Just curios if anyone has had a similar experience.
I purchased a used but in good shape BBQ Guru PartyQ V2 for my WSM14. The first thing I did was purchase a new probe and check that against my thermoworks smoke pit probe in both an ice bath and boiling water, in both instances it was within 1-3 Deg. F. I decided to do a test run on some smoked cream cheese being its a short/low consequence cook. I brough the temp up to 240 naturally and then plugged in the guru and set the setpoint to 250 letting it come up to temp the rest of the way, giving it another half hour or so to settle in. I noticed that the guru was reading 250 but my thermoworks was reading 239 (probes were within 1" of each other in center of top grate). Knowing that the partyq does not have open lid detection, I shut it off while adding the cream cheese. I closed the lid and let temperatures stabilize until it was no longer climbing (about 218) before turning the guru back on. Then it proceeded to run the fan constant at 100% even after reaching setpoint of 250. I finally shut it off after it was not stopping at 275 (Thermoworks 264). Once I turned it back on it kept the fan off being that it was 20 degrees above setpoint. Eventually it settled back down to setpoint but over the next hour my Thermoworks was reading anywhere from 226-242 all while the guru was saying it was at 250. I know the guru snaps to setpoint anywhere between +/-5 degrees but my thermoworks was seeing larger swings than that. It also did not seem like the same level of consistent smoke exhaust when compared to running naturally aspirated, it seemed to choke the fire and then stoke it back up. I also noticed some ash on the cream cheese but seeing as i have only ever cooked meat maybe this occurs naturally aspirated as well. But with the fan adapter pointing mostly down it seems like this is inevitable especially on the smaller smoker. Maybe I am just ranting here but so far it was not as expected, I feel like i can hold more consistent temps running naturally aspirated but was hoping for something to give more peace of mind overnight. I will give it a few more tries before either going back to NA or trying something that runs the fan variably vs. on/off. If anyone has any pointers I would love to hear them.
I purchased a used but in good shape BBQ Guru PartyQ V2 for my WSM14. The first thing I did was purchase a new probe and check that against my thermoworks smoke pit probe in both an ice bath and boiling water, in both instances it was within 1-3 Deg. F. I decided to do a test run on some smoked cream cheese being its a short/low consequence cook. I brough the temp up to 240 naturally and then plugged in the guru and set the setpoint to 250 letting it come up to temp the rest of the way, giving it another half hour or so to settle in. I noticed that the guru was reading 250 but my thermoworks was reading 239 (probes were within 1" of each other in center of top grate). Knowing that the partyq does not have open lid detection, I shut it off while adding the cream cheese. I closed the lid and let temperatures stabilize until it was no longer climbing (about 218) before turning the guru back on. Then it proceeded to run the fan constant at 100% even after reaching setpoint of 250. I finally shut it off after it was not stopping at 275 (Thermoworks 264). Once I turned it back on it kept the fan off being that it was 20 degrees above setpoint. Eventually it settled back down to setpoint but over the next hour my Thermoworks was reading anywhere from 226-242 all while the guru was saying it was at 250. I know the guru snaps to setpoint anywhere between +/-5 degrees but my thermoworks was seeing larger swings than that. It also did not seem like the same level of consistent smoke exhaust when compared to running naturally aspirated, it seemed to choke the fire and then stoke it back up. I also noticed some ash on the cream cheese but seeing as i have only ever cooked meat maybe this occurs naturally aspirated as well. But with the fan adapter pointing mostly down it seems like this is inevitable especially on the smaller smoker. Maybe I am just ranting here but so far it was not as expected, I feel like i can hold more consistent temps running naturally aspirated but was hoping for something to give more peace of mind overnight. I will give it a few more tries before either going back to NA or trying something that runs the fan variably vs. on/off. If anyone has any pointers I would love to hear them.