BBQ Guru

[NePaSmoKer]

I am looking at the BBQ Guru. Has anyone used one on their BS.

[Oldman]

This review was written by nsxbill and the images are from Sauce Bauce.

The BBQ Guru - Review

Olds

[icerat4]

I am just wondering why buy this when the new bs digitals will have a temp control and if ya have a temp probe with remote why bother to get this other stuff.I am a rookie here and i can say just the plain bs is really just fine for me.I have no problems checkin the bs when cooking seems thats what its all about anyway maybe thats just me.

[Habanero Smoker]

If you already have a BS, you save a lot of money by buying a brand new Raptor/Guru temperature control system for $249.00, and you get additional features. Currently I know that my system will maintain -+5 degrees under the worse conditions.

I learned sometime back when I was into buying computer equipment, let others due the beta testing (which is what Bradley is doing at this point), then 1 or 2 years latter when the bugs are worked out and additional features are added, then I make my purchase.

[icerat4]

Well i guess i jumped into this with the best of both worlds old and new bs.Kinda like stepping stones lol. ;D Besides going to the bathroom for me i think this next uint will do me justice all i was looking for were kinda of steady pace temps in the box the rest is no biggie.I dont mind watching waiting and putzing around whiled my stuff is a cookin. ;D Just sit back in the hot tub and wait for the grub ;) ;D

[nsxbill]

icerat4

I have had a Guru Competitor, and traded up to the Procom4 on the day it was announced.  I Have the prototype that was made when they were first testing it.  I love to smoke stuff, and I love to cook too.  The Procom4 is invaluable to me, because I just don't want to fret and adjust the smoker constantly to make sure it is in the temp range that is optimal for successful product.

I plan ultimately to load up a Caldera smoker, also a product manufactured by Thebbqguru, in the bus bay and hit the road in a Prevost motorhome on the BBQ circuit going from Coast to Coast to visit the grandchildren in Florida, or California, and generally have fun, see the country, and have something going to help out with fuel costs expenses while on the road.


What I want to use as the Smokermobile!
  I'm still looking for a good price on the Prevost, but this is what I want...

I want to be able to control the smoker remotely, and accurately.  The Raptor was my idea.  Shotgun Fred at thebbqguru developed it and sells the heck out of them to folks using it to control electrical smokers now.  We spent hours talking about the development.  He had the skills, and I knew what I wanted.  He saw the potential for some bucks, and I got the item I wanted without building it myself.

The Competitor and the Procom4 are compatible with electrical smokers (With the Raptor), and with other charcoal and wood smokers with a fan controller.  It is like a P.I.D. controller, but on steroids.  The Procom4 allows remote controlling of the smoker from your easy chair, or the far side of the property sitting around the pool.  It has a range of 200 yards - line of sight, and certainly anywhere within my house, upstairs or downstairs, and I can massage cabinet temp or meat temp goal and at the same time have alarm to let me know to change out the water, rotate the meat, or if away, to actually turn off the smoker when I am away from the house when the target temp of the meat is reached.

When I bought kitchen appliances, I bought stuff for features, bells and whistles and appearance I wanted.  I could have bought Sears stuff, but the Gaggenau, Miele, Viking and Northland was the stuff I liked.  The BBQ Guru items are not necessary to get a good product, but it sure makes it a lot more comfortable for me, and it works well.  I couldn't ask for more.  I have two of the SS Bradleys, and the Raptor will control and monitor both of the cabinets at once, and I can't control more than one, but if they are loaded equally,  controlling one will control the other too, and it will monitor the meat temp at both...again all remotely.

It was worth the extra expense for me, and I have no regrets.  Had it not been available, I would have used a P.I.D. controller, and in fact had purchased one, but ultimately will be hooking it up to my espresso machine in the motor home to control the boiler in it.  Lots of cool stuff out there.  To control the BS you can use an oven controller with thermostat, a P.I.D., or a BBQ Guru.  I use the Guru. It is great and recommend it to anyone who wants to kick back while you prepare some of the best smoked products in your BS.

