Hey folks. Really pleased to find this thread on the Smoke Tronix. Mine just arrived a few days ago. Made my first go of it yesterday: 6 racks of back ribs. Here's a few observations:
1. Love the design. It's a great looker and does what is says it will do. Materials are very robust. Nothing flimsy about it. Not sure about the actual workmanship in assembly though (see leaking issue below).
2. When full, wood chips lasted me 2 1/2 hours. I was using very fine chips, so larger more standard sized chips should last longer. Significantly more smoke than my old MES. I could taste the difference! It was amazing to be able to control the smoke with the fast smoke feature. I've learned the wood chip concept is totally different than the MES, though. This one is designed so you fill the wood chip box, the burner comes on for 20 min. and lights them, then the chips burn on their own till done. Works great, but this is why soaking the chips doesn't work.
3. Compared the meat thermometer to a digital one I've used for years. Within 2 degrees.
4. Compared the smoker temp, and temp displayed by Smoke tronix was about 10 degrees higher than my probe. Held steady within 5 degrees the entire smoke.
5. Cooking time seemed right for ribs. Used my standard timing (3 hours, wrap for 1:45, unwrap add sauce, then 20 minutes). I raised the set temp to 240 instead of my standard 235 to adjust for the temp difference. 5 of the 6 ribs were perfect. One rib was a bit overdone, with the meat falling off the bone more than I like. Seems to indicate a hot spot. Not sure where yet.
6. I had some leaking near the front rt. corner. Tightened the door latch and it seemed to fix it. I had a small bit of smoke leaking through the viewing window. I'm going to tighten the screws around the window today, and seal if I have to .
7. Didn't use the water pan. Seemed like plenty of moisture and condensation in the box and on the window.
8. Bluetooth was surprisingly good for me. Expected it to not work. A little trouble connecting at first, but I could go all over my house with my ipad and never lose the connection. LOVE the app itself.
At this point I'd say I'm overall pretty darn pleased. The Smoke Tronix isn't perfect, and I've got some bugs to work through. For me, the positives far outweigh the negatives.