I've had a Competitor for about six years and just this past summer purchased a new DX 2 for our other egg. The DX 2 occasionally has a little freak out and I need to give him a hard reset. It is "smarter" than the Competitor but in all honesty I think I like the Competitor better. Maybe I'm just getting old but there is something about that kind of build that just seems better and reliable. I think you will love it.
I have a couple of things I learned with my Competitor.
1. When I'm planning on using it for low and slow I first get my egg up to temperature with the heat probe inside before I ever use the fan. It is really easy to overshoot the low temps when using the Competitor since it just keeps blowing until the probe reads the set temp.
I do the same thing. I treat the guru like a cruise control..... Not an auto pilot. :mrgreen:
2. It doesn't know if you open the lid on your cooker so as soon as the probe drops in temp the fan is going to kick in. Depending on what you are doing that can really heat up your coals and when you shut the lid you will be over your temp. I now use the little fan door slider doohickey and shut the vent completely when I open my egg. Once I shut the lid a wait a minute for the probe to read the actual temp before I open the vent again. Just don't forget to open the vent back up.
When I tend to the meat, I just unplug the power cord from the brain. Then after I'm done I close the lid for about 3 or 4 minutes to let everything settle back down...., then plug the brain back in.
It is a great product - have fun.
