Signals / Billows addition to PBC

[7over]

Doing a 17 lb brisket on the PBC for family dinner tomorrow. I wanted to be able to sleep AND cook at the same time so I picked up the Signals with Billows last week and tested it on a Boston Butt cook. It worked great. I am able to set and change the pit temp using the app on my phone or directly on the Signals base. The pit temp fluctuates within 10 or 15 degrees either side of the target temp and ... well... the point of this post is not to go through all that, just to show the mod I made to accommodate the Billows blower.
I added a SS disk between the original inlet cover and the PBC to keep the option of no electronics if necessary. I used a Dremel tool to cut the square out of the SS disk. Not the prettiest piece of work but it's proving to be effective.


The brisket goes on tonight at midnight and as long as my wife does not flip the shed power switch off at some point, the Billows should keep the pit where I want it, all night long.

[RonB]

I think you will love gettin' a good night's sleep.

[jecucolo]

Great job!

[holehogg]

Happy days and restful night's.

[Razor]

Great job. One other thing to consider, these new portable power packs are getting pretty good. I bought a 400 watt one for my CPAP machine a few years back for camping and power outages. There’s several of them out there now, back when I bought it there weren’t as many. I have a GoalZero, for some reason I can’t post a link now.

For whatever reason the people that built my house decided not to put an outlet on the back pad. It will power through at least a 23 hour cook.

Care to take a guess what night we recently lost power? Hint same night I decided to cook two butt’s... 🤦🏼‍♂️

[7over]

What a great idea. it figures that the power went out during a critical cook. Last night a series of strong storms rolled through and we could have easily lost power. I'm gonna have to take a look at the portable power packs. Wish you could post your link!

[fzxdoc]

Nice! I like the idea that your mod is easily removable for whenever you choose to cook on the PBC "old school". Good job fitting that square peg into the PBC's round hole.

Kathryn

[au4stree]

What she said. 👆🏼

[7over]

Square peg into a round hole, that pretty much sums up my life.

[Troutman]

Nice hack

[hoovarmin]

I like this

[7over]

I was able to really load up the basket with extra charcoal. ... heaping inside the smoker actually. I use a weed burner to light my coals and since this Billows adds the right oxy at the right time, I just lit the very back 5 inches of coals. (Minion FTW!) It's been on since 11:30 pm last night with the pit staying within 10 degrees either side of 225 for 11 hours now. I'm waiting to see how long it will burn at this temp. I keep expecting the pit temp to crash - signaling no more fuel - but that has yet to happen.

I also have two meat probes in (first time I've been able to do that)... one in the point, one in the flat. Doing this cook fat side down and I cut out most of the deckle. Right now, the point is at 180 deg and the flat is at 160. The fat is really protecting the flat and I'm really glad I have a probe there. I'm interested to see if the temps get closer together as the cook gets closer to 200. The graph shows that the flat was in the stall at 150 for 5 hours (from 2:30 am until 7:00 am (I was asleep! )

[fzxdoc]

I can hardly wait to hear how it turns out. Any reason why you chose to run the PBC at 225°?

Kathryn

[7over]

Kathryn, I completed the cook and it was fabulous. I mean really great. My wife said 'probably the best brisket you've ever made'. I chose 225 just to see what would happen. I'm still very much in the experimenting stage with briskets and there are a lot of things I have planned to test over the next several. Doing this one truly low and slow was a place to start.
Given the limited space I have for a reply to your comment, I'll post the rest below.

[fzxdoc]

7over , I noticed that the default setting for the Billows is 225° and wondered if you chose to start there and then experiment further in the future. It's such a good idea to start with a baseline. Your cook sounds amazing. Have fun with that new toy!

[Razor]

7over I'm at my desktop now and things seem to be working better.

This is the full line-up. https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/

I have the 400 watt model, a little overkill for cooks, but extremely useful for when the power does go out. I have the cheaper Yeti 400, I'm guessing there is an AGM battery in it. It appears the lithium model is replacing it. They are are more expensive, but considerably lighter and smaller. Big advantage if you a camper.

As I mentioned there are other manufacturers out there, but GoalZero has been around for a while now, and have a lot of accessories/adapters. While a little pricey, they seem to have good stuff.

Another I recently learned to consider is if you have any battery powered yard tools. Companies like EGO now sell inverters https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-power-station and https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-escape/. Being I have a couple tools from them now I wold probably get one of these stations next time. If you have cordless tools you might want to check and see if you can get something similar. FYI EGO is pretty good stuff if you haven't gone down that path yet.

The options available to us today are simply amazing. I'm glad I live in the times that I do. Who knows, in some post apocalyptic world, BBQ might be banned!

[7over]

Razor Awesome. Thank you!