Lots of threads to help you out here. Just look around
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For now, here is a two cent summary. If all you want is to set a temprature and have it hold, they both do the job but the Guru is probably easier to configure and use by a bit.
If on the other hand, you want to see how your cook is doing from anywhere, using a PC, your phone, work computer, etc. then stoker is the only game in town. You can do cool things like having your PC play some music if the fire goes out in the middle of the night for example, or the food becomes ready sooner than you thought.
You can also completely control your smoker from inside of your house. In winter time when it is wet or cold here, I sit inside, monitor the cook and am able to for example increase the temp if it is taking too long for the food to become ready. Or see if the temp is oscilating telling me the fire may be close to going out.
Using the graphing capability of stokerlog (program I wrote to control the stoker) you have a full log of how your 16 hour smoking session has gone. It tells you a lot about how your unit and smoker are working. You can show it to people and ask what they think of it. Save temprature settings for future cooks, etc.
The stoker probes are also very nicely designed in that you can extend them easily without impacting accuracy.
Since a lot of the intelligence in the system comes from the program I wrote, the system can keep getting better over time, wehereas a box like Guru will have the same features it does now, a few years from now.
The only thing you have to be prepared with stoker is that the company is not always responsive to your inquiries. If you send email, no one will probably answer. If you leave voicemail, same will be true. But if you talk and get a hold of John, the owner, all is well. The company is highly ethical but you can think otherwise, if you send email and it seems there is no one there.
Finally, there is a strong network of poeple who can help you with stoker here. We can walk you through just about anything and I have a good link into John and his software developer.
So all in all, once you get through buying a unit and having it, stoker goes miles beyond Guru. But if you want a simpler, buying and using experience, go with Guru.
Someone may chime in with a less biased view regarding stoker than me
. But all in all, I consider the stokre a huge bargain. It should be priced at 2X of what it is now and with it, the extra profits used to set up proper customer service. But it isn't. We get a bargain with some hassle buying it sometimes.
Hope this helps.