First Overnight Smoke - PartyQ Failure


 
W. Holder III

W. Holder III

TVWBB Member
Had the smoker going and butt on by 5:00pm last night for a work lunch today. Set my PartyQ to 240 and made sure my Maverick probes were working properly. Everything was just fine until 3:30 am when the maverick alarm went off and alerted me that my smoker temp had fallen to 200. The worst possible time for the fire to die, right in the middle of the stall. The butt was at 170. For some reason the PartyQ temp probe kept reading 240 so the fan never kicked on to stoke the coals. Had to light more charcoal, pull off the PartyQ and then watch it for a bit. Got it back up to 250 and tried to go back to sleep at 4:30. Finally hit 195 this morning around 6:45.

This was only my second time to ever use the PartyQ. Surely the temp probe doesn't go bad that fast? I have no idea what caused it to get a faulty reading like that, but I would have been fine if it had done its job. No harm no foul I guess. The pork came out great, but I am a sleepy dude.

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14 hours later

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Held it in foil and towels and a cooler for 5 hours and it was still too hot to touch barehanded. I can't believe how long those things stay hot.

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I had a similar experience the first time that I used my Party Q. I set up the smoker with the "minion method" like I had always done before. I started the cooker at a low temperature and I thought that the Party Q would bring it up and maintain. But it never really came up to temp. I have a 22.5". Since then, I pack the cooker with unlit charcoal and I fire up an entire chimney of lit charcoal. I cook with an empty water pan. I set the controller for 250 F (for butts) and open all vents until the temperature reads around 260 F. I then close the other 2 vents and let the Party Q take over. It will quickly settle into the 250 F range and I easily get 12 hours of cooking time. I have never had an issue cooking in warm weather. In cold weather < 30 F, I did have the batteries run out during a cook. I guess that my take home message is the fan on the Party Q is really good for maintaining temp, but you need to start with a hot fire and bring your temperature up at the beginning of the cook. I hope that helps. Your PP looks great! Better luck with the Party Q next time.
 
Sorry for the lack of sleep but the pork came out looking great...gotta be proud of that part!!

Nice
 
The butt looked great. That's too bad about the party q. It seems like no matter the brand, bbq guru or stoker peoe either have a) great results or b) total failure with them. You should contact the manufacturer. I bet they will make the problem right.
 
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