Flameboss Holiday Problems

newby84

Here we are another holiday my egggenius is glitching. I really like this thing when it works but the fact it doesn’t work during the holidays is garbage. What’s a good alternative to these? 

CornfedMA

I bought a Smobot based on the recommendation of several members here and haven’t regretted it for a second. I don’t use it a bunch but it’s been reliable and I love the ability to check on and adjust a cook from anywhere. I also like that it’s a “passive” controller, meaning no fan to stoke the fire, just damper control. 

OhioEgger

Another fan of the Smobot here. I also used to be a huge fan of the FlameBoss.

Why I switched?
A much better PID algorithm to control the Egg
Holiday server overloads at exactly the wrong time
Simpler and more accurate control

Botch

Number Three for the Smobot; mine runs on a battery and is worry-free.  The only issue is I've had to disassemble the top vent mechanism (it attaches to your CI daisy wheel) to clean it, twice now, but that's okay.  
I have a separate top vent control when I want to go manual; I haven't got my Smobot to link up to my Wifi but I've got 5GHz and the Smobot runs on 2GHz (I hope I have those terms right) and the Smobot folks actually sent me an email to call them and step thru how to fix that; I've saved that email and now need to call them and step thru it (outstanding Customer service!).  Wifi control isn't required, I don't mind stepping outside occasionally to check the readout.  

Photo Egg

newby84 said:

Here we are another holiday my egggenius is glitching. I really like this thing when it works but the fact it doesn’t work during the holidays is garbage. What’s a good alternative to these? 

I get you had WiFi issues, but it’s not really correct to say the unit doesn’t work.
It still maintains and controls the set temperature. Annoying, yes, I completely agree.
Should Flame Boss have worked this out since it’s been happening now on every holiday for years, yes. 

cookingdude555

If I were a flame boss/egg genius owner, these holiday issues would certainly have made me jump to another platform. The egg maintains temp good enough, we buy these tech tools for observability. If that is gone when the holidays arrive, what a pain. Every year. 

Photo Egg

cookingdude555 said:

If I were a flame boss/egg genius owner, these holiday issues would certainly have made me jump to another platform. The egg maintains temp good enough, we buy these tech tools for observability. If that is gone when the holidays arrive, what a pain. Every year. 

If I had the Genius model or the equivalent flame boss model with no control board information it would bother me much more. Owning the 300 and now the 500, it’s not as big of a deal. But it is annoying. And it seems like an issue FB should easily be able to fix.

newby84

Going to look into the Smotbot, what usually happens is I get frustrated when this happens and then forget about it and then come the next holiday it happens again and it’s a vicious cycle. 

caliking

IIRC, you can use the FB in local AP mode, if you are at at home for your cook. That shouldn't be impacted by their server issues on holidays. 

But, yes, it's a bummer if you were counting on monitoring your cook remotely on that day. 

Yno

I have both the FB300 and FB500, and almost always use them. I have never seen this holiday issue.

The only issue I have is when it decides to display in Celsius, and I have a momentary panic attack when I see the Egg at 107 degrees.