22" WSM - Stoker - Need Help/Input Please

Long time lurker/reader here - but signed up 'cuz I need some help/input with my WSM/Stoker setup.

Here's what I have -
2 22" WSM's
Stoker with higher output power supply
2 10 cfm fans and WSM 22" adapter from Rock's
all necessary probes, extenders etc for watching pits and meats on 2 WSM's.
Linksys router for wi-fi and Stokerlog 6 on a netbook.

Problems:
1. This weekend when I hooked up the 2 fans and 2 pit probes on the stoker - I would associate the fan to proper probe. They would sit for like 30 min or so working right - then would revert and 'criss cross' between the two WSM's - so pit probe 1 was running fan 2 on WSM 2 and pit probe 2 was running fan 1 on WSM 1 - as you can see that's an issue I would re-associate them in the Stoker web interface, refresh the stokerlog and all would be fine for like 30 min or so and then they would switch back. Anyone seen this before?

2. I'm having problems with the WSM's and even burns for the big meats (butts and briskets). I'm running Royal Oak lump charcoal and I'm adding chunks of hickory (about fist sized) throughout the charcoal when loaded. We do run with water in water pans and exhaust vent is never more then 25% (usually less). We light a chimney and place the lit chimney in a spot closest to the fan and start fire there. It appears to only burn the charcoal closest to the fan. So what happens is for the first few hours, the temps are perfectly fine - rock solid. Then when the lump closest to the fan burns out, the fire never seems to burn well across the charcoal. And what happens is the stoker begins to oscillate..meaning we'll see a drop in temp - fan kicks in for a while, temp comes up (and may overshoot) and then the process repeats, but the 'waves' in the oscillation become more wide and longer the further the fire gets away from the fan. I did find this weekend that if I pulled the charcoal close to the fan area, it would steady out until the fuel there ran out again. Is this an issue with lump, poor fan/air circulation (it acts like it can't get the air over to the other side to burn ok) or an issue with how I'm loading the lump/chunks and starting the fire closest to the fan? I'm REALLY lost on this one. I'm also wondering if the dog bowl adapter from stoker is not good at directing the air in and maybe a guru adapter setup would be better...we run a guru on the WSM at times and it will hold the temps fine with a 5cfm fan - but the adapter does kind of force the air in differently than the dog bowl from Rock's.

I've been reading the forum looking for insight into this but I've not come across anything similar to my situation yet - so that's why the post.

Any help would be much appreciated - thanks guys!!

I called Kenny at Rock's BBQ a few minutes ago - he was kind enough to answer some of my questions.

1. For the fan/probe swapping issue - I apparently need to clear the database of associations and that problem should go away. This makes me think I need to pair them with a sharpie marker and this problem should never happen again.

2. On the fire - Kenny said lighting it close to the fan would be an issue - I need to be lighting the fire in the center with about a 1/2 chimney spread evenly over the center. This should help the fire burn even throughout the cook. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Any other thoughts/tips are much appreciated. I'll try to remember to post my findings on the test burn this weekend. Thanks!

Glad to hear Kenny was able to clear things up for you Shannon.

Oh, and welcome aboard!

Yes - I was too - good customer service there, taking time out to answer questions like that. And thanks for the welcome aboard!!

One other thing you might try is opening the top vent a little more. My 22 runs nicely with the top vent about 2/3 to 3/4 open. The fan doesn't have to run quite as much.

Mitch - can and will do - I ran it about 25% and Kenny confirmed on the phone he runs about the same. I was running it lower before this weekend, but it didn't seem to exhaust enough smoke and things seemed over smoky. The 25% worked pretty good in that arena, but I'll try your method as well.

Thanks for the tips and feel free to keep em coming