Anyone tried this charcoal smoker controller ?

swamprb said:

I have seen the Auberins name a lot on the coffeegeek forums. They seem to be the preferred brand for those that mod the Rancilio Sylvia or Gaggia espresso machines with PID controllers.
Supposedly they have some SouVide(sp) controllers that are the catsass!
Outta my league, but the BBQ controller is worth a looksee.

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I have the Auber PID on my Sylvia. Very accurate. I agree the bbq controller is worth a look.

BruceKWHP said:

I was reading about one of the fans (for a Stoker I think) that had a plastic fan blades and a flap door to protect it. The flap door swings open with airflow.

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The flap door is there to cut off any natural draft that might occur when the fan is shut down.

Any reviews from those that used the temperature controller? I've been looking for a good cheap controller.

i have a stoker unit hooked to my ugly drum its the best thing lol johns a good guy and his stuff works great

I'm using the Auberins SYL-1613 ($84.50 Shipped) with a 10CFM fan ($15 Digikey) and a homemade bracket/adapter. Works perfect on BKG. Held temp for over 12 hrs on Saturday.

Chris any chance you can link the parts? I'd really like to get a setup like this going.

chrismgan said:

I'm using the Auberins SYL-1613 ($84.50 Shipped) with a 10CFM fan ($15 Digikey) and a homemade bracket/adapter. Works perfect on BKG. Held temp for over 12 hrs on Saturday.

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The Auberins controller is : http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=170

The fan from DigiKey is :
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/D...homepage_link=hp_go_button&KeyWords=p12906-nd

Very easy to set up, and works great. keep in mind, this doesn't have a food temp probe. I use a Maverick ET-73 with it.

BruceKWHP said:

I have not held a BBQ Guru / pit viper fan in my hand. It is rated at 10 cfm and looks like a molded plastic fan / housing inside a sheet metal cover with a sliding damper door on it. Am I close to being right?

Or is it made of metal, with metal fan blades?.

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You are correct. The fans are plastic w/ plastic blades.

I melted a couple blades on mine when trying to get my smoker too hot. I (stupidly) used a 2nd electric fan to blow on the coals. It worked, but moved too much air for my chimney exhaust. The super hot air ended up escaping through the guru adapter port and melted a couple of my fan blades. Easy fix, but now my fan is missing a couple fan blades (still works just fine). I'll be sure to remove my guru fan if I ever pull a stunt like that again.

How did the Auber controllers work out? Stumps started selling them.

Thanks for the Bump. This looks really interesting. Easy to move from one smoker to another with that slick fan install. Curious about weather proofing though.

I wasn't all that happy with my Auber. Something melted in the first unit I got. They replaced it. After a couple of months the probe wire came loose in the mini plug. I had to resolder. No big deal. Then the down arrow button went so I can't set the temp I want now. It consistently overshot the set temp. Once I got the rig at the set temp, it would hold it until fuel ran low.

I had 20 lbs of bacon ready to go into the smoker when the last failure occurred. I had all my vents sealed except where the fan bolts on. Fortunately I was running a Guru Pit Viper fan. I set the damper down to 10% and with the fan running 100% the rig settled into 160 degrees so it worked out.

I went back and forth between the Guru and the Stoker units. Finally pulled the trigger on the Stoker. It was very close especially since I already had the Guru fan. In the end I opted for the easier Internet access on the unit. It just arrived in the mail today. Its raining for the next couple of days, but I'll get it set up for a cook this weekend for sure.