Recommend a Blower/Temp controller

[kendoll]

So I am considering getting a temp controller for the WSM.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Any personal, hands on, experience would be greatly appreciated.

Ken

[G$]

I love the stoker system.  It is costly compared to some others but I like the capabilities and featutes and have not had any real issues.

[Troy]

i've used many over the years.

i currently use a bbq guru digi-Q DX. I upgraded to that from a pitmaster IQ.

The pitmaster 110, which was only 120 bucks when i bought it, actually served its purpose just fine.
It wasn't as "smart" as some, and it didn't have some of the features I wanted and thought I needed.
But it never failed me. I was never happy with the way it looked - but I'm a dork like that.

I upgraded to the digiQ DX because I wanted more mounting options. I wasn't a fan of the inverted dog dish attachment.
Plus the digiQ had some better features like food alarms (which pitmaster now has) and a system to stop blowing the fan when the lid is open (which is pretty awesome when it works)

There have been a few times I really wanted wifi. Mostly out of pure laziness. (It's 2am, raining, and i need to increase the pit temp to get my pork done by 9am)
The wifi would also solve some problems when my maverick 732 is out of range (which doesn't happen anymore in my new house - but my old house had the smoker in the driveway and my bedroom upstairs and closer to the backyard)

I would love to upgrade to the stoker system just for wifi, but in reality it's not really needed.

If i had to do it all over again, i'd build one myself with an arduino, or buy a cheap one like the Pitmaster or the one from Auberins.com (i have their sous vide controller and LOVE it)

[mrbill]

I have no experience w/any of them, but from my research online, i'm leaning towards a pitmaster. I'm not looking for a whiz-bang auto-pilot set and forget, just a way to keep the temps stable. From what I've learned through the web, the pitmaster will do that and cost much less than some others and require less effort to set up.

[pbe gummi bear]

I have a stoker Wifi that I use for the WSM. It's great! it holds temp +/-1 degree once it locks in and really easy to use. Set to 250F- locks in on the money:




Stoker is pricey for sure, but they are most frequently sold used on the bbq-brethren. It seems that whenever someone puts a wtb ad up there they find one soon enough.

I paid $170 for a like new non-wifi Stoker with one probe and 5cfm fan last year, and then I paid $375 for a used wifi one with 2 25cfm fans (Huge monster fans), 2 pit probes and 4 meat probes this year.

Excellent customer service from John and Rock's BBQ too, but others find them hard to reach at times. Here are some things for you to consider:

-What cookers will you be controlling? I've used a 5cfm fan on my 14.5" WSM up to my 22.5" wsm. As long as you get it up to temp first and you don't use it in freezing temps a 5cfm should be fine.

-Do you need a digital readout? If not, a Pitmaster iq110 is excellent bang for the buck.

-Do you need to control more than one cooker? Then a higher end guru or Stoker may be for you.

-Do you need portability? The pitmaster iq and Guru partyq runs on batteries. You will need to rig up your own power source for the plugin ones if you need them to go without a plug.

-Make sure that your power supply is rated for 220v.

Here's my recs:

Simple and portable for one cooker: Pitmaster Iq or Guru partyq
Single cooker, digital readout, higher fan cfm for larger cookers: Guru digQ dx2 or auberins (better value imo)
Multiple cooker, wifi, datalogger, whiz bang: Guru CyberQ wifi or Stoker Wifi.
For the best: Stoker. My biased opinion of course. 

[kendoll]

Thanks for the detailed replies all.

I will do a bit of reading on each of the models mentioned.

I intend to use it on a few of my Webers, most likely a kettle and a couple of WSMs.

Looking for something to make overnight cooks (where I may or may not have had a tad too much to drink and don't have a spring in my step first thing in the morning) that bit easier.

Ken

[G$]

Looking for something to make overnight cooks (where I may or may not have had a tad too much to drink and don't have a spring in my step first thing in the morning) that bit easier.

Ken

I can tell you for certain the Stoker meets those specific criteria.