Question for Rec Tex Owners: Can You Pre-Heat Remotely?

[ostrichsak]

tldr; Will the RT software allow you to power on and pre-heat the smoker from a network other than the one it's on?

I have a GMG DB WiFi currently and while the WiFi feature is nice, it's woefully under featured IMO. One of the primary reasons I wanted WiFi was so I could power up and pre-heat the smoker on my way home from a friend's, the store, wherever. The GMG software will ONLY let you start it when you're on the same network.

An example is that I wanted to use it to cook a take-and-bake pizza last night. When the wife got home with it she also noted that our neighbors were outside so we wanted to go over and visit for a bit before cooking/eating. This is a perfect example where I could make sure the cover is off and all is set (just like any other time I would start the smoker up) before we left and then start the process via my app before leaving and coming home. Instead I have to wait until I get home and wait for it to get up to temp before throwing the pizza on to be cooked. This actually takes a bit to go through the startup procedure and get to 425 deg so it would actually save us quite a bit of time before we're able to eat. I have WiFi. I have mobile data. Why can't I just do this while we're on our way home to save 15-30min of delay before we can eat? Hell, the pizza only takes 9 minutes to cook and I have to wait 2-3x that long just for the smoker to come up to temp.

This is SUPER annoying and I realize it could be a potential fire hazard if you're not home when it starts but lets face it, it's a fire hazard in general and once it's started you can monitor and adjust temperature from another network so the line drawn before one of the most important uses makes no sense to me. It would seem that most of the potential dangers exist even just on the WiFi so why limit it to just that? Any ways, I digress. I may be in the market for a new pellet smoker and the RT700 has caught my eye as the most likely replacement at this point in my cursory research. That's one of the larger annoyances from my existing smoker so I want to make sure that my next device fits my needs better.

I'm sure I will have more questions as time rolls on but that's going to be the biggest deciding factor at this point as I don't plan on forking over that kind of money if it won't do what I need and I'll continue to sit on the sideline until it exists.

 

[mjgroover1]

tldr; Will the RT software allow you to power on and pre-heat the smoker from a network other than the one it's on?

I have a GMG DB WiFi currently and while the WiFi feature is nice, it's woefully under featured IMO. One of the primary reasons I wanted WiFi was so I could power up and pre-heat the smoker on my way home from a friend's, the store, wherever. The GMG software will ONLY let you start it when you're on the same network.

An example is that I wanted to use it to cook a take-and-bake pizza last night. When the wife got home with it she also noted that our neighbors were outside so we wanted to go over and visit for a bit before cooking/eating. This is a perfect example where I could make sure the cover is off and all is set (just like any other time I would start the smoker up) before we left and then start the process via my app before leaving and coming home. Instead I have to wait until I get home and wait for it to get up to temp before throwing the pizza on to be cooked. This actually takes a bit to go through the startup procedure and get to 425 deg so it would actually save us quite a bit of time before we're able to eat. I have WiFi. I have mobile data. Why can't I just do this while we're on our way home to save 15-30min of delay before we can eat? Hell, the pizza only takes 9 minutes to cook and I have to wait 2-3x that long just for the smoker to come up to temp.

This is SUPER annoying and I realize it could be a potential fire hazard if you're not home when it starts but lets face it, it's a fire hazard in general and once it's started you can monitor and adjust temperature from another network so the line drawn before one of the most important uses makes no sense to me. It would seem that most of the potential dangers exist even just on the WiFi so why limit it to just that? Any ways, I digress. I may be in the market for a new pellet smoker and the RT700 has caught my eye as the most likely replacement at this point in my cursory research. That's one of the larger annoyances from my existing smoker so I want to make sure that my next device fits my needs better.

I'm sure I will have more questions as time rolls on but that's going to be the biggest deciding factor at this point as I don't plan on forking over that kind of money if it won't do what I need and I'll continue to sit on the sideline until it exists.

Yes, if your smoker is plugged in you can turn on remotely.

 

[ostrichsak]

Yes, if your smoker is plugged in you can turn on remotely.

Thank you for the quick and concise answer. That alone may be enough for me to make the change has it's been an annoyance from day one.

 

[mjgroover1]

Yes, if your smoker is plugged in you can turn on remotely.

I have the 700 as well and have been very happy with it. I used a Green Mountain before and I’m my opinion there is no comparison.

