Holiday Wish List, help me decide on a stoker.

at 200, you are looking at a lot longer than 15 hours. no reason not to jump up to 250. i know the large cruises at 250 pretty easily. not sure if the XL has a natural 'groove'.

FWIW, this is what i use for temp control to keep the egg rock steady...

remember, though, that none of HAD stokers when we started doing lo and slow cooks. in fact, the only reason i got an egg (forget all the other marketing) was because it was the only cooker (at the time there were few copycats) known to RELIABLY go 10+ hours overnight. that's the truth.

i got it because i NEEDED no watching.

remember that fires go out with stokers too. i have had two fires go out, and they both were due to my set-up. no stoker would have helped them.

not trying to dissuade you, just clarifying that if the reason you got one was so you didn't have to stay up at night, or because you thought you can't go all night without one, then that's not a good enough reason... :laugh:

if you like toys and wires and having stuff, then by all means. i have heard no complaints from those that have them

but i also haven't heard complaints from those that DON'T have them, either

a couple hundred bucks saved buys an awful lot of pork butt

i put the meat on at 11pm or so. most times i sleep right through. but if i have company coming and want to be sure i am serving what i told them we'd be having (pulled pork or brisket), i will get up at 4am, once. check the fire, and hit the sack.

if i wake at 4 am to find the fire out, or if i wake at 8am to find the fire out, in either case the food is still safe, and the only thing i have lost is a little extra time and pride. fire it up again, and go.

the egg is generally rock solid. the only real variable is the operator (me). :laugh:

As has been discussed a powered vent system is not needed with an egg.

If you just want to monitor get a Maverick dual probe with alarms.

I too have had fires go out without a PVS and with a PVS. The reason is I didn't light the lump properly and I got a vertical burn down the center of the lump bed.

Wit that said I love my Stoker. I don't use it as much as I thought I would. I use it on any long cook, overnight cook or specialty cook.

I still at times wake up thinking about the egg(s) and go check, then back to bed.

GG

I don't know that you need one. I've had my LBGE for a bit over 4 months and have yet to figure out how to set the vents to get a desired temperature. But, that's probably just operator error.

What I like about the Stoker:
[ul]
[li]I'm an engineer - I love the fact that I can set it and maintain my target temperature, plus/minus 2°F[/li]
[li]The cook plot that is available from Amir is simply wonderful (google StokerLog)[/li]
[li]StokerLog also allows one to set targets and get alarms for low/high pit and food temperatures. Yes, this is possible from devices like Mavericks, but not through four walls and across more than 50 feet - unless the new 732 will do that.[/li]
[li]The web-based interface allows me to monitor the cook via my laptop from anywhere within my house (I have a secured wireless network - making this a no-brainer).[/li]
[/ul]
Are there down-sides? Sure:
[ul]
[li]Price - The stoker, with two meat probes and a pti probe is not cheap[/li]
[li]There's a learning curve with the stoker - figuring out how to get your egg to your desired (low) temperature without huge occilations can be a challenge.[/li]
[li]Like-wise, getting it to maintain the low temperatures can also be something of a challenge.[/li]
[/ul]
Bottom line for me is that I have a tool that will control the temperature of the cook, alarm me when something falls outside set parameters, will chart the progress of the cook, and do it all from the living room while watching the game - those are all winning points for me.

you make a great point, GG. if you are inclined to worry, and get up and check the egg, you'll probably do it with a powered draft unit too.
:laugh: