at all times. When working on the grill, I often need the assistance of two people.

I contacted with Pit Boss about it, and they said it shouldn’t have happened and that I most likely had a small issue with my door. Hopefully, this is the case, and it will not cause any issues for others.

Fortunately, there is no such problem on the smoking cabinet since the doors open side to side.

The wood pellet hopper seems to have a design issue as well. While it is inclined to feed the auger, wood pellets will not go down it easily after you reach a certain level.

Worse, a safety grill at the top of the hopper makes pushing the pellets down impossible.

As a consequence, I often run out of pellets in the midst of a cook, while having enough in the hopper.

The pellet cleaning is a fantastic concept. a port at the rear where you may unload pellets.

However, they placed it too near to the frame, making it impossible to get a bucket close enough to it without holding it. Cleanout is tough since you have to press down pellets to get them all out at once.

As previously stated, you cannot directly control the temperature of the smoke cabinet, just the grilling area.

Running the meat probes is challenging, particularly when the grill is hot. There are eyelets to feed your probe wires through in the smoker cabinet, grill area, and to the control board.

However, access to the control board eyelet, as well as the grill area, is quite limited.

Given their placement, you must either run the probe while wearing gloves (tough) or do it before heating the grill.

I found it easiest to simply run them ahead of time, even if it meant leaving your grill or smoke area open. Worse, for the grill area, you must insert your probe with one hand while the other holds up the grill area cover.

These are generally minor nitpicks rather than deal breakers, and you may discover that the flaws listed above do not concern you, but I wanted to be comprehensive so you don’t receive any unpleasant surprises.

The smoker comes with no cover.I would suggest purchasing a cover for an electrical equipment that will be left outdoors.

Cooking on the Lockhart

Setting a target temperature for the grilling area is the first step in cooking. Temperatures are regulated in 25 increments from smoke (160 F), 180, 200, and then up to 450 and then high.

This performed wonderfully for grilling and was really simple to operate.

As previously stated, there was no method to control the temperature of the smoking cabinet.

Instead, you must experiment with the grill temperature and see how it correlates with the smoke cabinet temperature. (Note the lowest temperature I could get the smoker to was 120F).

A lot better option would have been a means to directly adjust the smoke cabinet temperature, and considering that you receive an active read on the temperature of the smoke cabinet, I’m not sure why Pit-boss didn’t adopt this route.

I believe the increased complexity would have raised the price too much.

Overall, this grill has a lot of functions, and I wish the handbook did a better job of describing them all.

The construction instructions was fantastic, however the information on how to use the grill was rather limited.

There’s a lot of fluff about grilling and smoking in general, but no specifics on this grill.

Tips on indirect heat on the grill vs. the smoke cabinet, or ash disposal. I would have enjoyed a paragraph or two on how to utilize the smoke baffles, as well as some pointers on how to use the slide for direct ventilation.

But, after a few trial runs, I was able to figure out all of the above.

Controlling the grill with the app

As of this writing, the Pit Boss app is still in its early stages, and I’m expecting that much of it will improve. Having saying that, I found the app to be somewhat underwhelming.

The app connects to your barbecue through Bluetooth and displays a view that is almost similar to what you see on the grill’s display.

You can monitor the active temperature for the grill area, smoke cabinet, and meat probes. The temperature of the grill area may be adjusted. You may also observe if there are any mistakes (most typically, that wood pellets are not being supplied to the auger.)

I tested the app on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Several usability aspects might be improved. The active temperatures, in particular, are displayed in a dark grey that is difficult to discern from the black backdrop.

Because the app relies on Bluetooth, its range is restricted. We’ve observed a lot of smart grill toys that use WiFi instead of Bluetooth to avoid the limited range of Bluetooth.

If you switch to another app on your phone, you must reconnect when you return. It’s inconvenient if all you want to do is check your temperature from time to time while using your phone for other purposes.

There is also no history option for grill or meat temperature when cooking.

I’m hopeful that in time, Pit Boss will spend more on the app, both in terms of user experience and functionality, and that this is just due to the fact that it’s a new product.

All of the above can be readily enhanced in future app releases, and you can still achieve amazing results on this grill even if you never use the app.

Should you buy the Pit Boss Lockhart?

I like cooking with the Pit Boss Platinum Lockhart in general.

It is not a cheap grill, but for the price, it offers a lot of functionality and is a good buy in my opinion.

The Lockhart is a wonderful method to cook over wood and get that wood flavor without the time commitment of a typical smoker or charcoal grill.

smoker combo, or for the more seasoned cook looking for something easy for weeknight meals. I would suggest this to anybody who is new to barbeque and just needs a single grill.

The Lockhart is currently exclusively available for pre-order at Walmart.