Yes, if your smoker is plugged in you can turn on remotely.

Thank you for the quick and concise answer. That alone may be enough for me to make the change has it's been an annoyance from day one.

I cooked on a Large BGE for 15 years and then used a friends Green Mountain while he was moving. I loved the pellet smoker for ease and ended up getting the RT-700 and you will not be disappointed. The price is obviously different but you can tell a difference with consistent temp. My only complaint for the 700 is I don’t love the thermometers.

 

[ostrichsak]

I have the 700 as well and have been very happy with it. I used a Green Mountain before and I’m my opinion there is no comparison.


I cooked on a Large BGE for 15 years and then used a friends Green Mountain while he was moving. I loved the pellet smoker for ease and ended up getting the RT-700 and you will not be disappointed. The price is obviously different but you can tell a difference with consistent temp. My only complaint for the 700 is I don’t love the thermometers.

Can you elaborate on that last detail? What specifically about the thermometers do you not like? Are they not very accurate? Finicky? Of poor design?

 

[mjgroover1]

Can you elaborate on that last detail? What specifically about the thermometers do you not like? Are they not very accurate? Finicky? Of poor design?

I feel like mine are off so I use them to get close and check with a Thermapen at the end. You can calibrate and I have tried to do this but still feel like at finishing temps they are not as close as I would like.

 

[mike guy]

The thermometers do seem off and even after calibrating did not give consistent results compared to a thermapen. It's "close enough" that I don't use my external thermaq because I still don't go truly by temp. Temp is just a measurement to tell me when to start probing. Even with my accurate thermaq, I don't use it as a finish temp and start probing when I'm near what I think finish temp is going to be. if it doesn't probe tender, I just use the change in temp to decide when next to probe for tenderness.

I've wondered if there is a 3rd party probe I can use that uses the same port that would be more accurate. Most high end probes use an entirely different connection (thermaq etc) , so maybe not.

 

[sandyut]

I like being able to monitor temps while running errands and such too. keep me from getting twitchy.

 

[ostrichsak]

I like being able to monitor temps while running errands and such too. keep me from getting twitchy.

I can monitor temps and adjust them for the most part with mine now. GMG's implementation of "server mode" is unreliable & clunky to say the least. To the best of my knowledge there is no way to start a new cook remotely with GMG's software as it's currently constituted.

 

[Bytor]

In the Winter months, when it was close to fridge temps outside, I would get my Trailblazer all set up with my meat and probes all ready to go and with it plugged in. Depending on the cook, I would set my alarm to 2am, or 3am, roll over in bed get my phone turn on the app and go back to sleep. It only takes less than 10 minutes bring it to 225 and there's actually more smoke that way. Worked like a charm every time. Now that it's warmer, I have to get up and get things going...

 

[h8that4u]

If tech is in your wheel house try setting up a home VPN, and connecting your phone through that. It will not know that you are not on the same network.

 

[ostrichsak]

If tech is in your wheel house try setting up a home VPN, and connecting your phone through that. It will not know that you are not on the same network.

I do have a VPN and certainly could connect it that way but I guess my point is that I shouldn't have to. I have a very long list of clients on my home network and every time I make one small change each of those takes times to re-provision which has slowly evolved into a massive undertaking. The more and more I get down that particular path the more and more I look for devices that just work properly out-of-the-box w/o tons of band-aid corrections from the end user to do what they're supposed to do. I've told GMG directly numerous times over the years via various methods and nobody seems to care that their product is advertised as WiFi but doesn't posses the ability to do one of the core features end users will look for in their device. I guess I'm just over it.

 

[catavalon21]

I have the 700 as well and have been very happy with it. I used a Green Mountain before and I’m my opinion there is no comparison.


I cooked on a Large BGE for 15 years and then used a friends Green Mountain while he was moving. I loved the pellet smoker for ease and ended up getting the RT-700 and you will not be disappointed. The price is obviously different but you can tell a difference with consistent temp. My only complaint for the 700 is I don’t love the thermometers.

With you on the thermometers. My issue with the one in the Pit is it's so close to the side, it's not always reflective of the main cooking area. The other issue is it's just impractical to calibrate (at least using a pot of boiling water on the stove), either for the pit probe or the food probes. I still use ThermoPro and Mavericks, just because I've gotten comfortable using them.