First Smobot

Deluca · July 2017

I received my SMOBOT yesterday and I couldn't wait. I didn't even have anything to cook! I wanted to make sure it worked cause I do have 2 - 9lb. pork shoulders to do tonight.
I set it up which was pretty easy. Connecting to the egg was one screw simple. Connecting to my wifi was easy as well. I just followed the quick start guide. Took me all of 20 minutes. I spent more time unwrapping stuff, getting tools, and throwing stuff away then I did actually getting it going. I ran it for an hour to see if it would do as it says it does. I set it at 250 and it did indeed hold it 250. When I opened the dome the temperature jumped to 280 but the SMOBOT shut the damper and it was soon down to 250.
So the test run was a success! The meat goes on in a few hours. It will be an overnighter so we'll see how it goes. I'll report back on my experience.

SoCalTim · July 2017

Got mine this morning, loving that snazzy 'power pack' that was included! Putting a Brisky on later this evening ...

StillH2OEgger · July 2017

Mine is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Glad to hear it's simple to set up and works well.

GrillSgt · July 2017

Looking forward to all of your comments.

Deluca · July 2017

Food is on and everything has been going for 15 minutes. 2 questions are coming up for me.
1. Where is the best place to put the grill thermocouple?
2. The cord from the damper "Smobot's new daisy wheel" drapes down the top of the egg. Is that cool? Seems like a a lot of heat for the cord that appears to be made out of rubber.

Deluca · July 2017

Here's the information from SMOBOT on my computer.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/go/8p6zvsek6280.png

RedSkip · July 2017

I don't have a SmoBot, but I'd put the thermocouple probe about 1-2" away from the meat and make sure it's sheilded by the platesetter so it doesn't see direct heat. The direct heat can throw off the temperature.

Cord question, I wouldn't sweat it, I assume you're below 300F and should be good. If your temp is higher, I'm going to ask "why are you using the SmoBot?"

Best of luck and good eats!

Ozzie_Isaac · July 2017

Deluca said:

Food is on and everything has been going for 15 minutes. 2 questions are coming up for me.
1. Where is the best place to put the grill thermocouple?
2. The cord from the damper "Smobot's new daisy wheel" drapes down the top of the egg. Is that cool? Seems like a a lot of heat for the cord that appears to be made out of rubber.

I've used a beta unit for about 2 years. I've purposely left the damper wire draped over the ceramic and never had an issue, even on cooks around 350.

Deluca · July 2017

Thanks Ozzie and Red. I set it up as both of you mentioned and things are cruising like it's supposed to. Set temp is 250. Grill temp is 251. Cant complain about that.

reinhart36 · July 2017

@Deluca- Happy to hear you're off and running!

Like @Ozzie_Isaac said, there's no need to worry about that wire. You can run your grill as hot as it will go (with smobot on there) and the wire will be just fine.

Please don't hesitate to shoot me an email if any questions arise.

RedSkip · July 2017

@reinhart36. How wide open is the bottom vent supposed to be? Curious...

Deluca · July 2017

I read somewhere awhile back that it doesn't matter what the bottom vent is at. The smobot compensates for it. I have it at 1.5" right now.

Thanks reinhart. Will do if needed.

reinhart36 · July 2017

I usually just go with 1/2 open. If you want to control upwards of 350/400+ you might want it further open. As long as smobot has the authority it needs to control the temperature you'll be good.

For example, if you were to close the inlet down too far, or your egg is filled up with ashes, smobot might not be able to get your pit up to the setpoint.

50% open is a good place to be.

Thanks!

caliking · July 2017

Awesome to see this project come to fruition. Would love to see some pics of the smobot.

Deluca · July 2017

So the smobot works incredibly well. Temperature was held within 1 to 2 degrees for the most part. I saw one drop to 210 from 225 on the graph but smobot corrected it within 15 minutes. I was sleeping hard when this happened so knowing it will correct some weird temp change is comforting. The rest of the cook stayed at temp. I am very impressed!!
Dome temp and grill temp were about 25 degrees off. The meat was directly on the grate so not really an issue.
I don't know what else to say except this thing works better then I expected. Very happy with this!