Fellow Pit Members,
I've done my first dry run with the smobot, which I purchased the other day. I have a BGE (medium), and the Smobot works with most kamados.
I decided to do a dry run, i.e. no food. It always helps, and takes the pressure off if anything starts acting up. Overall it is smooth sailing, using the Smobot. I plugged it in, and placed the top vent (with the smobot) on the lid when the fire had warmed up my BGE to 80° C (176° F). I had the bottom vent almost 1/2 inch open. I know the user guide says to set it to 50% open, but that is waaay to much for my grill, so my experience trumped the user guide ;-)
Either way, it started adjusting, and I had the target temp set to 120° C (250° F). I just let it run, and do its thing. It tuned my BGE to 120 shortly thereafter, and more or less flatlined for 2 hours. Great to see!!
Lookin' good!
I then opened the lid at 13:00 hours, just for fun, and closed it within 20-25 seconds. I wanted to see how the Smobot's lid detector works. The temp went up directly after (due to air rushing in), and the vent shut immediately. It stayed shut, but never managed to get the temp down. See chart below.
2.5 hours later, at 15:30, the temp dropped down below target temp. For those 2.5 hours the top vent was completely shut (not much air exchange in there). After 15:30 the vent started opening again, but never managed to revive the fire. That was most likely due to me not using a full load of charcoal (since I was doing a dry run). If I had loaded it up I'm sure it would have gone back to target temp.
So, the verdict?
I really love using the Smobot (yes, after just one run). It really does it's job, as expected. And I absolutely love the fact that they use a web interface for monitoring it, which means I can check it on all devices/computers. And being able to adjust target temp remotely is nothing short of brilliant.
I was a bit concerned that it couldn't recover from me opening the lid, but in all honesty, if I did the same and was running manually, I wouldn't be able to recover it either. If a kamado gets away from you (temp wise), it's very hard to fix. Lesson learned: if I must open the lid, be quick. Very quick.
As for battery life: I was using a power bank that holds 15 000 mAh, which should suffice for even long cooks. It's great to be able to run it without a power cord. But I haven't tested letting it run overnight, so I don't know exactly how long that battery will last.
Weather proof? I assume the servo can take some rain, but the controller most likely needs to stay dry. I will place it in a plastic bag or some kind of weather cover to make sure it doesn't get wet. Also, it will be interesting to see how it performs in the winter.
Overall I think it's supercool, because once I turn it on, it really takes away all the stress of worrying about temps, it adjusts it better than I could do manually. I can't wait till I do the next pork butt or brisket cook, it's gonna be a smooth ride!
I've done my first dry run with the smobot, which I purchased the other day. I have a BGE (medium), and the Smobot works with most kamados.
I decided to do a dry run, i.e. no food. It always helps, and takes the pressure off if anything starts acting up. Overall it is smooth sailing, using the Smobot. I plugged it in, and placed the top vent (with the smobot) on the lid when the fire had warmed up my BGE to 80° C (176° F). I had the bottom vent almost 1/2 inch open. I know the user guide says to set it to 50% open, but that is waaay to much for my grill, so my experience trumped the user guide ;-)
Either way, it started adjusting, and I had the target temp set to 120° C (250° F). I just let it run, and do its thing. It tuned my BGE to 120 shortly thereafter, and more or less flatlined for 2 hours. Great to see!!
Lookin' good!
I then opened the lid at 13:00 hours, just for fun, and closed it within 20-25 seconds. I wanted to see how the Smobot's lid detector works. The temp went up directly after (due to air rushing in), and the vent shut immediately. It stayed shut, but never managed to get the temp down. See chart below.
2.5 hours later, at 15:30, the temp dropped down below target temp. For those 2.5 hours the top vent was completely shut (not much air exchange in there). After 15:30 the vent started opening again, but never managed to revive the fire. That was most likely due to me not using a full load of charcoal (since I was doing a dry run). If I had loaded it up I'm sure it would have gone back to target temp.
So, the verdict?
I really love using the Smobot (yes, after just one run). It really does it's job, as expected. And I absolutely love the fact that they use a web interface for monitoring it, which means I can check it on all devices/computers. And being able to adjust target temp remotely is nothing short of brilliant.
I was a bit concerned that it couldn't recover from me opening the lid, but in all honesty, if I did the same and was running manually, I wouldn't be able to recover it either. If a kamado gets away from you (temp wise), it's very hard to fix. Lesson learned: if I must open the lid, be quick. Very quick.
As for battery life: I was using a power bank that holds 15 000 mAh, which should suffice for even long cooks. It's great to be able to run it without a power cord. But I haven't tested letting it run overnight, so I don't know exactly how long that battery will last.
Weather proof? I assume the servo can take some rain, but the controller most likely needs to stay dry. I will place it in a plastic bag or some kind of weather cover to make sure it doesn't get wet. Also, it will be interesting to see how it performs in the winter.
Overall I think it's supercool, because once I turn it on, it really takes away all the stress of worrying about temps, it adjusts it better than I could do manually. I can't wait till I do the next pork butt or brisket cook, it's gonna be a smooth ride!
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