Pit Boss Navigator 850 Review

What it is

The Navigator 850 is Pit Boss’s mainstream WiFi pellet grill— a PID-controlled, auger-fed wood-pellet cooker in the size class most upgraders shop, with the “850” nodding to its roughly 850-square-inch tier (the grill actually gives 932 sq in across its main grate and rack). On paper it’s a lot of grill for the money: 932 sq in of cooking area, a 30 lb hopper, WiFi and Bluetooth control, and a 40,000 BTU burn. But the headline — and the reason it’s our value pick rather than just another budget pellet grill — is the Flame Broiler. This is a pellet grill built to do the one thing the format is usually knocked for.

The Flame Broiler — direct-flame searing

Most pellet grills top out around 500°F, which roasts a steak nicely but never builds the hard, dark crust a screaming-hot grate gives you. The Navigator 850 gets around that ceiling mechanically. Its Flame Broiler is a sliding plate under the grate; pull the lever and it opens a slot that exposes the food to open flame from the firepot, pushing sear-zone heat up toward 1,000°F. That means one grill smokes ribs at 225°F on Sunday and sears a steak Tuesday — no second grill, no chimney of charcoal on the side. It’s the same problem the Camp Chef solves with its Slide and Grill door, and it’s the single feature that separates a searing pellet grill from a roasting one. If you’ve ever been frustrated that your pellet grill can smoke beautifully but can’t finish a steak, this lever is the answer. Set the expectation correctly, though: it’s an open-flame sear zone over the firepot, not an edge-to-edge griddle, so you sear in batches over the hot slot rather than blasting the whole grate at once.

Cooking area and hopper for the money

Strip away the sear trick and the Navigator 850 is still a strong value on the raw numbers. Its 932 sq inis the most cooking area of the pellet grills we rank under $1,000 — more than the Traeger Woodridge’s 860 sq in and well past the Z Grills and Camp Chef — so it cooks for a genuine crowd. And the 30 lb hopperis the biggest in that group, which matters more than it sounds: hopper capacity is really unattended runtime, and 30 lb of pellets runs a full long low-and-slow cook start to finish without you thinking about a top-up. Where the 20 lb Traeger or 22 lb Camp Chef might want a refill on a very long overnight brisket, the Navigator just runs. For anyone who cooks big or cooks long, that combination of the largest grate and the largest hopper at this price is the practical heart of the value case.

WiFi and Bluetooth, included

Connectivity here is included, not upsold. Both WiFi and Bluetooth ship on the Navigator 850 — you set and change temperatures from your phone, monitor the cook, and get probe alerts, all without paying for a step-up trim to unlock it. That’s a real value-per-dollar point against grills that gate the app behind a more expensive model. Paired with the PID controller holding a steady chamber temperature, the day-to-day experience is genuinely set-and-forget for smoking: fill the hopper, set the temp, watch it from your phone, and let a probe thermometer tell you when the meat is done. The controller does the fire; the thermometer does the doneness; you do neither.

Where it trails

The Navigator 850 is a value grill, and it’s honest about where the money was saved. The app and controller feel less polished than Traeger’s— the WiFIRE experience is smoother, and Traeger’s RTD sensor is a more refined probe than the Pit Boss’s. And build tolerances vary unit to unit: fit and finish on a Pit Boss is more variable than on a premium brand, so you may need to true up a lid seal or a hopper fit out of the box. Neither of these is a dealbreaker for the buyer this grill is aimed at — they’re exactly the corners you’d expect a value grill to cut — but if flawless software and unit-to-unit consistency are what you’re paying for, that’s the Traeger argument, and we lay it out in Traeger vs Pit Boss. As with any pellet grill, budget for good food-grade pellets; a PID controller only cooks as cleanly as the fuel it burns.

Who should buy it

Buy the Navigator 850 if you’re a value shopper who wants one grill that both smokes and sears — you want low-and-slow barbecue and a real steak crust without owning two cookers, and you’d rather spend on cooking area and hardware than on a badge. It’s the pick for someone cooking for a crowd (932 sq in), running long cooks (30 lb hopper), who wants WiFi without paying up for it. Choose the Traeger Woodridgeinstead if app polish, sensor accuracy, ecosystem depth and resale value are worth a premium to you — see Traeger vs Pit Boss. Choose the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 if you want the same searing ability plus the best ash-cleanout system in the category, weighed in Pit Boss vs Camp Chef. And to see the Navigator ranked against the whole field, it’s our best-overall pick in the best pellet grills under $1,000.