Need Help Quick - Smokers Goin'. Bad BBQ Guru or Operator Error?

[SmokeBomb]

Help! This is my fourth attempt to use my smoker. I have used a BBQ Guru on the last three attempts, my first was just the bisquette heater for cheese. I have ribs in right now. I preheated to 175 and when I put the ribs in I turned the temp up to 225. My smoker is currently running at 150 on the door thermometer, 170 on a thermomter I dropped in the vent and I have a blinking light on the Guru pit display, it seems to cycle between this and 175. The only time I have opened the door was to put the ribs in. I have tried turning it off and on, ramp mode, regular mode - nothing seems to change the tempurature. I have the temp. monitor plugged in to the Raptor, is that wrong? Any clues? Maybe someone could in plain English give me how to set the Guru - I might have set it up wrong. Any and all help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[acords]

How long have you had the ribs in for?  Is the Guru shutting off the heat?  Did you let the ribs come to room temperature before you put them in?  I would have preheated to at least 250 or higher.  You will get quite a drop in temp when you put in your product. 

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

SmokeBomb,

Assume you have to have the BS slider all the way over with the BBQ Guru setup?

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Habanero Smoker]

As acords stated, you should have preheated much higher. You will loose 25%--50% of your cabinet heat due to meat load and loading time. So you where probably done to about 100%, after loading, and it will take the BS some time to recover. If you have a large load it will take the BS a while to get back up to temp.

If the fan light is constantly on, then the Guru is functioning properly and providing  heat. Make sure that the BS temperature control is fully on. Some have complained that turning it fully to the right has shut off there heat, so you may want to back off to the left a hair.

[nodak]

I didn't have good luck with the guru either way under or overshooting temps and very inconsistant in how it acted and frustrated me.  I sent it back and built a PID and very happy with it.  Not sure what to tell you, but maybe build a PID

[SmokeBomb]

Thanks for all the help. Ribs were room temp., slider hard right. Pure case of operator error. I had the raptor plugged in to the smoke box so it wasn't getting input - looked at the set up at least a dozen times before trying to figure out what was wrong and didn't see it. I AM A MORON! Once I realized I was stupid ribs came out juicy and you could pull them apart without even trying. Makes me wonder how good everything else could have been - I cooked a picnic butt for 12 hours and it still wasn't done! Now that I have figured this out I love this thing. Thanks again for all the help, expect to see me again looking for good recipes, Hazmat.

[Habanero Smoker]

Thanks for all the help. Ribs were room temp., slider hard right. Pure case of operator error. I had the raptor plugged in to the smoke box so it wasn't getting input - looked at the set up at least a dozen times before trying to figure out what was wrong and didn't see it. I AM A MORON! Once I realized I was stupid ribs came out juicy and you could pull them apart without even trying. Makes me wonder how good everything else could have been - I cooked a picnic butt for 12 hours and it still wasn't done! Now that I have figured this out I love this thing. Thanks again for all the help, expect to see me again looking for good recipes, Hazmat.

Glad you were able to figure it out. The Raptor/Guru is a very accurate device, and usually only takes a small learning curve to work it properly. When I first got it I hooked it up like you did. You were fortunate. When I did that it caused my pucks to get jammed. Look like you won't be needing that PID  ;)