Fireboard Drive or Thermoworks Billows...or what about Auber?

[Brian_M]

So here I am, just a few weeks after bragging about my Tappecue Touch thermometer and its matching Cruise Control fan to btuckertx and Steve R. and I'm looking for a new temp control setup.

A couple times during my last couple cooks, the Cruise Control fan has been allowing or causing big temp swings. It would either run well past the upper temp, or fail to kick on at the lower set temperature, but it didn't do it consistently. The randomness of it was driving me nuts (shortly after I spoke well about it...coincidence?)

I think I've found the problem, and it's my fault.

The power wire that runs from the Touch to the Cruise Control runs through a metal clip to hold it in place. I guess that over the years, as I've put it away I've pulled it too tightly as I've wound it around the fan itself. The wire has frayed itself against the metal clip.





I think the problem I was having was caused by the bare wire occasionally coming into contact with the metal clip and shorting. That would keep the fan from receiving the signals to either begin or quit blowing.

Tomorrow I'm going to loosen that clip, tape over the bare spots, and resecure the wire so that it doesn't happen again for a long time...but...now I have trust issues with it because...well...because.

I think I'm ready to try a new temp control setup. I'm leaning towards the Fireboard 2 and Drive blower, but the Thermoworks Signals and Billows combination is a close second.

The two brands that are mentioned here the most are Fireboard and Thermoworks. As I looked through the Thermostatic Controllers channel I saw a few posts about members having problems with both, so I'm asking for updates.

Attjack, Truckbutt, and MtView have recently or not-so-recently posted about problems with their Fireboard 2 or Fireboard 2 Drive units. Are you all satisfied with how Fireboard has addressed the problems?

A little over a year ago, Richard Chrz and gboss were talking about Thermoworks Billows. Richard had a Smoke x4 and gboss had a Signals that were each hooked to a Billows, and both members were having problems. Was Thermoworks able to figure out what was wrong and fix it for you all?

And for the final paralysis-through-analysis question...does anyone here use an Auber system? The Auber SYL-2615 has a Platinum rating and great review over on the free side, and it looks like the company does a lot of temp control work in other fields. That one actually started as my favorite until I saw the lack of data storage. I could work around that though if it was a great, under-recognized unit.

I appreciate all the help with this. I usually don't like change very much [the Tappecue is six or seven years old and I wouldn't be shopping (probably) if it wasn't having problems. I really have been happy with it]. I want to pick another setup that I can get another six or seven or more years out of.

[MtView]

After I got past the front Fireboard email service guy which was like corresponding with a rock, Fireboard made a strong effort to provide a fix for my problem with the FB2. Ultimately they determined the combination of the Trex deck with the smoker generated too much static electricity and they offered a refund. It didn't work out for me, but they did make the effort.

[Attjack]

Wow, that seems like a strange conclusion.

[MtView]

It wasn't what I was expecting because I had no issues with the FB1 or Thermoworks Signals, but I guess the designs are apples and oranges. The FB2 would glitch out in a variety of ways at the exact moment I moved it or inserted a probe. This happened consistently across three different units and included rebooting, screen flicker that wouldn't stop and the screen just plain going blank as it continued to transmit.

[Brian_M]

I’ve been in a couple different manufacturing facilities where they took great care to prevent static electricity buildup but I never would’ve though about it being an issue with an outdoor cooker. Wow.

I’m glad they showed that much support.

[Attjack]

I was pretty satisfied because they acknowledged the problem, told me a fix would eventually come, and they reimbursed me for shipping after I asked.

[Brian_M]

It seems like it’s become rare for an outfit to even acknowledge or admit there is a problem. The willingness to do that is a good sign.

[das85]

I've been experimenting over the last year or so, using both Billows and Fireboard. Have had a bad month with both just now (though arguably user error)!

