Happy Holidays!


 

WBegg

TVWBB Pro
Just wanted to wish all forum members a VERY Merry Christmas and happy Holidays.

Cheers, Mates and Sheilas,
W
 
Merry Xmas.....I heard Santa doesn't use a servo ;)

SantaBBQhm.png
 
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Merry Christmas! Looks like Santa and I have something in common then. I find the servo doesn't do anything on my wood-fired smoker.
 
Merry Christmas! Looks like Santa and I have something in common then. I find the servo doesn't do anything on my wood-fired smoker.

I'm starting to think the same thing. I used to get great cooks with just a fan on my 18" WSM, but for some reason decided to delve into this whole Fan/Damper Fandango. I may have to get back to the roots, and try the fan only again, to see how it regulates.

I'll be sure to post the results.
 
I wanted to ask what advantage a damper/servo has over a blower fan(which can provide low cfms)? Is it agreed upon by most that the damper/servo is the best through comparisons at controlling their temps? I know a fan can blow ashes and such, but wouldn't a closed fan system be better at controlling temps on a windy day?

Wouldn't any sort of wind make a damper/servo control very hard to control....the amount of air getting into the bbq 'randomly' would really confuse the PID inside of HM?
 
I do damper only on my Primo XL and get consistent temps. I think the Heatermeter does a fine job dealing with wind, and such at least in my experience. If anything I would argue a fan would be more susceptible to wind as even at 0% if there is no damper the wind will blow right in the fan, with a fan+damper or damper only approach 0% truly is 0% (on the controlled vent anyway).

From my thinking a fan is really most beneficial when it comes to getting up to temp or ramping temp up very quickly.

Before I built my heatermeter I would babysit the primo and still keep pretty solid temps just working the vent. I just figured I'd go with something simple and only worry about the vent (although how simple my vent control set up is may be debatable.

Just my .02
 
I'm starting to think the same thing. I used to get great cooks with just a fan on my 18" WSM, but for some reason decided to delve into this whole Fan/Damper Fandango. I may have to get back to the roots, and try the fan only again, to see how it regulates.

I'll be sure to post the results.

DavidNP said:
I wanted to ask what advantage a damper/servo has over a blower fan(which can provide low cfms)? Is it agreed upon by most that the damper/servo is the best through comparisons at controlling their temps? I know a fan can blow ashes and such, but wouldn't a closed fan system be better at controlling temps on a windy day?

Wouldn't any sort of wind make a damper/servo control very hard to control....the amount of air getting into the bbq 'randomly' would really confuse the PID inside of HM?

Ain't nothing like the real thing... I've never heard the roto damper doesn't work, I guess the "open-scorch" version isn't so great according to the "creator"s comments above.
 
I do damper only on my Primo XL and get consistent temps. I think the Heatermeter does a fine job dealing with wind, and such at least in my experience. If anything I would argue a fan would be more susceptible to wind as even at 0% if there is no damper the wind will blow right in the fan, with a fan+damper or damper only approach 0% truly is 0% (on the controlled vent anyway).

From my thinking a fan is really most beneficial when it comes to getting up to temp or ramping temp up very quickly.

Before I built my heatermeter I would babysit the primo and still keep pretty solid temps just working the vent. I just figured I'd go with something simple and only worry about the vent (although how simple my vent control set up is may be debatable.

Just my .02

I used an older auber temp controller that has a fan with a simple gravity damper(closes when fan is off, pushed open with airflow)....and it works really well at holding temps. So I'd agree that if there was no damper at all then any wind would be a problem....

I'm sure both fan only or fan&servo work....I'm just wondering if using a servo/damper is 'proven' to be a better solution....
 
I used the passive ping pong ball valve and it worked great as well, but different. Since passive valves close off when the HM goes to zero output you tend to get a puff puff puff action when your pit is skirting the high side of your setpoint, where a damper can open just a crack and allow the air flow to be steady trickle.

The other part of the servo damper equation is running the pit with the blower off and servo valve only controlling the air flow, which is what I do for low and slow cooking. This reduces the overall air flow, uses less coal, allows the top vent to be more open than you would with the blower running all the time. As a result off less air flow and wider top vent your food dries out less and smoke moves more freely out of the top vent instead of being trapped inside and rolling around a few times before it finds it's way out of the small openings in the top vent (as required when the fan is blowing during the cook)

On a bullet type smoker I find a properly constructed "air burner" limits convection flow enough to control overshoot without any sort of damper at all in most cases, though a servo damper setup works well too. So there are many ways to go at it, but the servo damper is the one that gives you the most options, and in a kamado the passive damper only mode is something that sets it above the other methods.
 
