The stoker vs the guru:

Im trying to get an idea on which to buy I have 4 different pits and wanted to get some input before I shelled out the money for them. Any help would be greatly appricated. Thanks:biggrin:

I have absolutly no actual knowledge, nor experiance at all with either product but I feel the need to give advice on the subject. I would recommend a stoker thats the one that I am getting to use on my be all end alls errr I mean UDS's

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

i have a stoker and run 3 pits and love it the internet is your friend lol wireless router and laptop you can graph your pits whith times temps and you can control the pit from your laptop or like i use itouch lol works great

googled video

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&source=hp&q=stoker bbq video&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#

I pretty much dominate the stoker videos

Except for the Customer Service is an excellent product. Other's have experienced this as you will read in the brethren threads that were posted.

You will not get this kind of info at the other popular forum (the one that has a national newsletter) as they tend to delete entries that are negative if the vendor pays for ads in that newsletter.

However, if you don't mind not having emails answered or calls returned in a timely manner of at all, the owner DOES stand by his product and fixes the product if you mail it back to him. I think the design of the stoker exceeds any faults the distributor may have probably due to the success of his product.

One thing... as you get higher up in CFM, your length of extension options go out the window.

I just found the two videos I made when my stoker failed TWICE!!! The second time was after it was repaired. Boy i was upset. LOL

However, to his credit, after initially blaming me for jamming the fan (which would not really lead to the smoker ramping up to about 600 degrees when i set it for 230, he finally got it fixed. AT that time there was some problem with the excessive draw of the fan confusing the computer. He fixed that as well as the temperature problem that caused problem when the outside temp was too cold. One of my videos proves it was fixed. That was quite some time ago.

I know the digiq is waterproof and I don't think the stoker is.

I like the readout better for the guru as well.

snoqualmiesmoker said:

Stoker will run your four pits. I run an egg and 2 Uds.
You will be happy.

Click to expand...

This is true only if he is not using large pits that need 25cfm setup.

Once you get the 25cfm fan upgrade, adding either more extension as in the regular cords they say to get to run more length, or adding another fan, will not work. According to the email I got, the power supply is taxed to the max with the 25cfm setup.

In addition I have acquired additional 10 and 15 CFM setups... they also have limitations operating more than one at a time if you use the 15CFM at all with another 10.

I have seen 5CFMs work perfectly in all 5CFM setups. Up to four I think.

If you are using a big pit and use 25cfm, then forget about using another fan or even an extension. You can use as many probe as you want though.

Amir, on the webber bullet site designed the software (not the stoker software but the stokerlog software, wrote me several emails back in 2007-2008 in which he told the story of a discussion with the designer of the stoker. The primary problem was that the platform was designed wiith the small smokers at the time, which have definite tendency to swing up and down in temp (remember all the mods we use to make to our banderas in fear of the dangerous 270 - 300 degree temp spike that came in the middle fo the night like a theif). The power supply was adopted and ran the programs on the stoker as well as the fan and sensor... which is what makes the stoker so good. Amir told me that when he went to the 25cfm and even the 15 CFM he SHOULD have given the fan a separate power supply. It used to make the computer go all crazy.

I was disappointed with the stoker only in that in the case of a UDS I had, back before I had the right basket size figured out (ala Neil) I devised out of RC Racers and Train parts, a briquette loader that would load my UDS with charcoal and shake the basket of ash automatically (this used a window wiper motor) by way of a signal through a relay.

Those if us at work could literally at the time, along wiht stoker log, monitor and modify the temp, as well as load and deash the UDS from our internet link at work.

Worked great with my UDS. The apparatus only needed 1.5 volts to run the 12 volt apparatus would not rub with the stoker and a 25cfm setup.

This is a true story. Basically unless he tweaked the model some more, a 25cfm blower will tax the system to the limit. damn thing wont even run an led.