It was a learning experience to say the least. I started early and got the coals lit and the guru set up. I added a little too much lit coals and the temp jumped to 250 so I choked down the damper on the guru fan to being open 1/3. It dropped to 230 and had a good smoke after about 1 hour so I got the butt on and got ready to go to work. About 20 minutes later the guru was beeping at me "HIGH TEMP" and it was at 275. WTF? I removed the guru and completely closed the vent and capped the vent to choke the fire. The temp slowly dropped and I readded the guru set up when it was 230 again.
Now I'm late for work but I can't leave until this thing stabilizes.
A little while later the guru is beeping at me again, "TEMP LOW!!!". I then realize the fan damper was choked down to open 1/3 so I opened to 1/2 and the fan was pulsating trying to get up to temp. It reached temp and just as I started to think I was in the clear it beeped again "TEMP HIGH". Now I'm getting pissed. I call the bossman and say I'm stuck between a rock and hard place and if I could just take the day off I would appreciate it. Boss was cool about it, shot some emails to my team letting them know I'd be out, they all were supporting the cause so that was cool.
So for the rest of the day it was pretty much a battle between the guru going high and going low. It would not hold steady for chit. And to make matters worse I was getting a 25* temp difference between my guru and spicewine thermo on the UDS. At low temps I would get the biggest difference in temp variation between thermos but when it would go to 250 and 275 (I put it there at the end to speed up the cook after foiling) and both guru and spice were right on the money. Pissin me off. My guess is the UDS just doesn't like to cook at low temps. All I've ever done on this UDS is 250 and above.
Also, I'm a little sceptical now about the ramp feature since my thinking is if it can't hold a steady temp how will it drop the temp of the UDS to meet the temp of the meat to hold if choked down 2/3rds it still won't go below 230. On that front I'm a little bitchy today. But I'm not blaming the Guru, yet, I started with too many lit coals so it was pilot error from the start.
But, there is always a but, the event was a success, we sold all of the meat and potato salad and one guy even told me it was the best potato salad he's ever had. Not bad coming from an old gray haired dude.
When I got home last night I said eff it I'm not doing that again. I made jerky for tonights event!
Thanks for the help everybody, nobody ever said the road to success was an easy one. It's how we battle through the difficulties that make cooking a learning experience.