Ain't nothing like the real thing... I've never heard the roto damper doesn't work, I guess the "open-scorch" version isn't so great according to the "creator"s comments above.

Passive agressive much?

Frankly, I find a servo is completely unnecessary and not required to produce great results. The HeaterMeter is more than capable, on its own, to produce results that rival any "professional" barbecue joint.

Perhaps there is some science behind the speculation that there's some sort of draft stoking a fire. However, I am yet to see any empirical evidence to support those claims.
 
Servo dampers serve more purpose on kamado's and other well insulated grills, while still effective on bullet smokers and other thin walled grills, these grills bleed lots of heat so dampers are not as badly needed. It is true in pretty much any setup you will find you need to run the top vent closed more with a fan driven system and can run it wider open with a servo damper system. The servo damper setup allows the HM to run the pit more like when you are manually adjusting the vents, while the forced air blower control changes the dynamics a bit.
 
...I'm sure both fan only or fan&servo work....I'm just wondering if using a servo/damper is 'proven' to be a better solution....

I agree I think all of these methods will work and have shown to work quite well. Not sure it would be really feasible to "prove" any method better than another as tuning and other factors come into play. I'd say they each have their own benefits for various scenarios. For me personally it was pretty trivial to create linkage to connect a servo to the factory damper on my primo and it gave me the benefit of something that for my purposes is more "integrated". The end result I am planning is a setup where the heater meter is fully integrated into the primo area of a built in outdoor kitchen. This will likely involve having the screen and controls remote from the actual heatermeter "brains" and back mounted into something fixed.

For someone with a WSM or other grill that might be moved around more regularly something removable makes a ton more sense.

My theory that a damper only control would be more wind resistant than a fan only control with a gravity managed damper in the fan was based on the idea that wind (from the fan) is literally what moves the damper in those fan only systems. By definition it has to be susceptible to it by my thinking. Again, in practice it may not be that big of a deal given that the top vent is typically clamped down much tighter.

I'm super impressed with the enginuity of things like the roto-damper and have no doubt they perform incredibly well for my purposes it just seems like more complication than necessary. Also I suck at metal fabrication so building an adapter to attach to the primo is harder for me than using parts I have on hand to make linkage to control the factory vent. I'm also biased as I do a fair number of robotics projects and have all that crap on hand anyway.

To each their own and from my perspective I love seeing all the solutions posted here, always gives me new ideas for various things to try
 
Ain't nothing like the real thing... I've never heard the roto damper doesn't work, I guess the "open-scorch" version isn't so great according to the "creator"s comments above.

Actually, it works like a charm, but I run it in servo open/close only mode, which leads me to believe that a fan/flap setup would work just fine. One less component to fail. I'm not saying a fan/servo damper isn't suited for other applications and smoker setups.

5lSgsEq.jpg
 
I agree I think all of these methods will work and have shown to work quite well. Not sure it would be really feasible to "prove" any method better than another as tuning and other factors come into play. I'd say they each have their own benefits for various scenarios. For me personally it was pretty trivial to create linkage to connect a servo to the factory damper on my primo and it gave me the benefit of something that for my purposes is more "integrated". The end result I am planning is a setup where the heater meter is fully integrated into the primo area of a built in outdoor kitchen. This will likely involve having the screen and controls remote from the actual heatermeter "brains" and back mounted into something fixed.

For someone with a WSM or other grill that might be moved around more regularly something removable makes a ton more sense.

My theory that a damper only control would be more wind resistant than a fan only control with a gravity managed damper in the fan was based on the idea that wind (from the fan) is literally what moves the damper in those fan only systems. By definition it has to be susceptible to it by my thinking. Again, in practice it may not be that big of a deal given that the top vent is typically clamped down much tighter.

I'm super impressed with the enginuity of things like the roto-damper and have no doubt they perform incredibly well for my purposes it just seems like more complication than necessary. Also I suck at metal fabrication so building an adapter to attach to the primo is harder for me than using parts I have on hand to make linkage to control the factory vent. I'm also biased as I do a fair number of robotics projects and have all that crap on hand anyway.

To each their own and from my perspective I love seeing all the solutions posted here, always gives me new ideas for various things to try

Yah, that's the beauty of the HM, it has the flexibility to work well with a huge range of setups, leaving it up to the user to decide what kind of rig to build. I prefer to use the RD3 on my kamado and an air-burner on my bullet smoker...
 

 

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