CyberQ Wifi -- Current thoughts?

Do people find that these are worth the money? Does the $295 include everything one needs -- blower fan, iPhone App, etc.?
Is the wifi over kill?

I'll be using it on an 18" and a 22" bullet.

Mine is in the mail, on the way, so I can't answer whether it's worth the money yet. On the price, no, the $295 doesn't include everything. You'll also need a fan ($72 for the 10 cfm) and an adapter or two ($20 each).

I just priced it out the CyberQ ($295), WSM adapter / blower bundle ($92) and upgrade to 8' cables ($12) is $399. Tack on $13.38 for USPS shipping and I'm sitting at $412.28.

I haven't clicked SUBMIT on the order yet...

Jeff Persson said:

I just priced it out the CyberQ ($295), WSM adapter / blower bundle ($92) and upgrade to 8' cables ($12) is $399. Tack on $13.38 for USPS shipping and I'm sitting at $412.28.

I haven't clicked SUBMIT on the order yet...

Click to expand...

did you click submit yet? lol

You can get the complete kit from firecraft.com, including free shipping, for about $375 delivered ($387 w/ the 8' probes) . Mine arrived on Saturday. Unfortunately, my schedule didn't include any time to play with it yet.

Thanks. That's a bit pricey.

I finally got a chance to play with my new unit a little tonight. It's raining here, so I didn't use it tonight, but I powered it up, and was able to connect to it in Ad Hoc mode using my laptop, phone, and iPad (one at a time). I haven't been able to figure out Infrastructure mode yet. It's recognizing 3 or 4 neighbors' WiFi networks, but it's not finding mine even when I set it right next to my WiFi router. I may have to call in my son to see if he can figure it out. Ad Hoc mode will work for now and for most uses, but I'll make a major effort to get it set up for infrastructure mode before long so that I can access it from the internet and monitor cooks from work or while out doing other things.

Nice,congrats on your latest toy. Was it easy to set up?

Guru does offer a tech support service for a fee that they will remotely connect to your computer and set up infrastructure so you can go back to it easily.

Ive had just a horrible time with Ad Hoc at contests. We are going to bring a router and run our own network and keep them in infrastructure, just not connected to the internet.

It was very easy to set up in Ad Hoc mode but very frustrating to try to set up in infrastructure mode. Chris, thanks for the heads up on the tech support service. I'll probably end up paying Guru the tech support fee to see if they can get it set up.

I'm getting very frustrated with the infrastructure mode setup. I can't seem to get the CyberQ to talk to my network. Nakedwhiz has a very helpful walkthrough, and I have no doubt that I could do the port forwarding if I could just get the CyberQ connected to my network. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/productreviews/cyberqwifi/cqwf5.htm

I just haven't been able to get it connected yet. The CyberQ has found up to 6 different networks of my neighbors at various times, but it can't find mine for some reason. With Google, I've found quite a few examples of folks having similar problems, but I haven't found a solution that has worked for me yet. Some folks seemed to get lucky by just unplugging and rebooting a few times. I may even try to set up an old router as an access point just to take a shot at having it find a different router. If I can't figure it out tonight, I guess I'll try tech support. (Actually, I went ahead and sent an email to tech support to see if I can set up a call soon in case tonight doesn't go any better).

Damn I hope you get it working. Just call guru they would prob have you up and running in minutes..good luck

I did a trial cook tonight on the 22.5 with the Cajun Bandit door & compression latch and with the CyberQ WiFi (in Ad Hoc mode).

The CB door and compression latch worked GREAT! Not one puff of smoke escaped my door for a change. While watching, I even noticed a distinct patch where the black paint on the outside of the middle section of the WSM had been discolored/burnt in the path of the escaping heat & smoke from the OEM door. Those days are over.

The learning curve on the CyberQ is still steep. The first trial was a complete failure. I'm not sure whether to blame user error or ill-fitting parts. I thought that the fan needed to go further into the adapter from the beginning, but I'm not a small guy and have been known to break a thing or two while making square pegs fit into round holes, so I was hesitant to force the issue on the first try. I figured out the problem too late to correct it (I pushed the fan as far as I could into the adapter but apparently didn't have the fan pushed far enough into it, and I couldn't do much about it with the charcoal going).

