Bruce Bissonnette
TVWBB Guru
My Pitmaster iQue 110 arrived Thursday. Friday and Saturday I participated in the GLBBQA Winter Thaw Comp in Eagle, MI, I'm the rib guy on our team and cook on a 22 1/2 WSM.
To give the iQue a fair test I decided to follow the directions exactly as written for the 110 using a WSM; including using water in the pan which I never do.
At 5am Saturday morning, when the temperature here in Michigan was 38º, I filled the WSM with 2 chimneys of unlit Stubbs briquettes and lit 1 chimney. I filled the pan with water. Once I dumped the the lit charcoal into the ring I assembled the WSM, and I ran the temp probe cable through the door of the WSM and up to the middle of the top grate about 3 inches above the grate and placed alongside a very accurate Taylor digital probe. I then placed the lid on, opened the vent about a 1/4" and plugged in the iQue temp probe, I set the temp on the unit just above 225 (I was shooting for 235), and then plugged in the power chord.
I immediately noticed a blinking green light on the front of the unit and heard the fan of the iQue kick on, not loud at all, but if you're close to the unit you can hear it. I watched the Taylor probe temp climb and as it reached 226º the light on the iQue went to solid green, the Taylor probe continued climbing until it reached 242, then it stopped and settled in and eventually dropped to 233.
This whole process of reaching temp and settling in at 233, took 17 minutes. My WSM sat at 231 to 237 degrees, according to the Taylor, from 5:20am until I took the ribs off at noon.
I took the lid off the WSM 4 times during the whole process, and each time the iQue responded with a blinking red/green code. Shortly after the lid was replaced it would go to the blinking green, then to solid green once the set temp was achieved, it took maybe 3-5 minutes for this to happen.
I could not be happier with this products performance on the first run, it performed as advertised, it produced a steady, accurate temperature over the length of the cook. It was $119 well spent in my opinion.
If I have one recommendation for the producer of the iQue 110, it would be to make a sturdier temp probe cable, IMHO the cable appears that it might be subject to wear and tear.
Oh, by the way, I took 2nd in ribs out of the 15 teams that were there. Sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted to give a full report on my experience with this product.
To give the iQue a fair test I decided to follow the directions exactly as written for the 110 using a WSM; including using water in the pan which I never do.
At 5am Saturday morning, when the temperature here in Michigan was 38º, I filled the WSM with 2 chimneys of unlit Stubbs briquettes and lit 1 chimney. I filled the pan with water. Once I dumped the the lit charcoal into the ring I assembled the WSM, and I ran the temp probe cable through the door of the WSM and up to the middle of the top grate about 3 inches above the grate and placed alongside a very accurate Taylor digital probe. I then placed the lid on, opened the vent about a 1/4" and plugged in the iQue temp probe, I set the temp on the unit just above 225 (I was shooting for 235), and then plugged in the power chord.
I immediately noticed a blinking green light on the front of the unit and heard the fan of the iQue kick on, not loud at all, but if you're close to the unit you can hear it. I watched the Taylor probe temp climb and as it reached 226º the light on the iQue went to solid green, the Taylor probe continued climbing until it reached 242, then it stopped and settled in and eventually dropped to 233.
This whole process of reaching temp and settling in at 233, took 17 minutes. My WSM sat at 231 to 237 degrees, according to the Taylor, from 5:20am until I took the ribs off at noon.
I took the lid off the WSM 4 times during the whole process, and each time the iQue responded with a blinking red/green code. Shortly after the lid was replaced it would go to the blinking green, then to solid green once the set temp was achieved, it took maybe 3-5 minutes for this to happen.
I could not be happier with this products performance on the first run, it performed as advertised, it produced a steady, accurate temperature over the length of the cook. It was $119 well spent in my opinion.
If I have one recommendation for the producer of the iQue 110, it would be to make a sturdier temp probe cable, IMHO the cable appears that it might be subject to wear and tear.
Oh, by the way, I took 2nd in ribs out of the 15 teams that were there. Sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted to give a full report on my experience with this product.
