Ok, I did my first smoke with the Stoker this past weekend. I did STL cut ribs because I wasn't ready to do an overnight (and didn't really have time.) My first observations:
* Setting up the fan was a little tricky. I should have set it up before I loaded the charcoal...the charcoal ring got in the way when I was putting the hardware in the vent to hold the adapter. Also, the hardware just BARELY was long enough to stick out of the hole so I could screw on the washer and wing nut. Finally, the adapter didn't fit very tight against the bowl of the WSM so I felt there was some air leakage. Does anyone have the same problem? After I shut down the Stoker the WSM stayed hot/warm for almost another 10 hours, even though everything on the bottom was closed. I'm thinking next smoke I will stuff some aluminum foil around the top of the adapter to seal it better.
* The Stokerlog program is very cool. I got things stabilized and left for a few hours. It was so cool to come back and see the chart of what had happened.
* The stoker was very stable. It got the temp set, and stayed within a degree or two almost the entire 8 hour smoke (I did the ribs at 225.) With the Auber (and, admittedly, a smaller fan) I often observed the temp drop drastically, and the Auber struggle to catch up, then overshoot. That could easily have been that the bigger fan was needed on the WSM 22.
* The Stokerlog tells you when the fan is blowing (and graphs it) so I could see what the device was doing to control the temp without going outside. With the Auber I would see the temp change, and go outside to see what the heck was going on. Far more information available with the Stoker. I didn't monitor food temp so I'm curious to do Pork Butt or Brisket and chart food temp as well.
* I set up Twitter but it wasn't working. I got everything working on my wireless network, but didn't enable remote access. One thing...the documentation doesn't tell what the default password is for making my Stoker's Web server read-only...anyone know? I searched Rock's and also this site. I can't find that info anywhere.
Thanks,
James