Guru or Stoker owner?
- Thread starter Russell Y
- Start date
LarryR
TVWBB Diamond Member
You know Russell if I had to guess I'd bet Guru outsells stoker at least 2:1. I Attribute the higher number of Stoker posts to the additional options the Stoker's architecture offers and Stokerlog.
To me the Guru seems pretty straight forward with not as many moving parts, documentation is probably better than Stokers, thus less questions.
What to ask Santa for? Depends on the person; if you think you would take advantage of some of the Internet capabilities of the Stoker and Stokerlog and you're semi comfortable with technology then no question Stoker. If you're looking for a straight forward set it and forget it ATC without all the bells and whistles, then I'd probably go Guru.
Mark me down on the Stoker side.
To me the Guru seems pretty straight forward with not as many moving parts, documentation is probably better than Stokers, thus less questions.
What to ask Santa for? Depends on the person; if you think you would take advantage of some of the Internet capabilities of the Stoker and Stokerlog and you're semi comfortable with technology then no question Stoker. If you're looking for a straight forward set it and forget it ATC without all the bells and whistles, then I'd probably go Guru.
Mark me down on the Stoker side.
"Better to have connected and lost, than to never have connected at all."Originally posted by Bryan S:
Yeah, all them stoker lost conection posts. LOL!
Stoker owner here.
I would ask Santa (or my wife for my birthday) for a Stoker.
Determining factors for me was the comparable price, a lot more versatile and has the ability to graph my cooks.
I do think the guru is a great product that I would purchase if Stoker were not an option.
I love the stoker. Only issues I had setting up was my own fault not knowing what I was doing. I haven't had any lost connection issue yet.
I think either way you cant go wrong. I would rather have the extra's with the stoker for around the same price as digi 2. You can use the stoker like the digi2 if you want.
I think either way you cant go wrong. I would rather have the extra's with the stoker for around the same price as digi 2. You can use the stoker like the digi2 if you want.
I'm in the camp of nice to have the options, necessary or not. Truth be told, I can run my WSM without any temp control device at all. But it's also nice to have the option to run temp control with a minimum of data all the way to near continuous data flow via Internet connectivity. Absent a big price difference, I'll take the options. I gather the Guru is a great system, but I have a Stoker so count me in the Stoker camp.
Larry D.
TVWBB Emerald Member
I have a Stoker, but only because I won it when the product was first being introduced. The way I use it, a Guru would probably work just fine for me. But if I were buying one or the other, and the prices were reasonably close, I'd buy the Stoker just because it appeals to my "gadget freak" nature.
Greg Maciejewski
TVWBB Member
I'm a Guru (DigiQ II) owner and love it. Although I love gadgets, I have no desire to have a Stoker on my WSM so put me on the Guru list.
I have both. I use the Stoker on the backyard pit when I am cooking at the house and I use the Guru on the tailgate/cookoff pit. This lets me use the remote notifications at the house so I can run errands and work on the honey-do list without having to keep a close eye on the pit. I use the simpler guru at tailgates and cookoffs where there is a lot of nosy people around who like to press buttons and lots of alcohol involved.
Jim Bloomfield
TVWBB Super Fan
I also have both. The Stoker is nice if you plan on hooking it to a computer.Any computer or all on your home network hook up to it easy. The new Guru CyberQ2 can be hooked up to a computer and can be remote accessed from another computer using software like "logmein".The Owner of "Stoker" is a one man show pretty much. So at times things take a little longer so planning ahead is needed. The folks at the BBQ Guru are a different story and their turn around times are good.If you plan to use a computer with your ATCS I would say the stoker is the popular choice. No Plans for a computer Use a DigiQ from the BBQ Guru. I like using a computer to monitor my cooks so I use my Stoker the most.
"Better to have connected and lost, than to never have connected at all."
No need too connect with the Guru, it does it all on it's own! Set the dials and come back later, and all is just swell Wally (from the Beave) LOL!.
