Pit Boss 700FB1 Wood Pellet Grill Review: $450 and Sears

About $450 buys a Pit Boss 700FB1, and for that money it’s the only full-size pellet grill I know of that will both hold a packer brisket and sear a ribeye over open flame. Academy listed it at $449.99 in November 2026 and had it on sale at $399.99, while Walmart had the near-identical 700FB at $537.74 and out of stock. Lowe’s sells it too (Pit Boss model 10950), but I couldn’t confirm a current Lowe’s price.

What you get is 743 square inches, a 21 lb hopper, a flame broiler and a 5-year warranty. What you don’t get is a PID controller or Wi-Fi, and the temperature swings that come with that are the one thing to accept before you buy. It’s the budget benchmark in our pellet grill reviews and a pick on the best budget pellet smokers, and the bigger brand question is settled in Traeger vs Pit Boss.

We haven’t run our own test on a 700FB1. The specs come from the Lowe’s, Walmart and Pit Boss listings, and the cooking notes come from roughly 1,700 owner reviews across those two retailers plus the forums. Our hands-on results will be added with the date.

Who the 700FB1 suits

It’s for someone who wants to try pellet smoking without spending $800 and would rather have a sear option than an app. It feeds a family with room to spare. 743 square inches holds two racks of ribs and a pork butt, or 27 burgers by Pit Boss’s count.

It also suits a cook who already owns a good instant-read thermometer and doesn’t mind checking on the pit. This grill rewards attention. If you’d rather set 225°F and not look at it until morning, the Z Grills 700D4E with a PID costs about $430 more, and the Weber Smoque at $799 list costs about $350 more.

It’s the wrong grill if you need Wi-Fi, or if you expect the 180°F setting to mean exactly 180°F.

700FB1 specs and the one that matters most

From the Lowe’s and Walmart listings, October 2026:

Spec	700FB1
Cooking area	743 sq in: 516 sq in lower grate plus a removable upper rack
Grates	Porcelain-coated steel
Hopper	21 lb, side cleanout door
Dial range	180 to 500°F
Flame broiler	Slides the deflector open; Pit Boss claims up to 1,000°F at the grate
Controller	Digital board, LED readout, one meat probe port, probe included; not a PID
Heat and ignition	40,000 BTU, electronic ignition, lid thermometer
Body	Powder-coated steel, two wheels, solid bottom shelf, grease bucket with foil liners
Warranty	5 years

The controller type is the line that matters. PID controllers on $800 to $900 grills from Traeger, Z Grills and Weber hold within 5 to 10°F. The 700FB1’s board feeds pellets on a fixed cycle for each dial setting and lets you adjust it with a “P setting” button, so it holds an average rather than a point. That’s the trade for the price.

How it cooks: swings, the hot side and the sear

Temperature control is the first thing owners bring up, good and bad. Walmart’s review summary lists it as neutral, saying the grill “can maintain precise temperatures but may be inconsistent in heat distribution.” In detail, the common complaint is swings of 20 to 25°F either side of the set point on Smoke and 225°F, plus a hot zone over the fire pot, which on the 700FB1 sits on the left, hopper side of the barrel.

The owners who are happy with this grill all describe the same routine. Put a thermometer on the grate, find out where your grill actually runs, and set the dial to whatever number gives you the pit temperature you want. If you set 225°F and the grate reads 250°F, dial back to 200°F. After two or three cooks, it stops being a problem.

Pit tip: Use the hot left side on purpose. Put the thick end of a brisket or the pork butt on the left and the ribs or mac and cheese on the right, and the grill’s uneven heat starts working for you.

The P setting helps in warm weather. Raising it lengthens the pause between auger feeds, which lowers the average temperature and adds smoke. Lowering it on a cold day keeps the fire from going out. Owners cooking at 40°F with wind say the 700FB1 struggles to hold 225°F without a welding blanket over the lid.