If you can afford it, the Procom4 is the best.  The Competitor a close second.  If the PID works for you, go for it.  We all use different prep techniques and we use different cabinets to set our smoker on.  The BBQguru products are just a tool to makes things easier.  And I do love my toys!

Bill

[begolf25]

If you already have a BS, you save a lot of money by buying a brand new Raptor/Guru temperature control system for $249.00, and you get additional features. Currently I know that my system will maintain -+5 degrees under the worse conditions.

I learned sometime back when I was into buying computer equipment, let others due the beta testing (which is what Bradley is doing at this point), then 1 or 2 years latter when the bugs are worked out and additional features are added, then I make my purchase.

I totally agree Habanero,

I just got building my first PID with the help of TomG.  I will be posting some pictures of it as soon as I get a few minutes. Dealing with computers and computer equipment myself I do the same. Just as with most new products there will be bugs.  I wouldn't be surprised to see more then a few with the new digital model.  I also wouldn't be surprised to see Bradley release a newer version of the digital model within 1-2 years with more features after the get some feedback from this model.  Now that I have my PID which only cost about $100.00 I will sit back and see how this model performs before I make a purchase.

NePaSmoker,
If you already have a Bradley I wouldn't think twice about using a BBQ Guru or building a PID. Since I have not used mine yet this is not from experience but from reading the dozens of posts from members here that say this is the only way to go.  I will find out this weekend how mine works.

I must admit I also enjoyed taking the time and learning about the PID then building it.

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

begolf25,

Did you do your PID from scratch?

Arcs_n_Sparks

[begolf25]

Yes I did Arcs, but with a lot of help from TomG  :D  I will be posting some pictures and details of it tonight when I get home from work.

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Great. Looking forward to the pictures and details tonight.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[icerat4]

I guess i am an idiot.I dont get it at all .If this new bradley has a temp set on it and ya use a temp probe .Why do ya need this bbq guru deal.Arnt those the two and only things to watch the internal temps and the box temp.And with this new bs dosent it have this new temp regulator to set it to what ya want as far as temps of the inside of the box.AND with a remote internal temp guage what else am i missing here .Sorry for the stupidity.But i just dont get it. I could see these things being need with the older model but all this extra add ons seem a little over kill.Tell me what and why i would need these other add on this new bs .When i am having great food even with this old bs.Seems like a waste of time and money for the lil back yard smoker .I am not feeding the masses like iceman for someone like him i could see these things being a plus .But were talking about the average joe in the back yard doing small amount of food only.Please share your comments here to enlighten me in this area .Thanks guys  ;D any thing

[icerat4]

Anything on my last post any shared thoughts

[nsxbill]

Icerat4,

No one on this list has a new BS yet except maybe the rep from Bradley or maybe Chez.  All of us have the older models.  Even the old BS, as you are aware, works well, and does not need anything to produce great smoked food.  To me, it is a pain in the a$$ to constantly stay out on the patio in a lawn chair, drinking whatever, and moving the slider back and forth and constantly monitoring the temperature, and then down the line, going out to change the water, rotate the meat, and generally fret that it is turning my fine meat into burnt offerings.  I just don't want to waste my time to do that.

First, I bought a Maverick ET73.  It let me know what the temp was when I was sitting in the room right next to the covered patio where my smoker was located.  It unfortunately had no range.  So I wished I could have something that would handle the control of the smoker.  I saw one of the members posting up information about a thermostat that would actually turn the element off and on.  Wow, that seemed a lot better than sitting out on the patio, or not being able to leave the darn smoker alone to control the temp.  Unfortunately he ended up going to Iraq, and didn't get back to me on how to build that.

