Sub Freezing Stoker Question


 
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Pat McCreight

TVWBB Pro
I've heard that people have trouble running the stoker in cold, sub-freezing temperatures.

While I have not had that problem, I am getting ready to do an overnight cook and want to make sure I take whatever precautions are necessary to avoid having to get up and fiddle with the stoker at 3 am.

I've heard of people putting the stoker probes in a plastic box with a heating pad plugged in. Does that work okay? Doesn't get too hot?

Any other ideas? I'll run extensions so the actual unit will be in my garage, but I hear the problem is with the connectors getting cold.
 
Pat, I have done 3 cooks and several other tests (3 hr burns) with snow on the ground. Down to 2 or 3 degrees. The stoker has always worked fine. My problems has been a lost conection with Amir's stokerlog. And it sounds like the problem is actually the wireless conection.
I have had several succesfull cooks with the stoker in sub-zero weather.
 
Thanks D - I can handle a lost wireless connection, since the stoker will run based on the last settings it received. I too have had success in cold cooks, but I haven't tried a cold overnight yet.
 
Pat, I'm one of the ones that uses the plastic box with the heating pad. And yes, it is more for the wireless router to stay warm to keep a connection with the laptop in the house running StokerLog. I've never had a problem with the Stoker unit itself in cold weather.

But I don't use the heating pad unless the outside temp is below 20F -- otherwise, it gets the wireless router too warm and then it has issues working just like when it gets too cold.

But regardless of the outside temp, I still lose connection during an overnight cook usually -- I think Amir is going to attempt an "auto-start" function on Stokerlog after a short delay. That will help with not having data until I get up to hit the "start" button again on Stokerlog.

It's strange though, I can do a 10 hour cook all day long and never lose connection. But overnight cooks almost always lose connection at some point during the night.
 
Ok, thanks everyone. I think I'll just run it as is, without the heating pad. I'll have the bridge and stoker unit in my garage, which should be around 20 degrees or so. I'll report back tomorrow.
 
Mine has worked great with temps in upper 20s and snow and such. I use wired ethernet.

As insurance, I place the stokre closer to the smoker. That way, it is warmer than the air around it.
 
Well, things worked out just fine. I put one pork butt on at 9 pm Friday night when it was 7 degrees outside. I smoked it at 225 for 17 hours. I started it low around 200, and finished around 275. I butterflied another pork butt and put it on at 8 am the next day. That one took about 8 hours. I ended up putting the wireless bridge on a heating pad in a plastic bin, but I left the top off. This was in my garage where it was probably 20 degrees. I didn't have any internet connectivity or stoker problems. The stoker held temps like rock, with a random spike at around 1 am. It went between 210 and 240 for about 40 minutes. Not sure why, but that's okay. I added some more coals around 10 am since I had to run some errands and didn't want the fire to die. Here's a pic of the graph. Bottom line, the stoker is just fine in the cold.

Pork013009.jpg
 
I had cold weather issues with my stoker when I first purchased, initial firmware. The newer firmware supposedly fixed it but I haven't put it out in the cold since.

I purchased a tupperware like container that I line with foam and put my stoker, router, and plug in it and the heat from the electronics keeps everything nice and warm.

The graph below is from beef jerky I made last week. Temperature outside was around 10 Deg F, the food probe was used to monitor the temp inside the tupperware box, notice how the temp stayed between 60 and 70 degrees for the entire cook.

album.ashx
 
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