LarryR
TVWBB Diamond Member
I wonder what sauce would go best with my graph, have to go with Number 5. You know B you hit it on the head, I don't have a lot of time on my hands to sit behind a desk during my cook (I do enough of that during the week) either. With Stoker I can leave go to the golf course, the store, car wash, get tricked into going to the mall with the SO and all the while communicate with my cooker in real time. If it looks like my cook is going to finish early I can drop the pit temp a bit (or head home), if it looks like she needs a little push I can raise the temp. If I have guests coming for dinner it can send them emails so they know when to start heading over for dinner based on meat temp. Or, I can just connect it to my cooker, set the temp, walk away and let it do it's thing without any real-time communication, internet connections etc. Best of both world brother, now if I could only get it to fetch my beers . . .
Nick Tabor
New member
I am looking for help. I am using the stoker for the first time. my problem is that the fan will not shut off. target temp-230, high alarm-240 and low alarm-210. I have unplugged the fan, and plugged back in. Also unplugged the temp sensors and plugged back in. Have tried turning off the unit and bringing it back up with no luck.
Originally posted by Bryan S:
I have enough in life too do, let alone screw around with internet connections and the WSM, I don't have alot of time on my hands/sit behind a desk all day long. I do have a life.
And yet you have over 8,000 posts on this message board.
Point being .. for me .. it is nice to have the options. Both in capabilities and upgrade-ability.
Originally posted by D Casten:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bryan S:
I have enough in life too do, let alone screw around with internet connections and the WSM, I don't have alot of time on my hands/sit behind a desk all day long. I do have a life.
And yet you have over 8,000 posts on this message board.
Point being .. for me .. it is nice to have the options. Both in capabilities and upgrade-ability. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Been here for many years, BuB! Helping as much as I can along the way.
Matthew Appler
TVWBB Super Fan
I have a Stoker, but my reasoning is non-usage based. I have some experience with the Tini board and 1-wire interfaces the product is built around, and I think that is pretty cool.
Both products seem to do an excellent job for what they were primarily intended for: Correlating the temperature of a thermocouple to the operation of a fan. So, after that, I guess you are really evaluating price, ease of use, and "bonus features".
I personally like the bonus features of the Stoker (for me). If I were recommending a device to someone else, I would tell them they couldn't go wrong with either device and they would have to make their own choice on price, ease of use, and "bonus features".
Note: My main purpose for using the Stoker (vs. the Maverick ET-73 which was my prior solution) is for overnight cooks so I can sleep! I now also use it for shorter cooks as a remote temperature sensor accessible from inside the house, but only because I have it. The ET-73 also worked for that purpose, and was a lot cheaper.
Both products seem to do an excellent job for what they were primarily intended for: Correlating the temperature of a thermocouple to the operation of a fan. So, after that, I guess you are really evaluating price, ease of use, and "bonus features".
I personally like the bonus features of the Stoker (for me). If I were recommending a device to someone else, I would tell them they couldn't go wrong with either device and they would have to make their own choice on price, ease of use, and "bonus features".
Note: My main purpose for using the Stoker (vs. the Maverick ET-73 which was my prior solution) is for overnight cooks so I can sleep! I now also use it for shorter cooks as a remote temperature sensor accessible from inside the house, but only because I have it. The ET-73 also worked for that purpose, and was a lot cheaper.
Matthew Appler
TVWBB Super Fan
Well, that's a bit difficult really. 1-wire is very timing dependent, so wireless is hard. There were some solutions for this, but they were cost prohibitive. For example: http://www.maxim-ic.com/produc...s/product.cfm?ID=392
1-wire requires power. So, if you are trying to get it inside a rotisserie, you still have the problem of providing power, even if you were truly wireless.
Now, one interesting thing is that you ONLY require 1 data+power wire (plus 1 ground) to make 1-wire work. I wonder if you could modify your rotisserie slightly to use two metal parts that are electrically isolated for data and power. That would be kind of fun to test. The amount of power you would be running over them would be very low. One of them could not be grounded however, so that could be a bit of a trick to get working.
Another solution would be to use one of those "anti-twist" phone jack connectors to allow it to rotate freely (I am assuming this is your problem). I'm guessing the heat wouldn't work well for those (plastic casing), but I'm betting you could modify it a little bit to work out. Remember, you really just need 2-wires (ground + data/power). Any two will work.
-Matt