I saw the BBQ Guru, but it wouldn't work with the electrical smoker.  So anyway, revisiting the previous post, finally got a Competitor and a Raptor and I was in second heaven.  Keep in mind this was 2-3 years ago.  No body had tried a PID yet, and control was limited to the mindless effort filled repetitive trips out to the smoker to slide the damn switch up and down to maintain the temperature in a box with a terribly inaccurate thermometer.  The ET-73 Maverick at least let me measure the temps accurately.

Well, anyway, wanted more.  The Procom4 is more.  It is versatile enough to use for other things.  It was the choice for me.  I too consider myself an average joe, who has retired twice, draw two pensions, but still work full-time to afford the toys I want.

So anyway, again stating the obvious, you don't need anything with the new BS or the old BS but the desire to prepare some excellent product, and the time to run in and out of the house to monitor the temps and the time.

I commute to a job I love to do 180 miles a day in my Chevy SSR that has 390HP and gets lousy mileage.  I love to put the top down.  I love to hear the exhaust rumbling like the hot rod I had in High School.  I have had an Acura NSX that will turn high 11 second quarter miles, and has so much crap on the motor that has allowed me to take a picture of the speedo burried at 188 MPH.  It pisses my wife off that I drive too fast, and spend too much on cars.  I offroad in a H2 Hummer.  All of these cars could be replace with a 1959 VW.  I choose to opt for something else.

If the stand-alone BS in the original configuration works for you, then smoke on.  If you get a new model, and get rid of the old one...great!  If you want more control, and the old one doesn't meet your expectations, add stuff.  That's what I did with the old ones.  Most configure the thing to do what they want it to do.  It might not be for you.  It might seem like a waste of money and time to you.  If you feel that way, don't waste your time or your money.  When someone asks me why I did what I did, I have no qualms telling them.  I have no financial interest in the Guru-configured control.  I just like mine tricked-out the way I have mine set-up. To me it is not a waste of time, and I don't think I have wasted any money making it work the way I want it.  You might feel I have, and might not ever understand my motivation.  I can't understand leaving it the way it is out-of-the box.  It never met my needs or expectations until I modified it.

I guess what I am saying is that the smoker worked well for me when it came out of the box, but I wanted more.  I love the toys I can afford, and the BBQ Guru was one of those toys.  If I had it to do over again.  I would do it in a heartbeat.

Just sharing my comments to help with enlightenment.  Thanks for allowing this rant.  This was not meant to cause a knot in anyone's shorts.  It is just a description of a path I took to get where I want to go.  There are a lot of paths that get to the same place.

Bill

[begolf25]

I guess i am an idiot.I dont get it at all .If this new bradley has a temp set on it and ya use a temp probe .Why do ya need this bbq guru deal.

The PID's and BBQ Guru we are talking about are for older models we already own not the new model. Nobody is talking about making any mod's to the new smoker...yet.

When i am having great food even with this old bs.Seems like a waste of time and money for the lil back yard smoker .I am not feeding the masses like iceman for someone like him i could see these things being a plus

It would be a waste of money for me to buy a new digital Bradley for no reason if I am able to feed my friends and family with the one I have now.  Instead of me spending over $500.00 on a new Bradley I can have my existing smoker do the same thing for around $100.00.

Icerat, I am curious if you don't see the reasoning for us to add these on to our older smokers and if you do not need the temp. control and you seem to be able to smoke enough food in the Bradley you already own why the rush to get the new digital Bradley?

[manxman]

I learned sometime back when I was into buying computer equipment, let others due the beta testing (which is what Bradley is doing at this point), then 1 or 2 years latter when the bugs are worked out and additional features are added, then I make my purchase.

Very true, having been an alpha development site and beta test site in a couple of projects at work it is MUCH easier to let some other "mug" do the hard work then buy at leisure further down the line. ;)

Still, there is a good deal of personal satisfaction and fun to be had, in addition to the hair loss, rapid increase in the ageing process, palpitations and lack of sleep...... and that's just a good day!

IMO we are very lucky to have people on the forum willing to develop things and share their experiences for others to follow or develop still further.

I am just happy with my BS as it is, although follow the different things people have done to modify theirs with interest.