Auberins controller first voyage, Mini Review, Butt on the WSM

[MattOphotog]

So I picked up one of the Auberin controllers for my WSM I bought this kit

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_27&products_id=205

It arrived on Friday in the mail and I'm putting it to use tonight to do an overnight Butt for pulled pork for lunch tomorrow. I picked up an 8 pound butt made a rub for it and covered it in mustard and the rub.

I then fired up the chimney and filled the basket with charcoal started using the minion method and brought it up to temp. All the while preparing the controller to go in. While the charcoal was getting going I took a few pics of the pieces of the controller.

Controller box

Blower assembly

Temp sensor. Please note they have soldered the clip on the end of it. Making it impossible for me to take it off and run it through my BBQguru grommets I bought and installed(second photo) I'm a bit perturbed about this fact. I'm going to write the company and see what they are willing to do about it. For the time being I dropped it in through the top vent until i find a fix (third photo)

Here is a photo of the controller snapped on the bottom vent along with the heat tape that comes with the kit.

Here is a view of the front of the controller it snaps into place via the spring system and has a damper door to close itself off to stop airflow when not on. I like this and it seems to close nicely and on its own quickly.

I have it going and am about an hour into having the meat on the smoker and it's holding temp very nicely so far. It's not gone over or under by more then 1 degree and is usually on the 235 set temp.

I'll update as I go along with how the controller does and of course a photo of the final product. This is only my second over night smoke since getting the WSM and the first was pretty much a sleepless night getting up to check on things. I'm hoping this one brings much rest and good food to wake up to.


Matt

 

[JMSetzler]

Lookin' good so far

 

[MattOphotog]

almost 4 hours into the cook. Still sitting pretty on temp and the meat is coming up to temp nicely. I'm hoping for about 12 hours in the smoker and it comes off. Pretty impressed at this point with the controller.

Matt

 

[colonel00]

Looking good. I am still debating on one of these. I would need to make an adapter for a UDS.

 

[Chef Jim]

That's a nice review. Does the fan fit OK? Kinda looks like a flat surface on a round kettle.

Also do you have any kind of remote thermo that might give you a more accurate grate temp? I find that my thermo on the lid is a little off.

 

[MattOphotog]

That's a nice review. Does the fan fit OK? Kinda looks like a flat surface on a round kettle.

Also do you have any kind of remote thermo that might give you a more accurate grate temp? I find that my thermo on the lid is a little off.

My Lid thermo and the controller temp sensor are both very close within a few degrees of each other. My temp probe is attached to the remote meat thermometer I have shoved in the butt, this is it's maiden voyage as well. I will mention though my WSM is just a bit over a month old and only 4-5 smokes on it so that may account for the still very accurate temp gauge.

The fan fits surprisingly well. I was concerned about the flat surface and round kettle but it fits tighter then I expected and the spring system really snaps it in place, but allows it to pull right out. When the WSM is all cool I'm going to snap it back into place and shine a light from the inside and see how much light comes through.

Matt

 

[JMSetzler]

Looking good. I am still debating on one of these. I would need to make an adapter for a UDS.

You could probably just drill a 1" hole in the drum and insert that fan without much effort...

 

[tmehlhorn]

Looking good. I am still debating on one of these. I would need to make an adapter for a UDS.

remembered seeing a pic of one of these on a uds, here it is maybe it will help

 

[ernie11]

Quote
"Temp sensor. Please note they have soldered the clip on the end of it. Making it impossible for me to take it off and run it through my BBQguru grommets I bought and installed(second photo) I'm a bit perturbed about this fact. I'm going to write the company and see what they are willing to do about it. For the time being I dropped it in through the top vent until i find a fix"

We also have the Auber control and the WSM. The plug end of the temp sensor screws together, I took it apart and ran the metal spade ends and the wire from inside of the cooker out thru the BBQguru grommet and reassembled the plug on the outside. I leave the temp sensor in the WSM all the time so it worked for us.

 

[aquablue22]

I have one of those that I use on my BGE, once up and running it works really well. You'll love it!

 

[MattOphotog]

Quote
"Temp sensor. Please note they have soldered the clip on the end of it. Making it impossible for me to take it off and run it through my BBQguru grommets I bought and installed(second photo) I'm a bit perturbed about this fact. I'm going to write the company and see what they are willing to do about it. For the time being I dropped it in through the top vent until i find a fix"

We also have the Auber control and the WSM. The plug end of the temp sensor screws together, I took it apart and ran the metal spade ends and the wire from inside of the cooker out thru the BBQguru grommet and reassembled the plug on the outside. I leave the temp sensor in the WSM all the time so it worked for us.

Thanks I will consider that, but was really hoping to be able to remove it and not leave it in there all the time. All of the replacement probes they show have no clip on them at all. I am going to call the company and see about getting a replacement with no clip on it. Radio shack sells those alligator ends that should just slip on and off and not be crimped or soldered on.

 

[MattOphotog]

I just pulled the butt from the smoker and wrapped it up and put it in a cooler in an hour or so I'll pull it out pull the bone and take some photos. I noticed a few under temp moments and a few over temp moments, never more then 10 degrees from set temp and always seemed to pull it back fairly quickly. Not sure if this has to do with how I loaded the charcoal, the controller, or the fact that we went from a very warm evening to a cold front that came through and dropped the humidity and temp into the upper 50's. I also noticed it seemed to use a lot more charcoal this time. I even added some early this am just to be on the safe side because nearly all of it was gone, but I was close to target meat temp. This may be due to it being 30 degrees cooler then the first time I did an overnight smoke, or maybe it's the bag of Kingsford that I bought. Either way the butt looks great, I slept well last night. Which was my goal of the controller. More photos later when I cut it open.


Matt

 

[MattOphotog]

I left it in the cooler about 1.5 hours, pulled it out, the bone essentially fell out, I made a cut in the middle and pulled sections of it out to break it up, then cut some strips for my son(that is easier for him to eat) we have eaten over half of it today.

Things I learned. The controller is good but you as the operator still have to do your job, I didn't put enough charcoal in at the start and my temp dropped a bit over night, had to add some. I also should have left the butt on a bit longer I hit 175 temp and should have waited a bit longer and let it go higher. I have two more in the freezer I bought last week and will do another. But next I'm going to smoke a big ham.


Any questions I'd be happy to answer them. I'm going to have to use this a few more times to see how things go, but so far I'm much happier.