BBQ Guru & Fuel Consumption

Sabres Fan

Used a BBQ guru for the first time yesterday...does it cause u to consumer fuel at a faster rate? Has anyone else experienced this? I think I used about 50% more fuel that I normally use...JB

JLOCKHART29

Shouldn't have caused that much more at all. It does seem to use a little more but I think that's due to trying to recover the set point faster than if you were using natural draft. Also it will burn up whats left of your lump at the end trying to hold set point again with the lump running out reather thanks the temp slowly falling with naturally vent. Except for these two extremes no difference. All ways fill'er up to bottom of platesetter and never had problem but I'm not a peaker.

Little Steven

Hate to agree with a Sabres fan right now but I found the same thing when I used them
Go Leafs Go

cookingdude555

I dont have a bbq guru, but I do use the pitmaster IQ on my eggs and my bubba keg grill. I have found the same thing you have, fuel consumption goes up when I use it instead of setting the vents manually.

Fidel

Logically - if you maintain the same temperature over the same period of time, then the amount of fuel you use, with or without the aid of a draft device, should be identical.

Other variables in your cook may be to blame - more cold mass (meat) in the egg, more restricted air flow, higher temp, longer time - but the amount of fuel it takes to hold a particular temp for a certain time should always be the same if those are your only variables.

Fidel

Sabres are in the playoffs. How are the loafs coming along?

Little Steven

Three wins and three Sabres losses and we are right there

2Fategghead

JB, I use my CyberQ II from time to time. When I use it to maintain a 250F dome cook I close the daisy wheel so only a tooth pick can fall through the cracks and I close the damper on the 10 cfm pit viper to the first line. I don't use the ramp mode because that is for marathon cooks.

FlaPoolman

I've gotten 34 plus hours on 1 load with the digiQ, don't see how I would have gotten much more with it off. That was on a large egg at 250 dome with a 3 hour bump to 350 then back down.

stike

logic? logic?! on a bbq forum?

actually, i recall someone mentioning this a while ago, couple years ago. i would have said fishless, but i don't think he runs a guru. i just remember a "respected voice" saying he noticed the same thing.

that's all i got. basically nuthin to add. :unsure:

Little Steven

The PID loop causes hot and cool cycles and it definitely shows up in lump usage. If you hadn't said anything about my Leafs then I would have let it slide

Misippi Egger

I usually have a good bit of lump left over after a 14-18 hr cook. Large egg, Guru, 225* Grid temp (about 240-250* dome). I have learned to close the Guru damper down to either halfway open or only 1/4 open. The 10 cfm fan is a little much for the large egg, and will tend to overshoot more easily.

I also close down the Daisy Wheel to 'hold back the smoke', causing it to exit the non-gasket and even out around the fan. Maybe a little back-pressure will increase the smokiness of the meat - hey, if removing the daisy wheel lets the smoke escape.......... :laugh:

fishlessman

if you were to drop 35-40 pounds plus of meat in there the guru would create a huge fire while the dome stays low temp for a while, seen it happen without a guru, vents wide open, dome staying below 200 for several hours, fire looked like i was cooking a pizza, really burnt thru some lump before i saw what was going on. gage placement with a guru would be really important especially if your chasing a false reading from the therm sitting to close to cold meat. dont have a guru but could see what could happen. airflow and gage placement would be the culprits i would think

Sabres Fan

guys...as always - thanks for all of the responses...much appreciated...I think I probably caused part of this problem as I was mopping every hours once I hit 165...so I was likely causing the fan to run more than it should...I don't normally don't this...I am a foiler

The Naked Whiz

Sounds good but I can see where it might not be true. You would have to measure the volume and temperature of the air entering and leaving, with and without the guru to know if perhaps you are wasting heat by forcing it out of the cooker, and possibly requiring more heat to heat up the greater volume of cool air that gets forced in. Sorry, I'm not taking this one up, lol!