Billows has needed two warranty services so far (I think both for cables and/or power supply in the end - seems like an unstable design), but customer service has mostly been good about it, except for once when they tortured me for quite a while making me do experiments to prove there was a real hardware error not a glitch in the app. Maintaining temp has also been a little erratic (which could also be my fault for putting the probe in an unstable place).

Fireboard seemed to do a little better holding steady temp and have been loving it...until during a cook a black dot appeared on the screen and stopped working. I think it overheated from being too close to fire chamber. Sending in for them to take a look and confirm.

So while that's in the shop, I went back to Billows...taking care to position Signals further from the smoker than I had done with the Fireboard. Then yesterday with NE temps in the teens...while cooker was preheating, Signals just stopped moving at 146deg and wouldn't budge. No error message, just steady 146. I tried plugging probe into different port, it didn't register at.. Then I checked the online specs which say low end of its operating temp is 32...so maybe it got too cold to work??

Anyway right now my top advice is check the operating range of anything you use (I don't see one for Auber?), and make sure you can position it to be neither too hot nor too cold!!

[jfmorris]

As an electrical engineer, I can vouch for most of the electronic components used in these thermometers having an operating range of 0C (32F) to 70C (158F). LCD screen specs top out lower - maybe 50C (122F). It’s easy to get hotter if you put the unit too close to the grill on a side table. And obviously this cold weather is too cold for it. Batteries also don’t do well at extremes.

[Brian_M]

“…neither too hot nor too cold!!” made me laugh first, and then think about how delicate some of this electronic equipment could be in spite of its outdoor design.

Now I wonder if cold air temps (the Christmas Eve ribs cook had that 6* F daytime high) might have aggravated the problems my Tappecue showed.

I needed another variable to obsess over. Thanks. 😆

[tstalafuse]

FWIW, I can't give you anything on the newest Auber controllers with Bluetooth/Wifi, but I do have two of the older pre-Bluetooth/Wifi models (ie, no idea on connectivity or the app). The older models and newer ones look exactly the same, and from what I have read are of the same high quality. Mine worked really well (I had a separate reader that used Bluetooth to watch the temps from my couch). I never experienced a problem with the cold or heat, the fan, or wild temp swings. It just seemed to work keeping a nice steady temp in all types of weather. The only things that bothered me at the time was the instruction manual was clearly written by an EE to be understood another EE, and the probes at the time were very water intolerant, so cleaning them was a challenge. To me, probes in general have improved greatly over the years with respect to water, so hopefully their probes have been improved since I first started using them 7yrs ago. I managed to stumble my way through the instructions and just kept a supply of extra probes on hand. All in all, if I were still using a fan controller and wanted to upgrade, I would look first to Auber given some of the things I read about the others.

[Brian_M]

Thanks for this. I really like some of the features on the Auber. It has the ability to program stages into a cook, so that after a certain length, or when a certain temp is met, it can change to another temp setting (like you can set it to run at 225 until the internal temp of 203 is met, then change the chamber temp to 140 to serve as a holding oven).

The lack of cloud storage is going to keep me away from Auber right now. I’m not organized enough to remember to transfer data…

[Brian_M]

(Continued)

…from the thermometer to my own spreadsheet, after I convert it to a .csv file (or whatever) at the end of a cook while I’m trying to get food in and served before it gets cold, especially since the data transfer has to be done before you turn the thermometer off, because the data is gone once it’s turned off.

I will definitely keep an eye on Auber though. If they add cloud storage, that multi-stage feature puts it head-and-shoulders above the others (to me anyway).

[TxF]

FWIW my original Fireboard did just fine @19 degrees Christmas morning. It sits on a short table next to the WSM. As usual I over did it lighting too much fire, but after I closed the top vent to about 20% the fan managed to get control of things and held @225 for 3 1/2 hrs.

So far in about 3 years I’ve gone through 5 probes and 1 drive cable which they replaced. It gets used at least once a week.

[Brian_M]

Thanks TxF. Fireboard is looking better and better. At least until the next shiny object comes along to distract me again.