BBQ Guru

It's a magical device that allows you to forget about the smoker during the smoke.....Much like using an oven. You can count on it doing what it does best.....Keeping the temp right where you want it.

Here's my set up all hooked up and running the show......


......and here's a thread I started when I first got it....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/136122/bbq-guru-installation

All except where the fan is hooked up to.  I run an Auber version of this on my WSM.

Hope you never need customer service from the folks at BBQ Guru.
Have one of those for my Egg. After my initial problem was solved was happy with it....up til yesterday. Not even going to call them on this problem, going to be getting a Flame Boss sometime down the road...

Daznz said:

 
Do you have all bottom vents closed?

Click to expand...

As mentioned all the vents closed except for the one the fan is on....The open holes on that vent are taped off with the high temp tape that they provide with the Guru.

HI, all.

First real post. I smoked 2 bone-in pork shoulders yesterday. I will try to post photos later in a different forum. My party of 20 really enjoyed the final product, but I had a lot of trouble maintaining the temperature below 250. My goal temp was 225. It was still night time so temps were in the high 60s and there was very little wind. I am using a WSM 22.5" with a CyberQ fan attached.  I used fpnmf's method of loading the charcoal (fill ring with charcoal surrounding a can and light coals in chimney and pour coal into can and then pullout can). I was using Kingsford Original. I loaded a full 15 pound bag (except for the 10 coals I reserved for the chimney starter). All lower vents were fully closed and sealed. Lid vents were fully open. Damper on CyberQ was open 50%. Cook temp on CyberQ was set at 200 (I had similar problems the week before on my test run of the CyberQ, so I started at a lower temp and figured I would increase it once it stabilized). My water pan was empty. 

Within 30 minutes of putting hot coals on the temp was 260 degrees and climbing. At this point I closed the CyberQ damper completely and filled the water pan with 2 gallons of  hot water, Temp seemed to hover around 250, so I put the butts on.

An hour later, the cook temp was almost 280, so I closed the lid vents. 

Cook temp continued throughout the cook to register around 260. 

The good news is that these were pork butts so they were able to handle the higher heat than I wanted and the finished product did not suffer. 

However, I love smoking full packer briskets (which may not be as forgiving) and I want to figure out how to control the temperature better.

Sorry for all the detail, but I figured more was better in trying to solve this issue.

Any advice to maintain temperature better with using the CyberQ? Different charcoal? Different starting procedure?

I have a separate question on fuel consumption. After 9 hours, the temp had dropped to 200 and I needed to add more charcoal. I added 15 unlit coals to the firebox and lit another 10 in the chimney. After the coals were red hot, I put the lit coals onto the unlit coals. Not surprisingly, the temp went shooting up to almost 300 and stayed between 270 and 290 for hours until those burned off about 3 hours later and I needed to add about 15 more coals to get to the finish line. 2 hours later the butts were at 200 internal temp and it was party time. Outside temp during this portion of the cook was hot and humid in the high 80s, but still not much wind. Does this amount of fuel consumption seem right? Any advice on adding coals during the cook and avoiding the huge temp spike?

Thanks in advance.

GratefulEater

I run a Guru Digi2 on my 18.5" and love it. Extremely accurate at holding temps/

I have a Pitmaster IQ 120 and its works very well.. Not set it and forget it.. But within 20 degrees for 4 hours till the fuel starts to go

This is my Guru....

It looks like this at the start of the smoke, and it also look like this every time I peek outside to check the condition of the pit.  As long as there is fuel for the WSM to burn, this is what I see on my BBQ Guru DigiQ 2 display.....

If you try to tell me I cannot use it any more, there will be a fight.....

Daznz said:

Are the Flame boss as good ? and do they do them for the WSM?

Click to expand...

Flameboss just warranted my defective unit. No hassles at all....unlike BBQ Guru. Will explain this when I get a chance....
The FlameBoss needs to "learn" your pit so first time you use it it may overshoot the temperature a bit. Have my doubts about it holding 225*, simple fact of the port where the fan goes is fairly large. This may start a war here...the instructions with it state that for lower temps, at least on am Egg, clearly state to shut the exhaust almost completely.