New SmoBot, New M BGE, and.... rain (of course)

stompbox · May 2016

I recently received the awesome SmoBot temp controller this week, I also recently purchased two new eggs (medium and mini)!

Of course as luck would have it, we had sick kids all week this week (and rain).

Today, even though it is to rain all day... enough is enough. I needed to make something low temp on these new eggs.

So, I thawed out some chicken drumsticks in the morning and when the kids took a nap, I grabbed my SmoBot stuff. It comes with EVERYTHING you need to get started right away:

I have a Stoker Wifi II, surprisingly, they are pretty much the same size:

One thing I will note though, while the Stoker wifi is a little painful to set up with your computer, this SmoBot is like plug and play!

I sent SmoBot a message with a few things I did wrong while setting it up, with a few changes to the directions I really think most will be able to be up and running in just a few minutes. I thought it would be a little more complex so I was trying to do a lot more work, that was totally unecessary. To be clear, this was totally my fault.

Regardless of me being an idiot, I got a quick reply saying they were sorry and they would revise the instructions. Great guys to work with!

So.... I am probably most excited to see what the Mini can do. I grabbed the mini daisy wheel and the Smobot..... Uh oh:

The SmoBot Wheel will not work on the Mini, that was pretty clear.

So, I grabbed my new Medium daisy wheel:

Perfect! Set it up in 5 minutes including grabbing tools.

I have not built a table or anything for the medium yet, so I just set it on the patio (with table nest) for now:

After I let the temp come up to 300 (it was actually at 306 at the time), I wanted to see what the dome was reading.

I used Oakridge Secret Weapon on the drumsticks and put them in the fridge for about a half hour before puting them on.

I am about an hour in the cook and the SmoBot has held temp VERY well.

To be continued...... when the drums are done and I can get the chart showing the temp.

stompbox · May 2016

That first photo looks bad on my phone, let's try it again.

SoCalTim · May 2016

Fantastic! Do the temp #'s fluctuate when you open the dome?

stompbox · May 2016

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/de/ne0ez6fnkrkk.jpg

It took an hour and a half at 300 grid, but they finally reached 165.

stompbox · May 2016

SoCalTim said:

Fantastic! Do the temp #'s fluctuate when you open the dome?

Very minimally, I will post the graph once I eat.

I feel like it maintained temp during the open lid times better than the stoker. I always use the 3min off of the Stoker fan. But inevitably I walk away and hear the fan kick on with the Stoker and it flares up the heat.

stompbox · May 2016

stompbox · May 2016

Green is target temp of 300. Blue is actual grid temp.

the big dip you see at1:30 is when I put the food on and the smaller blips are me checking the temps with a thermapen.

i did not use the food probes on this cook because I feel with drumsticks you often get false readings due to the thin layer of meat around the bone.

stompbox · May 2016

Also, I would like to hear from the SmoBot guys on using this outside. Is the motor safe?

i first put a ziplock around just the motor portion but the heat from the daisy started to melt the bag. Next I just laid a piece of cardboard over the motor but it blew off. I ended up just letting it go naked just because I was ill prepared. The egg was in a nook so it was only getting hit from rain coming straight down pretty much.

I also want to know because the end of the cook was a little awkward. I put the ceramic lid on to shut it down but then I was left holding the hot daisy wheel with the Smobot attached and not know if it was safe to leave it outside. I ended up taking it inside and putting it on a piece of cardboard.

HeavyG · May 2016

My experience with servos in radio controlled models is that splashes of water won't bother them.

blasting · May 2016

@stompbox congrats on the new toys. I'm still surprised at how miserly the medium is with lump. I assume the mini is even more so.

Have fun.

yljkt · May 2016

How do you like the medium? Not to go OT but really thinking about one.

stompbox · May 2016

yljkt said:

How do you like the medium? Not to go OT but really thinking about one.

Well, so far I love it. But, as noted above this was the first cook on it.

I have used a medium one other time at an eggfest, it gets hot fast and as @blasting noted, it is economic on fuel.

yljkt · May 2016

Thanks. I have a friend who sells these things and offered me a deal I can't refuse on a medium with a platesetter and table. Now to hide it from the wife....easier said than done.

stompbox · May 2016

Been there, good luck.

stompbox · May 2016

I used the SmoBot again, just because I wanted to keep testing it. I made everyone toasted cheese (kids request) on a pizza stone. Wife wondered why I was warming up the egg for toasted cheese. Lol

Oh, I forgot this photo

Ozzie_Isaac · May 2016

@stompbox I used the smokeware minimax adapter for their cap on my MM. It allowed me to use the full size DW on it.

I wonder if it would work on your mini?

stompbox · May 2016

Ozzie_Isaac said:

@stompbox I used the smokeware minimax adapter for their cap on my MM. It allowed me to use the full size DW on it.

I wonder if it would work on your mini?

That is interesting.... the Minimax shares the same lid as the Small though. I am guessing the Mini DW is smaller than the Small DW?

Thanks for the heads up, I will look at SW's site.

ryantt · May 2016

Great review, and the legs look good too

reinhart36 · May 2016

stompbox said:

Also, I would like to hear from the SmoBot guys on using this outside. Is the motor safe?

i first put a ziplock around just the motor portion but the heat from the daisy started to melt the bag. Next I just laid a piece of cardboard over the motor but it blew off. I ended up just letting it go naked just because I was ill prepared. The egg was in a nook so it was only getting hit from rain coming straight down pretty much.

I also want to know because the end of the cook was a little awkward. I put the ceramic lid on to shut it down but then I was left holding the hot daisy wheel with the Smobot attached and not know if it was safe to leave it outside. I ended up taking it inside and putting it on a piece of cardboard.

Howdy!

Thanks for taking the time to make a review, and for the compliments.

We hope you're grilling outside, and expect your damper to tolerate the weather as such. IF you should ever manage to break your servo, fear not - it's easily replaced and inexpensive.

Having used this setup for years, I've never had any problem with rain, and I don't expect anyone else to have issues.

I especially want you to leave your damper outside as much as possible to help fully vet that out. I'll replace it for you if there's ever an issue - though I don't expect it.

I would keep the actual controller enclosure safe from water exposure though. A simple plastic bag, Tupperware container, etc. will do just fine.

Please let me know of further questions.

Eric

stompbox · May 2016

Oops. I meant to type, is it safe to use outside in the rain, which answered for me. Great! I don't believe that was covered in the manual or on the website, but is important to note.

And yes, because it was the first time using it, I worked it out so that the controller could be kept inside the whole time (wires through a window) just so I could tinker with it if needed....... but I never touched the controller after initial setup. Set and forget.

I will undoubtedly use a zip lock in the future.

Thanks!

Another reason I think this is great is the battery operation. If you are a competitor, this is a great light-weight system for you to travel with. You won't have wifi access for graphs and such, but i assume the controller should still work. That is a plus over my stoker wifi (doesn't have battery option)

Ozzie_Isaac · May 2016

@stompbox it works great with just batteries. I have wifi off and backlight off, and so far same batteries for 20+hrs.

New SmoBot, New M BGE, and.... rain (of course)

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