What Is Meant By Stoker "Learns"?
- Thread starter D Arita
- Start date
Stoker monitors what amount of air causes what degree rise in the fire. It accumulates this knowledge so that over time, it knows what it takes to bring the fire up to the temp and no more.
There is nothing you need to do for this to work though. The system should learn the way your smoker responses to additional air.
That said, I think this is a tough problem as the fire itself is not very predictable. So overshoots can still occur.
Be sure you install the blower in the right orientation. If installed upside down, it appears to work but any breeze will cause air to get in when the blower is not running, causing temp overshoots. You can tell sometimes this is happening in stokerlog by watching whether the fan had come on at all before the overshoot. If it had not, it is likely the damper.
BTW, this recently happened to me even though I had the blower in the right orientation. I took the blower off and noticed the damper had stuck in the open position. A bit of grease is all it takes for it to do that. In the process of getting it loose, I broke the tiny tabs that hold it
. So I created a new hinge by gluing a piece of wire from a straightened paper clip! Works better than even before
.
There is nothing you need to do for this to work though. The system should learn the way your smoker responses to additional air.
That said, I think this is a tough problem as the fire itself is not very predictable. So overshoots can still occur.
Be sure you install the blower in the right orientation. If installed upside down, it appears to work but any breeze will cause air to get in when the blower is not running, causing temp overshoots. You can tell sometimes this is happening in stokerlog by watching whether the fan had come on at all before the overshoot. If it had not, it is likely the damper.
BTW, this recently happened to me even though I had the blower in the right orientation. I took the blower off and noticed the damper had stuck in the open position. A bit of grease is all it takes for it to do that. In the process of getting it loose, I broke the tiny tabs that hold it
James Harvey
TVWBB Pro
I've been using the Stoker 5 CFM for 18 months now and I've read about the "learning" abilities from a few here. I would have to defer to Amir on most of this as he built Stokerlog and probably has the best info on cook patterns.
In my opinion, the system has done very well at getting temps to settings and keeping them there. Some boast about variations that are within 5F either way. I've always had larger variations but they have been well within the expected range for this type of equipment.
Has it learned my pit (18" WSM) better from first cook, I would say no. That said, per Amir's post, there are so many variables that affect a cook I wouldn't expect this kind of accuracy.
My input from personal use and posts here is mainly that an ATC gets you to temp then works it's best to keep you there. That basically means the blower will blow until you hit the set temp then stop. It has no impact on reducing pit temps. This is up to the user to fuel the pit properly. If you add too much lit fuel, you will overshoot and have to wait for air starvation to get temps back down. Opposite, I've never had an issue with starting with too little lit.
My basic advice, start with very little lit and let the blower get you to temp. Once you're there, it's much easier to stay within an acceptable range depending on external factors (mostly wind).
Sorry for the long post but I see this question in different forms pretty often. An ATC is not magic, it works as best it can given the variables thrown at it.
JDH
In my opinion, the system has done very well at getting temps to settings and keeping them there. Some boast about variations that are within 5F either way. I've always had larger variations but they have been well within the expected range for this type of equipment.
Has it learned my pit (18" WSM) better from first cook, I would say no. That said, per Amir's post, there are so many variables that affect a cook I wouldn't expect this kind of accuracy.
My input from personal use and posts here is mainly that an ATC gets you to temp then works it's best to keep you there. That basically means the blower will blow until you hit the set temp then stop. It has no impact on reducing pit temps. This is up to the user to fuel the pit properly. If you add too much lit fuel, you will overshoot and have to wait for air starvation to get temps back down. Opposite, I've never had an issue with starting with too little lit.
My basic advice, start with very little lit and let the blower get you to temp. Once you're there, it's much easier to stay within an acceptable range depending on external factors (mostly wind).
Sorry for the long post but I see this question in different forms pretty often. An ATC is not magic, it works as best it can given the variables thrown at it.
JDH