New OBS Owner; Long time Lurker - Comments and a Question

[jrfuda]

Got my OBS last week and got to set it up tonight (as part of birthday festivities, as it is my gift).

I got an Auber PID with it from the get go, after learning the advantages of them while using one of Auber's models for espresso machines.

Out of the box my OBS did not work - at least not the generator. A quick call to the 800 number and they had me do a quick disasemble of the smoker, where we found a wire that was not conected (blue wire coming off the power indicator light). Reconnected it and all was fixed. Very important since I'm doing ribs in the morning (using Icemans competition ribs recipe/guide).

I went ahead and seasoned the smoker tonight. I set the PID to 200 and loaded 6 bisquettes and 3 Bubba Pucks (I've been lurking on this board for quite a while and had been planning this for a while). The session went well, with the PID, according to its display, maintaining the 200F I set it to within +/- 1F.. However - now for my question - the OBS' built-in analog thermometer registered a constant 175F. Is this the common? Is the built-in that far off. I know my PID would be a few degrees high (using the wall mounted sensor) becuase the smoker was empty. Is the analog thermometer that far off, or could my PID need calibrating?

I'm going to use my Maverick wireless, inserted through the damper, in the morning when I'm warming the OBS up to get a "third opinion." If the PID does seem off after this, I'll adjust it's setting by the delta (so I can get those ribs going) and work on calibrating it later.

Thanks to all for all the sound advice y'all have shared here. Look forward to hearing from you.

[Gizmo]

Welcome JR.

I suspect your door thermometer is not that far off and what you are seeing is the difference in temperature between the bottom of the box and the upper 1/3 of it (location of the door thermo).  With a load this difference may increase.  How low or how close to the heating element is the PID thermocouple?  If it is very close to the heating element, your overall box temp will stay lower.  The vent openings in the VTRAY can also affect the heat flow up into the box but yours being new, you should not have that problem with them getting pressed more closed with use and scrubbing.

[Caribou]

Welcome to the forum jrfuda and happy birthday!
I have no experience with PID's but there are many great folks here, like Gizmo above, that really know their stuff and are so helpful.
Carolyn

[HCT]

Hey jrfuda, welcome to the forum

[jrfuda]

Thanks guys.

Once I loaded the OBS this morning, the PID, analog and Mav thermometers were all in synch. The ribs came out great. 6 hours at 225 + 3 hours FTC (my guests were late). I think they were in a hour or so too long in the smoker - I was distracted by someting else - so the end ris on each 1/2 rack (2 racks, or 4-half racks total) were a little dryer than I liked. But everyone agreed they were among the best they'd ever had.

When I did the FTC, I used an electric cooler/warmer (one of those 12V plugin-coolers) and placed it in warm mode. It did a great job of keeping the ribs warm for the extended FTC. Temp stayed about 125 in the cooler (used the mav in the cooler) and the ribs in the foil & towel were much warmer, close to a "fresh from the oven" temp when we ate them. Much more elegent that pre-heating the cooler with hot water, though probably the same end.

Next week it's some Carolina-style pulled pork.