I also used a Maverick et-732 on this cook and clipped the CyberQ probe to the Maverick clip to keep the two probes close, but the two probes consistently stayed around 20 degrees F apart. When the CyberQ read 275, the Maverick read 255 ... when the CyberQ read 295, the Maverick read 275. They were about 1 inch away from each other, and not all that close to the edge. I'll have to check them both in boiling water. I'll regroup and try again in the next day or two.

For now, I LOVE the CB door & compression latch, and the jury is still out on the CyberQ.

I want to give a BIG thank you to BBQ Guru for EXCELLENT customer service. I sent an email to their tech support late yesterday afternoon (after 5:00PM their time), and they called me this morning and fixed my problem. Chuck (with BBQ Guru) called and spent around 20 minutes on the phone walking me through everything. He had me go through the usual setup steps to make sure it wasn't user error. When that didn't work, he emailed an updated version of the software and a program to load it onto the CyberQ, walked me through updating the CyberQ software, then went through my router settings, suggested one tweak to the settings (which worked), and confirmed that I could access the CyberQ controls on my network. BBQ Guru has a new fan.

Glad to hear you got it worked out and the BBQ Guru came through with great customer service,thanks for the updates.

I figured out that the issue with the fan and adapter was definitely user error. I had the damper completely closed ... yeah, reading the instructions might've been a good idea after all. Anyway, I got into infrastructure mode, did the port forwarding, started a test burn (with the damper open this time (1/2 way open)), and am monitoring my pit temp from the office as it is closing in on 250. If it will hold steady there for awhile, I'll probably bump it up to 275 in an hour or so to see how it does with adjustments from afar.

Glad its working look forward to hearing about the test run.

It worked great. I screwed up and didn't get the lid seated well, so I overshot the 250 target. I made a quick trip home to see why it was running hot, fixed that, set it at 275, and it was holding 275 by the time I got back to the office. Before leaving the office for a 4:00PM appointment, I used my phone to set the temp at 250, and it had that dialed in and steady before my meeting was over. As I left the meeting on the way to the grocery store, I set it at 225, and it was holding 225 by the time I finished at the store. From the store, I set it to 200, and it got down to there while I was unloading groceries at home. I decided to use it to do a reverse sear on some burgers for dinner, so dialed it back up to 225. It climbed back to 225 and held that for around 35 minutes until the burgers were ready for searing on the kettle. After that, I closed the top vent to around 1/4 open and set it at 160F (I've read that 160 is a decent holding temperature for brisket). It took around an hour to get down to 160, but it got there and held it. I've read that you can cold smoke salmon at around 110F, so after it held 160 for awhile, I closed the top vent completely and set it at 110. It's been around 1.5 hours, and it's down to 117. I'll probably let it burn through the night to see if it can hit and hold 110. I suspect that it could probably hold 110 if I started with a thin snake set-up. I doubt I'll try that any time soon. The port forwarding worked fine for when I was away from home, and all I had to do was uncheck one box in the router software to turn off port forwarding when I got home.

I'm loving this thing. Set-up was a pain, but it was well worth it. This feels about like setting the oven temp and walking away ... except that I can't monitor and change settings on my oven from my phone while I'm at work or running errands, and ovens don't hold temperatures anywhere near this steady. I bought a brisket at lunch for another practice run this weekend. I'm looking forward to dialing in 275F before I go to bed and sleeping well, knowing that it'll be at 275 when I wake up.

Glad to hear the test run went well, I bet you can't wait to do the brisket with your new toy. thanks for sharing.

Thanks! My pleasure. It's good to find folks who understand my enthusiasm for this stuff! It's also great to learn from the successes and failures of so many of you guys and gals who have so much more experience than I do. I'm looking forward to moving beyond a test burn and actually cooking with my new toy (I'm not counting the burgers).