Santa gifted me an Inkbird ISC-007BW for Christmas. I set out immediately to get it in use. the plan- A 6lb turkey breast at 325 degrees F.
Opening the box, it came in a very nice clamshell case. The rubber hose in a mesh compartment on the top, the probes on the divider, and the fan, adapters, and power supply on the bottom.
Set up was a breeze. Download the app, a few steps to connect to the wifi, and done. Out to the SNS Kettle.
The controller comes with adapters for kamados, so I slipped the larger one into the smoke hole on the SNS...except it didn't fit. The metal adaptor's tube was just slightly larger in diameter than the smoke hole (1/16th of an inch?). I was prepared for this, and got out the stepper drill. A few seconds later, success! I dropped in the adapter, attached the hose, and connected it to the controller.
I lit my charcoal, and when I got good ignition, I dumped the lit coal onto a bed of coals on the SNS insert, started up the controller set at 329 (it was either 324 or 329, nothing in between), closed the lid, set the upper vent at about 1/4 open, and waited.
In about 45 minutes, the fire hit 329 degrees. I waited 15 minute to see if the temp was stable. Yes, yes it was.
I put the turkey breast on, shut off the fan manually (there is no lid open detection). When the temp sort of stabilized at around 280 degrees a few minutes later, I turned the fan back on. In 15 minutes, the temp was back up to the set point at 329.
2 hours later, the turkey was ready.
Some impressions:
Okay, wow. This thing worked perfectly. The highest temperature achieved was 333 degrees. The lowest was 323. I didn't need to touch anything. In fact, I sat in my jacuzzi with a beer or two over the final hour. I have a hook on the wall for towels, I took a piece of baling wire and hung my phone where I could see it from the spa.
I marveled at how steady it stayed the whole time. I watched the temps slowly decline and then rebound, again never higher than 333 and never lower then 323. It pretty much hovered between 328 and 333. I watched as the app tracked the fan's output, never higher than 80 (percent of output, I assume) so there was some headroom there in terms of ramping up.
I did lose connectivity once, but I think it was me doing something, not the app, as it cut out while I was doing something else on the phone.
In conclusion, pros:
Small sample size, but this thing held rock steady. A total of 10 degrees temp swing (+4 to -6). As an experiment, I had some mashed potatoes to hold in the oven. I put my Thermoworks Smoke probe in the oven. Set at 170 to keep the mashies warm, I watched the temp fluctuate between 184 and the mid 160's. This is a Dacor dual fuel convection oven, not some builder grade Kenmore. So this thing has better temp control (at least over the short term) then my high end oven.
Cheaper than a Smoke X2(4) + Billows.
Way cheaper than a FireBoard set up.
Cheaper than the DynaQ (PartyQ replacement).
Did I say this thing held temps rock steady?
In conclusion, cons:
Clunky design (if you care about this)
Adapters don't fit the SNS smoke hole (without modification)
The app wants to use your location by GPS. Privacy issues. You CAN set it to use GPS only when using the app (you can bet I did)
Must be plugged in to 120v AC. It converts to 12v dc via the wall wart, so there is potential to use it with a battery pack. I have already sent an email to IInkbird asking if a USB power cable adapter is available. Update to follow when an answer is received.
Final thought:
If they have a battery pack solution, this thing is a 10. As I need a pretty good run of extension cord to run it now, I'd call it an 8.5. All of this based on one cook. I will update as/if necessary.
One Edit:
It was purchased on ebay for $129.99, vs the list price of $199.99
Opening the box, it came in a very nice clamshell case. The rubber hose in a mesh compartment on the top, the probes on the divider, and the fan, adapters, and power supply on the bottom.
Set up was a breeze. Download the app, a few steps to connect to the wifi, and done. Out to the SNS Kettle.
The controller comes with adapters for kamados, so I slipped the larger one into the smoke hole on the SNS...except it didn't fit. The metal adaptor's tube was just slightly larger in diameter than the smoke hole (1/16th of an inch?). I was prepared for this, and got out the stepper drill. A few seconds later, success! I dropped in the adapter, attached the hose, and connected it to the controller.
I lit my charcoal, and when I got good ignition, I dumped the lit coal onto a bed of coals on the SNS insert, started up the controller set at 329 (it was either 324 or 329, nothing in between), closed the lid, set the upper vent at about 1/4 open, and waited.
In about 45 minutes, the fire hit 329 degrees. I waited 15 minute to see if the temp was stable. Yes, yes it was.
I put the turkey breast on, shut off the fan manually (there is no lid open detection). When the temp sort of stabilized at around 280 degrees a few minutes later, I turned the fan back on. In 15 minutes, the temp was back up to the set point at 329.
2 hours later, the turkey was ready.
Some impressions:
Okay, wow. This thing worked perfectly. The highest temperature achieved was 333 degrees. The lowest was 323. I didn't need to touch anything. In fact, I sat in my jacuzzi with a beer or two over the final hour. I have a hook on the wall for towels, I took a piece of baling wire and hung my phone where I could see it from the spa.
I marveled at how steady it stayed the whole time. I watched the temps slowly decline and then rebound, again never higher than 333 and never lower then 323. It pretty much hovered between 328 and 333. I watched as the app tracked the fan's output, never higher than 80 (percent of output, I assume) so there was some headroom there in terms of ramping up.
I did lose connectivity once, but I think it was me doing something, not the app, as it cut out while I was doing something else on the phone.
In conclusion, pros:
Small sample size, but this thing held rock steady. A total of 10 degrees temp swing (+4 to -6). As an experiment, I had some mashed potatoes to hold in the oven. I put my Thermoworks Smoke probe in the oven. Set at 170 to keep the mashies warm, I watched the temp fluctuate between 184 and the mid 160's. This is a Dacor dual fuel convection oven, not some builder grade Kenmore. So this thing has better temp control (at least over the short term) then my high end oven.
Cheaper than a Smoke X2(4) + Billows.
Way cheaper than a FireBoard set up.
Cheaper than the DynaQ (PartyQ replacement).
Did I say this thing held temps rock steady?
In conclusion, cons:
Clunky design (if you care about this)
Adapters don't fit the SNS smoke hole (without modification)
The app wants to use your location by GPS. Privacy issues. You CAN set it to use GPS only when using the app (you can bet I did)
Must be plugged in to 120v AC. It converts to 12v dc via the wall wart, so there is potential to use it with a battery pack. I have already sent an email to IInkbird asking if a USB power cable adapter is available. Update to follow when an answer is received.
Final thought:
If they have a battery pack solution, this thing is a 10. As I need a pretty good run of extension cord to run it now, I'd call it an 8.5. All of this based on one cook. I will update as/if necessary.
One Edit:
It was purchased on ebay for $129.99, vs the list price of $199.99
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