Smoke is mild and clean, which the Walmart summary describes as “a subtle, balanced flavor profile.” Most of the smoke comes on the Smoke setting around 180°F, and owners run the first two or three hours of a pork butt there before turning it up. A smoke tube is the standard $20 upgrade on a Pit Boss, and it works.

Searing is the reason to pick this grill over a Z Grills. Open the flame broiler at 450°F or higher and you get flame on the grate, enough for a proper crust on a steak or burgers. Close it again for low and slow.

Watch out: Leaving the flame broiler open during a low cook puts ribs over open flame and dripping fat. Check the lever every time before a long smoke; an open plate is how racks get burned.

Pellet use and running cost

The controller cycles harder than a PID, so pellet use runs a little higher. Owners report 1 to 1.5 lb an hour at 225°F in mild weather, and the 21 lb hopper covers a 12-hour cook if you top it off before bed. Pit Boss Competition Blend was $19.99 for 40 lb in October 2026 (see our pellet guide), so a 10-hour pork butt costs about $5 to $8 in pellets. Run the pellet calculator before an overnight.

Build, controls and warranty

The build is typical Pit Boss. The barrel is powder-coated steel, thinner than a recteq or Weber but heavier than it looks, and the lid seals well enough. Long-term owner reports on the 700 series are decent; one Walmart reviewer with two years and more than a hundred cooks says it “works like new” with a shop-vac cleanout every three to five cooks. Grate rust is the common wear complaint, because the porcelain coating chips. The grease system is a bucket on a hook with foil liners, which is basic and works.

There’s no app. The controller has one probe port, and the probe in the box is fine for a pork butt. For an overnight cook, a wireless thermometer with a pit probe and an alarm is more useful on this grill than on any PID grill; our picks are on the best wireless meat thermometers page.

The 5-year warranty is longer than Traeger’s 3 and matches the rest of the Pit Boss line. Owner experience with Pit Boss support is mixed but mostly fine for parts. Igniters, control boards and auger motors are cheap, and the 700 series has been around long enough that replacement boards are easy to find.

Price and what to compare it with

In November 2026 the 700FB1 was $449.99 at Academy, on sale at $399.99 and in stock, and the 700FB, the same grill under a different retailer SKU, was $537.74 at Walmart and out of stock. Prices move between retailers, so check the sale pages before paying full price.

Grill	Price, Oct 2026	Controller	Sears?	Wi-Fi
Pit Boss 700FB1	about $450	Time-based, P setting	Yes, flame broiler	No
Z Grills 700D4E	$877	PID, within 10°F	No	Yes
Traeger Pro 575	about $800	D2	No	Yes

The Z Grills 700D4E has the same cooking area, a 28 lb hopper, a PID and Wi-Fi, but no searing. The Traeger Pro 575 gives you the Traeger app and name with less grate and no sear. If you want to stay under $600 with steadier temperatures, the Pit Boss Pro Series and the newer DX line with Wi-Fi run $500 to $700 at Lowe’s, covered in the Pit Boss brand review.

First cooks on a 700FB1

• Ribs on a pellet grill at 250°F, about 5 hours. The best cook for learning where your hot side is.
• Smoked pork butt: two hours on Smoke, then 250°F to 203°F. Forgiving of swings and a good first overnight.
• Smoked chuck roast at 250°F to 205°F, a cheap practice brisket.
• Smoked meatloaf at 250°F to 160°F, under three hours.
• Smoked mac and cheese on the upper rack at 250°F for about an hour while the meat finishes.

For timing and pull temps, the smoke time calculator and the pulled pork internal temp chart cover the rest.

Should the 700FB1 be your first pellet grill

Yes, if searing matters to you and you’re willing to spend two or three cooks learning its quirks with a grate thermometer. No, if you want the grill to hold a number without supervision, in which case the extra $430 for the Z Grills 700D4E is money well spent. Either way, at Academy’s $399.99 sale price in November 2026, the value case gets stronger still.