Temperature controllers...

[BigLazy23]

One thing I have been undecided about is the purchase of a temperature controller (BBQ guru, stoker, etc.).  Given I have come from Weber cookers and electric smokers I have not done a lot of overnight cooks.  However, there seems to be something romanctic about completing low and slow cooks without a temperature controller, particurlarly using a ceramic cooker.  How many people use a controller versus don't for longer cooks).... Appreciate the feedback.

 

Kind regards,

BigLazy23

[normstar]

I've only done a few long cooks, but once you dial in the KK it is very stable. I don't think you need one at all, just make sure you heat soak it for at least an hour and then watch it after the meat goes on and get it stabilized. Then you'll be set. Follow the advice of many on here, and let it come up to temp slowly. If you create a hot fire it is very difficult to bring it back down to smoking temp.

[dstr8]

I've done many low and slow with my nearly 1-year old KK and find it very simple to set it up for smoking sessions out to 14-16 hours without a temp controller.  To be fair I've never used a temperature controller/PID for the KK...but to date I haven't felt compelled to buy one either.  

 

I very much like how predictable, especially for low and slow smoking/roasting, the KK Coco char is to use (and its neutral flavor impart to the meat).  Per normstar:   Get the KK heat soaked, at or near your smoking temp, an hour or more before you load up for the long session. 

[Loquitur]

You don't need it with a KK. BUT I love having a Stoker for cooks like my Thanksgiving turkey, or a pork shoulder or brisket. It saves a ton of time in not having to wait around to bring the grill up to temp slowly and then stabilize without the food and then stabilize with the food, etc. before you can truly leave it alone. Plus its so easy to see what's going on with the temps in the grill with a glance at a computer screen inside the house, not to mention its a very cool toy. I wouldn't be without it.  

                                                                                                                                                       Susan   

[5698k]

I use a cyber q, and love it for all the obvious reasons, but necessary? I say absolutely not. <br />

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<br />

Robert

[tony b]

I have a Guru and love it. Like Susan said, "set it and forget it." There's a lot of piece of mind with that, especially if you have lots of other food to prep for, guests to entertain, etc. I only use it on butts and briskets, rarely on ribs (beef ones being the exception), never on chicken.

[Syzygies]

I had been using a BBQ Guru where possible for close to a decade. Then, last year, it broke and I didn't like any current feature set (I want an oven dial, period) so I didn't buy a replacement. I'm very happy with all manner of cooks, including overnight, flying manually. This is coming from someone who was hooked on automation, so I do know what I'm missing.

 

One does have to think more about manual control; I like that. It takes time for fires to stabilize, and this involves a predictable drift, so one has to be around to make adjustments for a few hours. The Guru is great if one would rather run errands, go to bed, etc., but it isn't necessary.

 

I've been playing with ways to fix the air inflow, to make the outflow adjustments more understandable and predictable. For example, to heat soak my KK several hours at 400 F for bread (this acts hotter in the actual bake because of radiant heat), I use just the empty Guru port as my only air intake, and count half turns for the dome hat. It takes me three or four half turns to reach 400 F, then fewer, ultimately one half turn, to maintain 400 F.

 

 

 

 

[BigLazy23]

Appreciate all the feedback and suggestions, great stuff.  May purchase a Guru or something similar in the future (I seem to have been bit by the bug that makes one purchase more and more gadgets/toys for the grill) but am excited first to get to know the cooker and learn to control it manually (so I say until I start to trade off sleep for maintaining temperatures).

[CeramicChef]

I just got a CyberQ WiFi from BBQ Guru. I've done a couple of cooks with it on my KK BB 32, aka, The Beast. As I've noted elsewhere here on this forum, temperature control on The Beast is remarkably easy with very few transients. Temp is rock solid once it's dialed in.

So the question is: "Do I NEED a temp controller?". Decidedly NO! The temp controller is nice to have but certainly not a necessity. I like being able to sit at my desk in my home office and monitor my cooks. The fact that the CyberQ is WiFi based is a big plus. Bluetooth is limited in range and limited to line of sight. Not so with wifi.

Another feature about the CyberQ that I like is it has 3 food temperature probes. You can monitor 3 different items being cooked at one. Now you can really load The Beast with meat. You can do butts, pork loin, and a chicken at once and monitor all three at once. To me this is a real bonus.