I got a Kamado Joe Classic III back in April. Read lots, watched lots of (sometimes useful) YouTube videos.
I figured baby backs would be a good first use, and with some tweaking of the vents, they were, great. Chicken, Boston butt all great.
Temp control though. No way will this allow me to go away for any length of time. The basic tweak was fine but after 3 or so hours, tweak again, then more tweaks along the way until finished.
So, I bought the ThermoWorks Signals and Billows. I had used other items from them, they had good reviews so why not?
The package arrived and I put it to use with another Boston butt. I had the vents dialed in to 250 then added the Billows.
It was fine, for awhile. Then I noticed it was 280, I shut the top vent down and waited a LONG time for the temp to drop. Cracked the top vent open just a hair and it was ok on temp again. A friend dropped by and he admired the new stuff then we went inside. I checked the app every once in awhile, all was good. After a few hours, it dawned on me. The temp was not changing. At all. Now, it may be good at temp control, but to hold to 0.1 degree, nope. Go outside and the dome temp was down to around 170-180. The Signals unit had locked up. They did ship me a new unit, and while it never locked up, it was never able to hold a temp. It mainly overshot then would undershoot.
Why? Well, finally I checked some other TC units information. The Billows has a 46 CFM blower. It is not adjustable, like it can't run at 35%, only on or off. Other TC units for the Kamados seem to be 5-9 CFM. I did have the damper on the Billows and used it without much success.
It seems to be that much air isn't going to produce good results in a Kamado.
I'll be putting it up for sale soon as I have zero faith in its ability to hold a temp in a reasonable (25 either way) range.
I figured baby backs would be a good first use, and with some tweaking of the vents, they were, great. Chicken, Boston butt all great.
Temp control though. No way will this allow me to go away for any length of time. The basic tweak was fine but after 3 or so hours, tweak again, then more tweaks along the way until finished.
So, I bought the ThermoWorks Signals and Billows. I had used other items from them, they had good reviews so why not?
The package arrived and I put it to use with another Boston butt. I had the vents dialed in to 250 then added the Billows.
It was fine, for awhile. Then I noticed it was 280, I shut the top vent down and waited a LONG time for the temp to drop. Cracked the top vent open just a hair and it was ok on temp again. A friend dropped by and he admired the new stuff then we went inside. I checked the app every once in awhile, all was good. After a few hours, it dawned on me. The temp was not changing. At all. Now, it may be good at temp control, but to hold to 0.1 degree, nope. Go outside and the dome temp was down to around 170-180. The Signals unit had locked up. They did ship me a new unit, and while it never locked up, it was never able to hold a temp. It mainly overshot then would undershoot.
Why? Well, finally I checked some other TC units information. The Billows has a 46 CFM blower. It is not adjustable, like it can't run at 35%, only on or off. Other TC units for the Kamados seem to be 5-9 CFM. I did have the damper on the Billows and used it without much success.
It seems to be that much air isn't going to produce good results in a Kamado.
I'll be putting it up for sale soon as I have zero faith in its ability to hold a temp in a reasonable (25 either way) range.
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