Any BBQ Guru owners here? Looking at a temp regulator for stick burner

I have one it works great and has no trouble keeping my KJ and whatever temp I set it at. I have the Digi Q FWIW

I have a Party Q that I switch between my BSK and my homemade smokers I created from Weber Kettles. It works great on all 3 of them.

We used to use one of the earlier models of a Digi Q on our comp trailer a few years ago and it also worked really well. All in all, BBQ Guru products are top notch.

The key with getting them to work on some oddball/non design specific smokers is to figure out your exhaust vent settings and also to approach your set temp in increments.

For instance if you want to cook at 240, don't just start it at 240 and let it blow away, sometimes it will give more air and you will overshoot the temp. I always start for 180, let the temp stabilize and move up in 20 degree increments until I reach target temp.

if you are into DIY look into a heatermeter.

My buddy legit makes the best brisket I've ever had and I have eaten at almost the top bbq in Texas.

I've never seen him check temperature once and he always leaves the firebox door wide open. He mainly judges things based on how his smoke looks. The goal is a thin smoke not heavy white smoke. His stick burner doesnt even have a temp gauge.

On a stick burner, the key is airflow and lots of it.(Franklin even says this in his book) Try for a small fire that fully combust the wood and dont get caught up on temp to much. As long as your not up to grilling temps you are ok and the bbq will be done when its done. You will have to tend the fire if you keep it small but you knew that when you decided on a stick burner.

I have a bbq guru for my big green egg and it keeps perfect temp. Eggs are a lot different then stickburners. Eggs are closer to an outdoor oven then it is to a stickburner.

It seems your trying to make a smoker into an oven. A smoker should move lots of air. A oven doesn't.

Based on what you've done so far, I would be worried you dont have enough air flow. A controller would just restrict that more in my opinion and the controller seems like it would need a large fan to make a stick burner work right.

I agree 100 percent with everything you said

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Any BBQ Guru owners here? Looking at a temp regulator for stick burner
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My buddy legit makes the best brisket I've ever had and I have eaten at almost the top bbq in Texas.

I've never seen him check temperature once
bullshite.

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That all depends on his smoker.

I make amazing brisket on my Pit Barrel and never do anything about temp. Yes, I do monitor it, but no real adjustments are made.

This is all due to the nature of how the Pit Barrel cooker works. Once I get my temp stable, it stays there till the brisket hits 203.

Ive produced great bbq with no temp control and shitty barbque with perfect temps.

The key is airflow. That is why Franklin makes his smoke stack huge. He wants air moving. If you don’t you get an acrid smoke that is off putting

I have the BBQ Guru. I can install it on my WSM and the stick burner. Stick burners are a different animal, as it is about the airflow. My stick burner was not set up reverse flow, so when I used the SB with the guru, it ran through some fuel with the quickness. I typically used it when I would want to get some sleep and preferred to manually maintain the temp during my waking hours. So for peace of mind while sleeping, it'd worth the investment especially since you will be working with reverse flow. It is incredible when used for long cooks on my WSM and produces outstanding results, so much so that I sold off my large stick burner due to lack of use.

Thanks for the input everyone. I have an older offset. Was looking for that experience but not baby sit overnight.