New Guru "NANO" controller


 
R

RobM (YankeeRob)

TVWBB Super Fan
While I was at Harpoon I got to talk to Fred and Bob about their new products. Specifically about the new pit they got coming called the Onyx which looks like a Fatboy but is much more lightweight.

Fred whipped out the latest replacement for the "pitminder" which is called the Guru Nano. It's about the size of a matchbox and only measures pit temp to control the fan. They said it should be considerable cheaper than their other controllers and has the same adaptive algorithm as the DigiII.

So if you're looking and cost is an issue you might consider this.

-rob
 
$105 for the base unit. it seems like a nice little unit, but i think if you were going to pay 105, you may as well save up 65 more dollars and get the digiQ II.unless of course you don't care about reading the meat temp from the controler or actually seeing what the temperature is set at. the nano is automatically set to 225º and you can push the up or down arrow to set it in 5º increments with each push of the button,but you can't see the numbers. though that wouldn't be an issue if you have a remote therm already. here's the link to the nano
 
Yeah, I talked with the guys at Freds Music and BBQ about it. At first look, the unit is a downgrade in my opinion to pitminder. you have no indication as to what the temperature is set to. Out the box, it is set to 225 and you have to use the up and down arrows to take it up in 5 degree increments. Well what if you get busy and for about how many increments you set it to? I just don't like that design. At least with the pit minder, you have some kind of guage to see where you believe the pit temp is set to.
 
That was my reply as well. They just said to watch the temp of your pit. The other thing is that smaller is not necessarily better. It could very easily be lost or stolen.
 
Perhaps people will want this for an add on but if you are starting from scratch this gets pretty expensive for what it proves. $105 for unit, $57 for blower, $17 for adapter = $179.
 
The Onyx is a lightweight version of a Backwoods Fatboy/Chubby. It's still in prototype but it has maybe 8 shelves, has thick insulation between the double walls, silicon gaskets on the doors, and super reinforced firebox.

It's so insulated it will run on a fraction of the fuel that a TallBoy uses. It also weighs less but does not have wheels. My only criticism would be that it's not gravity fed like a Stumps or Superior Smoker and doesn't use convection like a BWS. It has just a firebox on the bottom. They were using a large ceramic stone between the firebox and the meat grates. Kind of the same thing you would use on a TallBoy.

I was quite impressed with it and it's still a prototype. I didn't get around to discussing prices but my guess is that it's going to be slightly more than a TallBoy which will put it at the $1500 to $2K mark. It's pretty solidly fabricated, requiring more shop time and materials than a TallBoy.

Their target date for launch is at the end of summer.

-rob
 
Thanks, I was hoping for something like a Stumps only light weight and was able to break down like the TallBoy or Three Bay Caterer. The firebox would be better suited if it was wing nutted to the system so it wasn't like the already awesome 22" WSM. I'll wait to hear more, Thanks. Bill
 
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